Tisha B'Av: I Will Survive! - Rabbi Daniel Glatstein

[Music] April 19th 1943 they're only three rub on him still left in the Warsaw Ghetto three Torah Giants three go in a tile on their names may not be familiar to many their names were of Shenzhen Stock hammer ramanatham Samba and Rev David Kahana Shapiro three these three Robin M convened and possibly one of the most frightening decisions in recent Jewish history and they only had 60 minutes to make their decision they were just given word by the Judenrat that the church the Catholic Church of Warsaw has granted permission that threes three tsadikim were allowed to leave the ghetto and if they did their their lives would be spared and they had 60 minutes to make this fateful decision just to give you a little example what the conditions and the Warsaw Ghetto were at the time no language has ever been created to describe the deplorable conditions in the warsaw ghetto in 1943 so i read to you a first-hand account an eyewitness account from my grandfather may God watch over him in an article that he wrote in a book called theological and elastic reflections on the Holocaust my grandfather writes on e ha Guevara on e Bechet bowdabra say I am the man who has seen the affliction of my people I am the victim and I am the witness I saw the warsaw ghetto littered with corpses faces distorted eyes bulging eyes opened wide skulls crushed blood everywhere the blood of our children the blood of our brothers and sisters the blood of our fathers and mothers no imagination no matter how daring could possibly conceive of anything that we have seen in 1942 my great-grandfather my grandmother's father the last row of the city of Suffolk ah've was taken to the Warsaw Ghetto with his children my grandmother included and they get to the Warsaw Ghetto in immediately the Gestapo knocks on the door they grab away my grandmother's oldest brother Shmuel Hirsch they never saw him again this was the horror that gripped the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943 at this point in time there's very little that anything very little that these three rahbaniya were able to contribute or add to their key he lies to their brethren who were suffering in the warsaw ghetto and to make matters worse if that was even possible the date was April 19th 1943 however if anybody knows their history April 20th was the birthday of the Fuhrer was Hitler you maximize birthday and Himmler decided that he was going to give Hitler a birthday present and that is he was going to annihilate and completely obliterate the Warsaw Ghetto within 24 hours in honor of Hitler's birthday people were streaming into Havana commands embas home with problems pressing on their heart nobody should ever know of such problems let me give you a little picture of who Ramona comes embo was this great sadiq this great going already in the 1930s revin Ockham's embo was offered to be the chief rabbi of Jerusalem upon the untimely passing a Romare Shapiro they offered revin Ockham's Ambo to be the next Russia Shiva Shiva calf Mela Blin before of an ahkam Samba was 40 even he was the honorary chairman of the Agadez Israel in Europe Ramona comes Emma had written more than tens of thousands of a douche a Tyrel tens of thousands of Huaraz grandfather remembers that if you'd go into her Menachem Zambos home and you look behind his chair there was a big bookcase that stood behind his chair not full of spar him full of manuscripts of ado-shem there a Menachem Ziemba wrote he wrote thousands of pages on Duchamp on the Rambam called Mikasa hemella they were completely destroyed thousands of pages of kaduche Amon the Usami called Menachem you shall I am completely destroyed and there were tragic scenes taking place in the home of ramanatham samba couples had come to him to get divorce you see what happened was if somebody had the ability to escape the ghetto but the wife didn't want to go along she was afraid she had a Jewish face she was afraid she would be caught or if she had elderly parents behind and the couple didn't know what to do the husband was able to escape the wife didn't want to hold him up but how could she leave her parents or she was afraid she would get caught and so they decided against their will that they're going to get divorced and the couple comes in streaming tears and Ramona comes Amba arranges a get for these couples weeping along with them like the Gemara tells us when a couple gets divorced the MS van itself weeps bitter tears it was like them as baya was weeping along with these couples and these three robbed on him had 60 minutes to decide whether they could save their own skin but on the other hand what would this do to the morale of their brethren who are still trapped in the worst again oh and what do they do they convene a bez den now this is not a regular Jewish court case this is a case that we call DNA nefesh ice this was a capital case and as such in a capital case the Halawa is placed in baccata you start with the youngest member of the court and the youngest member of this court was robbed of eight Kahana Shapiro and they turned to him for his opinion on this very severe matter and robbed of Kahana Schapiro declares from the depths of his soul he says I'm the youngest one here and really my words are not binding on any of you we already know that there's nothing we could do to help our brethren in the camp here their fate has been sealed but by staying with them and not abandoning them we're encouraging them we're strengthening them this is the only thing we could