Holocaust Kinot | Rabbi Dr. Aaron Adler

And uh we should share so to vote and boy do we need it. As usual the shur for this year is dedicated in memory of Alishimman of and today as this evening we're observing Yamashawa. So the poem of choice is coming from a special kina elergy that was written by the bubba the late baba bashama. So before we get into it, two words, two moments of introduction, preamble. One, something about and the second about the need or not so necessary need to uh author new keynote for the Shaw to be set on Tishab. Okay. So we're going to just say a few words about this because this particular kina was written for the purpose of saying on tishab reba didn't know from yashawa in his boro park headquarters that's for sure not there was a sorry he he did I can't believe that in bor park they observed yaw they don't observe correct they knew about the shawah and they knew about it and no doubt they knew from personal family experience and and he introduced it to be said on tishab on tishabuff the um we know there was the baltov and his main student the mag of mezvich and his ma one of his main students was rebi from lians those of us go to poland always go to rebi's uh oh is play place where he was buried in leans one of rabbi melik's students was rafti from rupchitz And one of Raali Roches's top students was Raim Halbisham to be known as the Reba of Sans. The first Reba of Sons and he authors the book Dreim. I can tell you that Arabetic told me once in a comment that was quite surprising. He said 19th century there were two caims worthwhile talking about. Obviously the first was his grandfather Salvetic from Brisque. But the other was quite surprising. He mentioned Halbashtam the author of the Deim. He thought he was one of the most outstanding in the world of Galitzia. I actually told this over to Rafa, my great Rasha. He was surprised. He said he never never heard this from the RV and he was also very surprised to hear it. But uh Halvisham for sure was one of the allstars the great of the of the facetic world and um he had a grandson by the name of Rav Benion I'm sorry a grandson by the name of right he was Mahalashtam the namesake of the of the last one was named after and this Mahalashtam at one point before he moves to the town of Boba B O B O W A which is called B in Yiddish. Um he was the RV in the town Oshven. Oshven is Ashvitz. Obensson was the Polish name of Oshvitz. And the Jews called itin the rebbiten. And they said came from the worden which means guestnatim. And it was a town that was known for and heal before he becomes reb was the ro of the town of or is um and and that's part of his history. His son was Rabenion Halbasham who unfortunately perishes uh in Labov which is Lmberg was called Lmberg. Today it's Labov today it's in South Ukraine but it was still part of Galitzia. Galitzia starts from about Krakow in the west and goes all the way to the east across the Polish border and there are many many towns of Galitzia that actually belong to Ukraine today. The ma main one is the city of Leb and that the Jews called Lmberg and in Lmberg Rabbitzian Halbashtam who had fled from Poland was hiding but then the Nazis caught up with him and he perishes there. his son, Rabbitian's son, Rablan Mahalashtam, go runs from place to place to place to place and finally makes it to the United States and um and he sets up the Baba dynasty which I believe he he's still with us until the year 2000 or 2002 means he he lives uh lives out his life nicely and he and he sets up the institutions and so on. So he authors this kina for the sha. So just putting it in the context and you will see that while he does make mention of the general shawah there's a very heavy emphasis on the destruction of the community of uh of of people who believe people who connected to people who who who are connected to and yes and so on. He's not denying that the shawah was very large. He even makes reference to the big number, but the emphasis is clearly on on the type of community that he lived in that he led. No doubt. And I'm not faulting him for this. I'm just saying just we should get an idea because if you would just read this, you most probably would get a little bit of a perverted view of what the shawah was in its entirety. Whereas there are other keynote that al of course they mention destruction of kess midrash and everything like that but but it's it's much more it's a much wider wide angle viewpoint of um what the shawah was all about and most of the others are much longer. This is a very very compact poem that gets in a lot in the few lines that he writes. So we'll we'll see it inside and I'll try to draw some comparison to some of the others. But before we do that, I'll make reference to the wonderful publication from the U of the Kinote Masor Tarav. This is the keynote of the U that were translated all of the keynote with our great commentary. Now the ruff never sat and wrote a commentary but what the ruff did was on in Boston during the summer he was in Boston people went up to Boston many people went up to Boston to listen to the rv explain the keynote and he would do it for about eight hours which was unreal basically what the ruff kicked into motion is what we now have for at least for the last 20 25 years schuls not just emptying out after the tishab chakras with some type of B reading