Q&A: A Question Many Are Afraid to Ask - Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

Obviously, the Holocaust would be an outstanding example. I mean, there were >> [snorts] >> hundreds of thousands I don't know I don't know if it if the actual people who were cremated were millions, but but many many many victims of the Holocaust uh died in the ovens and the crematoria actually were killed first, but they were they were burnt in the crematoria of of of Auschwitz. Uh and uh obviously, there's no sin there, you know, people sometimes say according to the strict halakha people who are cremated, you know, we don't sit shiva, we don't mourn. I mean, obviously, that does not apply to people who were victimized. Uh so, the question becomes uh what about the spiritual suffering of the soul? It's a hard question. Um it could very well it may it may depend on another question. The Shulchan Aruch writes that people who die al Kiddush Hashem feel no pain in their death. They only get uh that connection to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So, this in turn opens up a huge question whether Holocaust victims are classified as people who died al Kiddush Hashem and does it make a difference if they were religious or not religious? This is a very complicated question. Let me explain why. The typical paradigm of Kiddush Hashem is when a person is given a choice. Like the go over to a person and say "Convert to Christianity or I'll kill you." And I'm willing to say I am willing to die before I give up my worship of Hashem. That's called Kiddush Hashem. I am sanctifying God by saying my relationship to Hashem is more important than even my physical life. So, that's Kiddush Hashem. The Crusades would be Kiddush Hashem, you know, that that would be Kiddush Hashem. The problem with the Holocaust is that there was no element of choice there. Meaning to say, even if a Jew were to say, "I want to become a Christian." So what? That was not relevant. In fact, there were nebach Jews who converted to Christianity who died in the Holocaust. Like one of them is a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. Edith Stein was a Carmelite nun I mean, she was a Jewish woman who became before World War II a Carmelite nun and uh she was deported to Auschwitz and she died and the Catholic Church canonized her as a martyr to her faith. Which is a pretty bizarre characterization. She didn't die as a martyr to to Catholic They didn't kill her because she was Catholic. They killed her because she was Jewish. Uh so, so there were Jews who were religious, of course. There were Jews who were not religious. There were Jews who were Christian. But, the common denominator I mean, I don't mean really Christian, but who who professed Christianity. But, the common denominator was they didn't have a choice. So, if you don't have a choice where's the Kiddush Hashem in your death? Is it Kiddush Hashem? Is it Kiddush Hashem when you you didn't have the choice of renouncing God or accepting God? So, there's a big shaila here. There is lashon ice >> [snorts] >> in a letter of the Rambam. It's a letter. It's not in the Mishneh Torah and I think the lashon is a little equivocal where the Rambam does say or might say that anyone who was killed because they're Jewish definitionally is classified as Kiddush Hashem. Meaning, somebody gets killed in a car accident, you know, that's not Kiddush Hashem. But, if somebody gets killed because they're Jewish, and that would include people who were killed in terrorist attacks. Uh people who were killed in Pittsburgh, remember uh what what happened there. So, some people were saying, "Oh, you know, I mean, some of I don't know I mean, some say there was a a lesbian priest Whatever the story was, it's not it's not important." And uh but some people were saying that's not Kiddush Hashem because they were violating Shabbos and desecrating Shabbos. According to the Rambam, if they got singled out because they were Jewish that qualifies as Kiddush Hashem. So that I think has a direct impact on your question in terms of the tzar. By the way, this issue that that the neshama feels pain when the guf is mishandled comes up with another issue as well. Uh this is the base one of the basis of the halakha that you're not supposed to relocate a kever except for compelling reasons. Because it says that when a mace is moved from one kever to another kever there is a lot of pain that the neshama feels. And that gets us into the discussion, well, what about moving a body from Chutz La'aretz to Eretz Yisrael? Some will allow it. Rav Moshe was not in favor of it. Rav Moshe said that once a mace is buried in Chutz La'aretz, uh that's that's where they should stay. So, this notion that the neshama feels tzar when the guf is not handled properly is something that's, you know, comes up across in a number of halakhic areas. Moving a mace, autopsies, cremation. All of these different uh different things.