do for them in the final hour I simply do not have the strength to abandon our brothers our brothers in their time of need can we hide from the Almighty the same God that is found in the ghetto here is outside the ghetto how can we leave them at their time of need and remove shim Shin stockheimer and reminisce em Samba are looking at him are looking at about double kind of Shapiro and they don't comment there's nothing left to say Bremen outcomes Amba gives the final decision he says case closed there's nothing more to discuss that's the hollow ha we are going to stay here reminisce comes embo goes out to the Judenrat and he tells them it if it is the will of the almighty for us to die with the Jews of Warsaw then that is what we're going to do so I heard this story about a year ago from Revell Hans own the head of the fabric hadisha and rabbi zone has a very strong family connection with robbed of ikana shapiro and he mentioned to me what a difficult shock it is to understand how these robbed on him decided to sort of risk their lives and give up their lives in order to stay with their brethren in the warsaw ghetto I mean what could they possibly have done for their brethren in such a terrible situation their fate had been sealed you know immediately on April 20th the Nazis came they poured gasoline on every home in Warsaw they set every home aflame and as the homes were going up in flames Jews were running out of the house and they were shot dead on the spot what possibly could these robber team have accomplished have contributed what encouragement could they have given in this final hour is this really the halacha isn't the halacha of a coyote Kohima cuyahoga item which means that one's life takes precedence why did these kako men have the need and feel that it was important for them to stay with their brethren in the Warsaw Ghetto and it's a historic fact that many admire in many rebus many Russia Shiva who had the opportunity to save their own skin and save their lives they took advantage of it while thousands and thousands of their students and hasidim burnt in the crematoria or were gassed to death but these Godoy Lim who took the opportunity to leave they were able to come to America they were able to go to Eretz Israel to rebuild their lives rebuild their yeshivas rebuild their Hassid ISM and to a large degree the rebuilding of the Jewish people today and the flourishing and the continuity and the revival of Klaus role today was because these Russia Shiva and these rebels took advantage of the opportunity to save their own lives if you look in the safe Erza crying Schmo el sequential are the kedusha Maghreb Schmo rosovsky the Russia Shiva of Panama CH he writes that in 1941 in Parnevik the Nazis came they rounded up the entire city into the forest and they murdered and masked the entire city does anybody know how many Lithuanian Robin M survived the Holocaust none zero actually there's one exception there's only one ruff from Lita who survived the Holocaust and that's the pun of a chav you know how we survived the Holocaust because he wasn't there the part of a giraffe was in Palestine at the time enroute to come to America to fundraise for his new Shiva the Pandava chav literally traveled the globe to be able to fundraise for the Shiva I was just in Cape Town in South Africa so they said no the pun of it Sharov was already here you know the joke goes how do you know there's no life on Mars because if there was the pun of a giraffe would have fun raised over there already and the part of it sure of luckily luckily was not the era when the city of Pune was rounded up writes the Russia Shiva Rushmore rosovsky that rough Kahana Minh spent the rest of his life tormented by the idea that he was able to save his own life while the rest of his family and the rest of the city perished and were murdered in a holocaust Rushmore reserve ski rides Lamott saw maniacal INAF sheriff Kahana man had no respite batad air heats e.coli he was constantly tormented and plagued Vahid irassman across a hamachi shovel that he'd salty Assad's Nevis Venezuela he salty he was constantly plagued by the thought that he was able to save his own skin and he didn't save the rest of the city and all of his efforts and all of his undertakings on behalf of the Punta de Chivo was also that he would not have to face that question of he'd salty Assad Smee vs - alleged salty they're at Xena Reba the rat Xena rebel a scion of the rod Xena dynasty was offered safe passage way to escape he was given safe passage to Warsaw but he displayed extraordinary courage he stayed behind to help his fellow Jews when the Gestapo sees that the Reba is sort of encouraging the people giving the people strengths the Gestapo demanded that either rev liner there are Xena rebel hands himself over or the entire city would be wiped out calmly the red Xena Reba delivers himself presents himself to the Gestapo where he's brutally beaten and in 1942 and Sobibor the red Xena rebel was gassed to death he could have saved himself he chose not to there was a Rovin Croatia rabbi Charles W steckel the chief rabbi of och Sylvania he gets a telegram he gets a message from the former chief rabbi of Slovenia somebody by the name of rabbi dr. Simon Hunger he gets a telegram the telegram says Barack let's all get out of here you stay here in Slovenia you're a dead man so that's what he did he told the people Baraka get out of here he told the people to run away but he stayed with whoever remained in December 1940 he was offered an escape route he