Chizuk for Iron Sword: From the Holocaust to the Birth of the State of Israel by Rav Aschi Dick

thank you KH for helping us and getting this started and thank you RAB Sam and to the whole U team for this amazing initiative um if I may I'd like to start off with a little bit of a personal on a personal note I grew up at the heels of my grandfather it was a Jew named um rud fredman he grew up in Slovakia in prur he was a descendant of theam s the Great Arian luminary and as a child I used to learn with him all the time I used to talk with him all the time I was very close with him he was a survivor of aitz and a survivor of buen Wald when the Nazis invaded Slovakia I think it was in 41 I think I don't remember the dates he ran to Hungary his father uh paid some Gentiles to smuggle across the border he came to Hungary came to Budapest he spent some years in Budapest when the Nazis in 1944 came to Budapest he ran back to Slovakia he was learning in the Nitro Yesa which was under the opes of um the author of a book called Minar um his name was um the name of come to me I forgot the name he was in Yesa in Nitra until eventually he was deported to aitz on the last train in 19 the summer of 1944 uh when my grandfather ran to Budapest there was a Jew there by the name of was a student of the rabbi of mkat the rabbi of mkat was one of the leading Rabin opponents again Zionism he was very a very vocal opponent opponent of Zionism uh he was also opposed to the AA the is he felt that the is was too open-minded and too welcoming of zionis ideas and when he ran to Hungary changed his mind and my grandfather remembers when got up at the podium in the main SCH in Budapest and he started to cry started to whail and he said we have sinned we have sinned our fathers have sinned our teachers have sinned that we didn't heed the call of the zionists to come up and move to is in the 30s when we had the chance my grandfather added that he remembers when jabotinski Z jabotinski came to wara his mother actually traveled from Slovakia from prur Bratislava to hear Zev ja batini speak in wara sometime in the 30s and Zev jabotinski said I foresee the destruction of Polish jury there were six million Jews living in Poland at the time approximately and he said we need to go up to what was Palestine at the time he says we need to go up to Palestine he says otherwise I see the destruction of 6 million polish Jews and he saids I can't get I can get all six million polish Jews to Palestine give me at least half give me three million Jews my grandfather remembers the headlines in the newspaper the next morning and it said jabotinsky spreads Panic or jabotinsky is spreading Panic obviously critical of Zev jabotinsky Doomsday Prophecy okay jabotinsky didn't foresee that the germination would perpetrate the Holocaust he saw he he envisioned the Polish and the ukrainians doing this the Pol the Germans were still at the time very cultured but he saw the anti-Semitism of Polish jewy of Ukrainian jewry and he already sensed he intuited that there was going to be a major destrction fast forward to 1944 my grandfather is in Budapest and he gets up and he sees this giant rabic figure who was an out standing scholar he has respons called the Mish he was a great orator he was a passionate human being and said that we made a very grave error that we did not go up to ER is when he had the chance and he was crying and wailing and then he started to criticize the Hungarian Jews he said you have an influx of Polish immigrants escaping from Poland coming into Hungary the Nazis invaded Hungary they invade they deported the Jews from Hungary last and RAB told the people he says if you don't do a better job taking care of the Polish refugees then as divine retribution I predict that the Holocaust is going to come to Hungary they didn't want to believe this Hungarian jury had believed that the Holocaust would never come there and in the end unfortunately his prediction did come to fruition and as we know that eventually the Jews of Hungary were deported a majority of whom were killed and they indeed there are more survivors in Hungary than there are from other nations but Hungary bore the brunt the terrible Bruns of the Holocaust so my grandfather heard that he made up his mind he said if I ever come out alive if I ever survive this Inferno there's only one place I'm going to and that is the land of Israel my grandmother as well when she was hiding in the bunkers she was also from preser from bav and she also ran to Hungary she did what my grandfather did she was deported about three months before my grandfather was when she was hiding in the underground in the basement her father shalomov his name was AB after whom I'm named said if I ever come out alive from here there's only one place that I'm going to and that is er I don't intend to go anywhere else unfortunately my grandmother's father ofid did not survive he died of starvation my grandmother was lucky enough to have had a brother that survived and a sister that survived the rest of her family perished my grandfather was not so lucky my grandfather was the sole survivor of his family none of his siblings andone of his parents survived he came out of aitz actually he came out of bald when he was an aitz he got very ill probably with typhus or some other disease and he was admitted to the hospital CT codon aitz he was that sick and towards the end of the war the Russians were approaching the Russians were going to take over aitz the rumor was that the Germans are planning on escaping and they intend to Li liquidate they tend to murder anybody who was left in the hospital so my grandfather was advised to ask to be to be given uh permission to leave the hospital in aitz and start the death march he did he left the uh he left aitz he left the hospital of aitz but because he was very ill on the death march he did not have the luxury quote un quote of resting for five minutes he told me that the Germans made the Jewish and the the Jewish captives uh March but they gave them five minutes of rest for every hour my grandfather was