refused twice and he was moister nefes-kula sham and miraculously he actually survived the war there was a rabbi in Italy rabbi Ricardo Pacific II he's also given the opportunity to flee the city and he was gassed to death in Auschwitz in 1943 in December you should know that communities were not so kind to their Rob on him who first took them at their time of siren I'm not gonna mention the name but in 1940 the Chief Rabbi of Rome you could look it up chief rabbi of Rome got word from the Catholic Church that he would be given safe haven by the church he took advantage of it the chief rabbi of Rome saved his life during the Holocaust while much of the community was persecuted 1945 the war is over the rabbi wants his job back he comes back to Rome hey I'm the chief rabbi he said rabbi now you return to us you first took us in our time of need and now you come back to us they didn't accept him he was rejected and painfully and this is a source of great anguish the chief rabbi of Rome a great ruff after the Holocaust converted to Catholicism why because he forsook his people in a time of need and they didn't take him back in 1945 in a twist of history and an irony of history is that his granddaughter a recently converted back to Judaism a number of good eylem exhibited extraordinary loyalty and extraordinary courage in returning to their keha of Ohana and Wasserman Hashem condom i rebel Conan was in New York City at the time Rob Akana was in New York City he was fundraising for baranovichi the administration in his she bottarga that says you stay right here of Alcona you're going back to Europe you stay right here close what am I gonna do here where shall i Mahina the receive of tar with acid I will step down you will be the Russia Shiva what about my tell me diamond mironovich they said don't worry we'll get visas we'll rescue your tell me their rubble conan said no cannot forsake my 400 children in the shiva rebel Hanan went back to baranovichi Abu Conan was in the war and I'm very proud to say and yet it's very painful my great-grandfather the last robbed of the city of Suffolk Ave who delayed Bowman was offered by the a good Assessor all a very prestigious position in America they offered him to be chief rabbi of America to save his life he didn't accept it he went down with the people of Safa chav and he was my sir nephesh and killed al kiddush Hashem in the worst again oh and this is the fateful decision that of shim shim stock hammer inner Menachem Ziemba and Rev David Connor Shapiro are faced with what should the leader do at the time the community is bizarre should they try to save their own life should they try to protect themselves or should they stay with the people and you should know whenever we have a holic question what do we do at a certain situation we always have to look back at the precedent what did the previous Godoy limb do and incredibly if you look in the writings of the Sam cipher the somme cipher alludes to this in his kedusha - f 2 : in the drug Sam so first I'm safer in 1809 writes that 60 years ago when the city of Prague was in siege in 1749 who is the rough in Pride none other than the knight of Utah that no idea who decided he's gonna leave the city he's required to leave the city he needs to save his own life and the leaders of the city of Prague disagreed they said rabbi you're not going anywhere you're sticking it out with us says if Sam cipher we understand why they need to be who they wanted to live to leave the halacha is of a person's in danger he needs to leave immediately one is not allowed to stay by Malcolm Sakana if somebody stays in a dangerous situation even if a miracle happens all their myths lights will be taken away but says the some cipher the leaders of the city of Prague acted for themselves almost selfishly they demanded that the Knightly who to stay why so that the notary who does should be as a horse and a protection for them says the Sam cipher the city of Prague held that they were had the right to hold on to the noid to be hooda and because the God obey his role is required to act with almost abandonment and protect the city at the expense of his own life on the other hand says of Sam so Farrah that there are many Jewish communities throughout history that disagreed with the practice of the city of Prague says in I three who died remember when the city of maine's was in siege and their God all was rock I am harsh he stay center of Khayyam Harris to Frankfurt the community of Cobb lands there Gadol was of Ziskin gun thresh they sent him out of the city says of sam so from my own Rebbe the half law when the city was in danger escaped the city with the permission of the leaders of the city because the city held that why should the god all suffer while we're suffering says if some suffer that makes more sense why should the city have to worry about the welfare of their rabbi while they're suffering says the Sam so far in his opinion it's actually to the city's benefit to send the Gundel out of the city why so that he could pray for them in safety so that he could protect them more that the goggle could do for the people if he's out of the city then if he's with the people and then incredibly there's some sofa rights it is actually a school uh for the city to send the rabbi out and that the rabbi should be in Gullo s-- as a protection for the city says if Sam soy efforts are plastic in the Amish via heben siharan then when the iron is moved who's the are I in the Talmud - when the Talmud holcomb goes into gallows what does Reba know