lagging behind because he was so weak and he was so ill so he didn't manage he didn't have the luxury of resting for those five minutes he needed those five minutes of rest to catch up somehow I don't know how somehow he eventually landed up in bald bald was liberated by the Americans and my grandfather remembers the American generals coming to bald and the American generals were looking around in horror and shock they could not believe their eyes Rabel Shak not to be confused with RAB Shak who is currently the r [Music] ofu there was another Shak who was known as the rabbi of bald he was a an important Rabin figure an important Community figure and he was known as the rabi bald he was in his 20s he was 27 at the time he was a chaplain in the American Army he came to bald and he saw what the Germans had perpetrated and he stayed in the DP camps looking after the survivors working day night with all of his strength to help them so getting back to my grandfather he was lying there dying in bald and the German excuse me the American generals were looking around looking at The Inferno looking at the destruction the death the torture the horror and it was a Jew from Holland my grandfather doesn't remember who this Jew's name was but it was a Jewish Survivor a Jewish Holocaust Survivor from Holland who knew English who had the bravery and the courage to turn to the American General and tell him he said sir excuse me this is not a zoo instead of walking around here and just looking can you see there are people dying you should do something you should do something to save these people and he pointed to my grandfather and he said look at this young man he's dying why didn't you do something to help him so the American General took the message to hard he took 50 survivors that were ill brought them to an American field hospital my grandfather was hooked up on intravenous he was weaned Back to Life 3 months later he left the American field hospital he was brought back to life he was healthy once again he survived against all the odds he returned to Bratislava to prur people were looking for survivors people were looking for siblings and one day my grandmother was also from brat laava the two families my grandfather's name was fredman my my grandfather's EXC my grandfather's name was fredman my grandmother's name was donut so my grandmother remembers that one day her brother Al shalam came home and he said guess what who did I meet I meta fredman my grandfather and you wouldn't believe it he has no no survivors the poor fellow no siblings survive no parents survive nothing he's all alone we should invite him home so that's what happened that's what happened my grandmother and her two siblings two sisters and a brother invited my grandfather home my grandfather eventually married my grandmother the younger of the Two Sisters they moved to Vienna they applied for immigration to Australia to Canada and to the US where they had relatives the Canadian government accepted their request for immigration but my grandfather told my grandma this says don't you want to move to Isel isn't that the plan isn't that what we intended to do my grandfather after hearing the sermon from in 1944 my grandmother said to my grandfather she said you know I was digging trenches in awit and I saw the girls the farm the girls from the Farms the girls that were stronger physically stronger they were dying one after the other they couldn't survive the physical burden of what they were subjected to he says somehow I survived I don't have the emotional physical strength to go to Palestine now going Palestine was a a young country it was very difficult to settle there she says you know I wish I had the strength to go to go there but I'm I'm drained of emotional and physical strength I want to go to Canada where life is easier so my grandfather said if that's what you want that's what made them go that's what how they ended up in Canada I would mention also my grandmother was also on the death marches and she collapsed on the Death March and her older sister right saw that the German guard was already approaching to shoot my grandmother because she had collapsed and my grandmother's older sister took her by the elbows and pulled her up and she said to Trudy you're not giving up okay we're going to survive right we're not going to give in and we're not going to give up and that's how my grandmother was saved from Death she was this close to death and it was thanks to her older sister that she survived so this is the story of my grandfather how he survived aitz and how we survived bald thanks to a jeude from Holland that had the courage and had the fortitude to speak up right who was a righteous agent of God to guarantee his Survival how my grandmother survived thanks to her older sister that had the strength of character to give her the the power to to give her the strength to survive they got married they went to Canada I think by now they probably have close to a thousand descendants okay so this is the story of the Jewish people okay the entire survival of the Jewish people is the greatest living miracle if people want to look for miracles right we don't need to even invoke the great miracles of History like the splitting of the Red Sea like other greater Miracles that we experien the actual survival of the Jewish people the fact that we're still alive and we're still thriving and that is the greatest Miracle around and that's something that the yit said the great yitz who lived 300 years ago the yitz the famous German Sage he said that if you want to know the greatest survival the greatest Enigma of History the survival of the Jewish people okay and what's more amazing is that if you look through the Torah the Torah promises that the Jewish people will always survive if you read through the Novi the Novi describes how Empires will rise and how Empires will will fall but the most persecuted Nation on Earth is eternal the most persecuted nation of Earth no matter how hard they try to destroy us we will always survive we will always Prevail and we will always come out on top the fact that a group of beaten Holocaust Survivors came to ER Isel and rebuilt this country we are now witnessing the greatest Revival of Torah study ever there has never been more people studying Torah there has never been a greater a greater flourish ing of the settlement in since the distraction of the second bikash okay we are privilege in our generation to see the fulfilling the coming to fruition of everything that was described in the navi everything that was described in the second half of saim how in the P describes the great suffering of the Jewish people and then right we read about the survival of the Jewish people the PK describes how the Jewish people are going to come back after all of that destruction and we are privileged enough to witness this happening with our own eyes in the end of darar inem turns to mosu and he tells mosu it's going to come at the end of the days and the Jewish people are going to experience great suffering notably the suffering that's described in detail in which describes in chilling horror and detail all the different forms of suffering that we're going to be subject to and Hashem tells Moshe the people they need a response when they ask how could the Jewish people be subject to such suffering a response is necessary and Hashem tells Moshe I want you to therefore write down the the song of when the people are are faced with the question as to why the Jewish people had to suffer so much the response has to beu the song of Hau and the song of Hau describes in detail how chose us from amongst the nation pampered us took care of us and then the Inu describes yes became fat and we rebelled and then the P describes how the je the people will suffer the says outside the nation will be torn apart by the sword there will be fear inside but eventually the describes that the Jewish people will overcome that suffering describes how K is going to take avengeance he's going to take revenge against the Nations that subjected the Jewish people to the suffering and then the P describes how the people will eventually be redeemed the there's a book here a very nice book that my friend schm lent to there's a book it's called it's called Reva it was written by a fellow named Joseph tushin it's a wonderful book it's a biography about the great laabi I encourage everybody to read the book and in this book he describes an interesting debate that took place between theba and Ra's attitude towards the Holocaust was that it's impossible that such bizarre suffering that such mess distraction could be attributed to to sin the bar position was that we have to bow in humility and we have to say that we cannot possibly understand how God could have let the Holocaust happen Rak took the other position Rak was of the opinion that one is on the contrary one is not allowed to say that that one has to acknowledge that all the all Jewish suffering has to be attributed by sin there's some sort of sin that caused Jewish suffering and that was the debate between R an interesting theological debate the other day I heard an interesting idea from R El who was theiva of Philadelphia Yeshiva who said an idea that is a kind of a compromise between the position [Music] we can never know why God lets things happen it's not appropriate God is too great God is too grand for us to ever suggest that we know why God is doing something we never know why God is doing something the cabalists spend a great deal of energy explaining the different M the different ways of how hak wants to bring the Redemption to fruition everything in the world that that happens is Hashem orchestrating things to bring the world to a Utopia a world where there will be no hatred a world where there will be no suffering a world where everybody will live in peace and love and harmony eventually we're working closer and closer to a world that is completely void of suffering and how how God is going to bring it how K is going to take us there we don't know so therefore it's never appropriate to say that this kind of suffering or that kind of suffering happened because of this sin or because of that sin it's simply inappropriate to say that God is too great for us to know why things happen however God does speak to us through indications through Sim through through different telltale signs for us to take a lesson and improve our ways the based and we mentioned this in the last year that in times of suffering there is a collective and individual obligation for every person to ask himself how could I improve the first and foremost obligation is to stop speaking lashar to stop speaking evil speech about others because lashar speaks at length in his work that when we speak lash about others is unable to defend us as were in the Heavenly tribunal so therefore first and foremost the first thing always suggested this to not speak lanara as we mentioned in last year that in the generation of aab they went to war and they were victorious because they did not speak lanara of each other if we do not speak lashara about each other then there is no angel and there's no voice in heaven that could ever raise an accusation or complaint against us because God treats us as we treat others so that's always the first and foremost obligation it's always a first and foremost obligation to think about how we can increase our Kusa Holiness that was theat of Bam Bam wanted to bring a downfall to the Jewish people he wanted to curse them God did not allow bam to curse so bam told bolock all you need to do is to send the young girls and seduce the Jewish men hates immorality hates promiscuity and that's how you bring the downfall especially in times of war the P tells us that we have to be extra careful about kadus so because if there's a lack of kadha God leaves us and we don't have the Heavenly assistance necessary to be victorious in war so the two two major components that every person on an individual level should think about is how to improve in the area of lashara and how to improve in the area of Kusa okay and every other area according to whatever person thinks