some say kumara sham be our food soya very much Trump says when the rabbi goes into gallows then the enemy will be destroyed bottom line says of Sam cipher hello hello my sir what should the god--all do when the city's in siege when the people's lives are on the line says look Sam cipher ha-olam is a key Ashkan McCloy guess been on huh gasps man he gay pride and Haga sake he lies frankfurt that it was an ancient McLucas that the debate that the dilemma there were Menachem Ziemba of shim Shin star qamar Arab double Kahana Shapiro faced that dilemma was an ancient dilemma going back to the communities of Prague in Frankfurt by the way cuz I initials who survived the Holocaust by not being there and later when Godot Ellen would ask the COS join ich what should we do should we stay with our key he'll ice or should we abandon them because owner said I can't give you an answer or looking look Sam cipher look in look Sam cipher some surfer does not give a definitive conclusion what the sign ish meant was that there is no definitive conclusion this is a dilemma that we simply don't have the answer to we don't know what should the God all do should the God all leave the city pray for the people and at least save his own life and rebuild Claudius well or better that the gutter goes down in the fire with the people says look Sam so far this is an age-old debate that we simply don't have a definitive answer to him be it as in may the decision of ramanatham samba the decision eruption shim stock hammer the decision or of Dava Conner Shapiro was that they need to stay with the people a captain does not abandon the people now rebeis own told me that it was very difficult for him to understand this sock what possibly could a god abuse Rahl do in the Warsaw Ghetto 24 hours before would be bombed that of the war out of the world 24 hours before the the Warsaw Ghetto was obliterated what was the TOC list what was the purpose of these Godoy limbs sticking it out in the ghetto as we mentioned many Russia Sheva were able to rebuild their lives and rebuild their yeshiva what perp was a do what what purpose do they serve and rabbis own told me he could he really could not understand what the benefit of these Godoy l'm sticking it out in the ghetto was until he heard a story that my grandfather wrote about his experiences in the warsaw ghetto now this is a very this is a point of great controversy halakha controversy historical controversy but i'm gonna tell you when my grandfather told me ramanatham zeb up a second in the warsaw ghetto their room now comes EMBO repeatedly and emphatically gave sanction to the warsaw ghetto uprising he held they were not allowed to just get down and die like sheep they needed to rebell and fight actually my grandfather was a member of the warsaw ghetto uprising he was a lookout he had exceptional vision even past his 90s my grandfather didn't need to wear glasses my grandfather said you know the hardest part about turning a hundred years old is that the Raschi letter is on the side of the Gemara are a little bit more difficult to see that's the hardest part about being a hundred halav i we should all experience that bremen awesomes embo passkey and then are we to his words when we Tom's Andy royyala fee ha ha vah vah mitzvah Hammurabi me Topsy say Hama Hama kiddush Hashem you sh can roam now comes M Bob asking that to fight even to your last breath against the Nazis was Malcolm s Mitzvah and many Godoy lemon green threads inna rebel fought in the uprising there was a robber of Zemel man who was a member of the uprising never in the sad saga of jewish history did people fight with such dignity they had no weapons they had no arms they fought so to speak like mythological lions to preserve the dignity of the Jewish people but even so release I what possibly could these Rob Bonham have accomplished by sticking it out in the Warsaw Ghetto you know I'll tell you we mentioned the faith of Shenzhen Stock hammer of shim Shin stock hammer who stuck it out eventually he was actually taken out of the ghetto he was brought to a death camp near Lublin his entire family was was killed in this death camp of shim Shin stock hammer baked matzos and Pesach 1944 a year later just imagine the condition that this ruff was in he was broken he was ill he had no kayak and it was Pesach 1945 and roof stock hammer was taken to another camp in south suit in southern Germany he comes there gravely ill and he made the following announcement says roof stock hammer I do not plan on eating comments for the next eight days so the students told them Rebbe not eating comets means you're not eating for eight days you're gonna die you can't give up your life not to eat comets it's not one of the three big ave royce and roof Tsimshian stock hammer pass Candace follows says I know what the helices I know that regularly one cannot risk their life not to eat hummus but their 2,500 year than in this camp somebody has to show the world that there's still a Torah and there's still a Pesach and there's still initial comments I've been with Cabo this Mitzvah upon myself so for eight days miraculously all roughstock hammer did was he drank water he was Kamata says he was Kumada corpse and he fasted for eight consecutive days at the end of the war liberation was approaching very fast this is ready April 1945 liberation would be any day roughstock hammer together with the entire camp all 2500 Jews were rounded up onto the cattle cars they were headed to the taro mountains but their cart was bombed the RUF was critically