that they would like to improve in so we never say why Hashem brought suffering that's not appropriate it's not our place to do that but on the other hand there is a personal and Collective obligation for us to think how we can improve our ways and how God speaks to us some people have pointed out that in the v there's a term foru na comes from the same term ASU okay okay so there's something indicative there that our enemies had something to do with what is necessary and how we should improve our ways and it should be done should be done with happiness there's no reason to be depressed if a person has the opportunity to do even something very small to improve their ways that's the reason to be happy improving one's ways doesn't have to be done out of depression that's not the way it works KES is very happy and we should be very happy if we ever have an opportunity to sit down and think how we could speak Les less lar how we can be kinder and how we can be more loving so that's that's the idea that's the idea that's Our obligation my grandfather when I spoke to him about this I asked him what his opinion was I said I used to call him OPI I asked to ask him I said do you think it's appropriate to ever suggest that the suffering of the Holocaust had something to do with sins so my grandfather seemed to have taken more the side of of and he said you what with there's if there's National suffering right there always has to be it always has something to do with sin I'll mention that every Thursday tomorrow morning we're going to be saying the every single day we said chapter in theim that was sung in the by The Choir of the and we say it every day so towards the end of tomor we read There He says if my nation had only listened to me I would subdue their enemies in a moment so that's the message so God send us a message we're going to read it tomorrow in the that if we would only listen to God then then our enemies would be subdued okay so my grandfather pointed out two things he said there's something very telling about the fact that the Holocaust began or grew out of Germany it was most count counterintuitive the Germans were the most cultured in fact the Jewish community in Germany were the most respected they had fought in World War I side by side with their German with their German peers and yet nobody had expected that out of Germany they would actually begin the Holocaust and one of the things they began is Hitler said you're Jewish whether you like it or not as much as you try to hide your Jewish identity you're Jewish so therefore there was a message there right a person can't run away from the fact that they're Jewish you can't assimilate right maybe indiv some individuals will be successful at assimilating but the nation can never assimilate if a nation attempts to assimilate as unfortunately much of German jeury was doing it's not going to work we're Jewish whether we like it or not but as the brisar the brisar said that the idea is not to think about how somebody else should improve somebody once came to the bris Sal and he said he said yes theim or the irreligious they they so the brisc stopped him at the moment he says that's not the correct attitude the point is not to think about how others need to improve the only thing that you need to do is think about how you yourself could improve in fact the T says the gumar says that the more a person is exposed the more religious a person is the more he's held account he's held accountable the ramban in his famous letter to his son in the G ran right he says if you're a greater than somebody else you are actually held more accountable you can't hold people accountable that are people that were born into a secular environment that don't that we're not t Torah that we're not exposed to Torah values and say that they have to do XY Z but first and foremost obligation is to think about what do I need to do right if you were if you mared to have a educ so that means to say who holds has expects more of you okay but the idea is that we have to be proud of our Judaism and the g I'll finish up with the G in tells us the Jewish people will do chuva everybody will do chuva it's a guarantee there's no two question there's no two ways about it it's it's an absolute guarantee in fact you see that there's a national arousal I was working together with a fellow to help the soldiers we were fundraising and eventually in the beginning all the soldiers wanted were tents and boots and thermal wear and now all they're asking for is Fillin and I have a cousin Alisha wiel the son of of Ellie weizel he was not a religious fellow he had a son that was completely unreligious and for the first time he's seeing his son leave with a yam putting on sitzes so there's an amazing arousal also all the different all the different sectors of society in Israel are coming to the conclusion we have to come together every sector in society has their strong points and has their weak points and we have to deal with the weak points in an appropriate way in a humble way in a modest way but it doesn't matter despite the different weaknesses of the different factors in in Israel we still all need to come together and that's what we see the nation doing we see that there's a greater interest and getting close to Hashem so we're finally seeing another prophecy come to fruition the prophecy that in the future all the Jewish people will do chuva andem says if the people don't do chv the ideal way the prefer way and I I'm optimistic and I'm confident this is will happen that the Jewish people will arouse themselves to do Tru they won't need to have a to have a king that is oppressive like ham who wanted to wipe out the people in order to arouse the people for tra okay so am I'm optimistic and we leave off with a positive message the Jewish people will do trua and we're going to do trouba out of love for Hashem and with that I wish everybody a wonderful night and we're going to see wonderful things happening in the future don't lose hope wonderful things are on their way okay thank you very much everyone for joining us