wounded he died 13th day of ER three days before liberation so what possibly could these three gorillas Israel have offered the people the worst again I was about to be destroyed it was about to be fire bombed there were gonna be no survivors why wouldn't these Godoy ylim take advantage of the opportunity to save their own skin rabbis own told me that when he saw the story that my grandfather wrote about what these Godoy land we're doing in the warsaw ghetto he understood the full impact of this decision that they made in the warsaw ghetto my grandfather wrote we were hauled to the forced labor camp in beds in where we labored under the most brutal conditions in the early morning darkness and the freezing temperature in the bitter cold we performed back-breaking labor being whipped and whipped and whipped what gave us the mysterious strength and endurance to continue to continue breathing my grandfather wrote Lulay say Roscoe Joshua Asif additi Vani we stood together on those abysmal nights together with the great rabbis of Warsaw rev shim shim stack hammer Rob David Connor Shapiro and other great Giants who were able to recite by heart the text of the Gemara the text of the Talmud Bavli the Gomorrah that these precious Souls recited by hearts gave us the supernatural endurance to carry on to continue to breathe and to have a vision and hope for the future it was these RAB on him and the hope that they in used in us that allowed us to survive the war and ultimately rebuild our lives robbed a zone told me he finally understood the full impact of this decision of das Tyra 74 years ago of why these good eylem felt that they needed to stick it out with the people by learning with them by teaching them Tyra in the impossible situation it infused them with courage with dignity with hope for the future it would then not be an overstatement to say then my grandfather survived the war because of that decision of das Tyra that these three great or Giants made from Shenzhen Stock amara Menachem Ziemba Abdullah Connor Shapiro that this is what gave him the courage and the strength to be able to survive the brutality and then it would not be an overstatement to mention that I to stand here today only because of that courageous decision of those three great Tora giants who stuck it out with the people who at their own expense and the expense of their own families felt they could not abandon their brothers to give a definitive answer of what is a Halawa what should the god all do what should the RUF do should he try to save his own life rebuild his his Tyra rebuild his Tommy them or stick it out with the people and stay with the ship this is a great decision that we don't have a clear answer to perhaps all were able to say is a Louisville oh dear a la cama Khayyam but just as to a large degree the Jewish people today have been rebuilt by those great rabbis those Russia Shiva those admire him who took advantage of the opportunity to save their lives and come to Eretz Israel come to America and rebuilt IRA we could equally say that Claudius role today has been rebuilt upon the self-sacrifice and the Macias nephesh of the Godot Loyola of the true man he Gaius Rael who gave up their life to be loyal to their catalyst to be loyal to their brothers and sisters hash lists not show me naked with complete abandonment for their own welfare stuck it out with the people and it's their courage and their dignity and the brilliant light of their personality that we continued a Baskin and we continue to build upon and the future of Claudius Rael is so much brighter because of these two true Torah leaders who would not abandon their brethren at a time of Tsar I just conclude recently we discovered a manuscript and my grandfather wrote about the final death march that he was on when he was liberated and on this death march my grandfather describes how people were dropping people were dropping and you couldn't grieve for them and couldn't say Kaddish for them you couldn't mourn for them because the night was long and the bullets in abundance if you stop for a moment the bullets would relieve you of the March immediately and people were dropping saying goodbye I can't go on this is where I should fall shema yisrael hashem elokenu hashem I thought and my grandfather turns around there's 700 people on this death march 200 were come out in the next world already and what came to mind was the vision of ETS : avi remember he Tesco's prophecy of the dry bones he's in the valley of do Ronnie sees piles and piles of dry bones and you fiscal asks hasta en o hot summer I say Allah will these dry bones come alive again well on that fateful Death March my grandfather said the prophecy of novice Cal came to his mind and he too asked about these 700 years in marching through the icy terrain these 700 corpses so to speak dry bones ha saffiano hot summer saleable these dry bones come to life but these dry bones have come to life you look at the Jewish people today all of those dry bones have rebuilt themselves they're resuscitated they were resurrected three bunchems showered on those survivors the dew of Piazza Maison the towel tie rod Italia and there's been a renaissance and resuscitation of tyro throughout the world but there's still a lot of work to do we're all awaiting the final TSM Isom may we merit to see the Jara mascara nice rile the day where the dignity of the Jewish people will be raised up the Haram asked Aaron iturra may we all merit to see the coming of the be ice cold said egg I'm here via me no [Music] [Applause]