the book of the keynote without having any knowledge whatsoever. Now Rabanim and other guest speakers are coming into the shs and speaking about the kinote. I mean I've been doing it for years. So not eight hours because I don't have to do it eight hours but at least min time four and a half hours. I've done five hours. So, but people are a lot of people are doing it and and they're doing it out of the the the way the ruff taught us this is the way we should experience tish not run out of sh but to go over the keynote and explain them uh what the message was what the background was and so on and there's really a lot to do so much so that this book became very very popular to use it as the English translation of every kina and it it then gives us also footnoting where the sources come from and so on beyond ond this book previously to it Rabbi JJ Sha from Yeshiva University fame but he's also here part of the year now um he he put out this book the lord is righteous in all his ways sadikav in Hebrew and it's reflections of tishov of the keynote from the ro and he writes all this up in essay form so it's not like following the keynote if you use this book you have to have whatever edition of keynote with you on the side to see where he's referencing. And what he does was he he tackled the whole issue by topics and he gives you on the in the table of contents what he's doing in each uh section. And yes, he has a few pages about the relationship to the shawah and the ro's relationship. Before we just scan rabbi jar's words, I'm reading from the introduction of the u edition. It was put out by um the ed the general editor was Rabbi Manakim Ginak who is also the head of Kash at the OU and he writes the following. A word about the keynote for the Holocaust is in order. The Rob was not in favor of reciting keynote that were composed to commemorate the Holocaust. His view was that the traditional tishab keynote expressed mourning of elud for all Jewish tragedies and no new keynote were appropriate. Nonetheless, the practice has arisen in many communities to recite keynotes for the Holocaust and we have included several consistent with our view that this addition should be of practical use for the general Jewish community and not a reflection of the Ruff's personal practice. This was very honest, very honest. You have to realize who we're talking about. Rabbin is a Talmud Muhok of the Rough and he sets policy, company policy for the U. And before I actually saw this, I knew that I have five selections of Holocaust uh keynote in this book and I was also keenly aware of the RV's opinion and I couldn't believe it in the U publication. So I said somebody must write something and I scanned I wrote carefully all the very there about five introductions to this book. Different people wrote different introductions and Rab Ganak said it clearly in a paragraph that yes the RV had had objections but we overruled it because if we wouldn't put it in there would be shuls that would feel they couldn't use this because they need it in the book. They're going to say keynote for the Shaw. So Rabbi Shear has about five pages on the subject and he actually writes and it's very interesting because these are seems to be a recorded sentence. Of course there is no doubt this is the rough speaking. Of course there is no doubt that on tishab we should recite a special kina for those who were killed by Hitler in the last hurban we lost more people than in destruction of the first and second mikdash. Of course the six million deserve to be eulogized on tishab but we do so within the frame of reference of the keynote that already recite we already cite that day instead of vna we mention warms and minds it does not make much difference because the scenes described and the words of despair mourning and grief are the same and and he goes on to show what the ruff said about the shawah in the context of different keynote of tishab this is Not this is somewhat controversial because what the rub is really saying and I'm not saying that that you know you have to accept the RV's view or not accept the R's view. I'm just putting it on the table. The R was of the opinion that the Shaw was just the next of the giant tragedies. Sure it was greater in scope than any other tragedy. Not just the beta mikdash but should be seen in the context of the ongoing tragedy where he cites the puk and the midrash of balai by the by the says they cried that night and kazal say it was it was a crying for generations to come that all Jewish tragedies would somehow focus on tishab and for sure there was room on tishab to make reference to the sha that there's no question about but the R felt that to author keynote you had to be imbued by the levels of that he did not believe exists any longer. That was his point of view. He felt that when our and in the in the middle ages Khal and and Rabu Allevi and Ibenezra in the days of theim in the middle ages they still had they didn't have prophecy but they were still imbued by what's called and hence the the the kinote themselves somehow are extensions of the type of trila that we have from the anchesset from the days of beginning of Bay Cheney but he felt that in the days of the after the 161 15 16 17 18 19 20th century it it just falls flat and therefore um the the the words may not be imbued with that kind of and therefore he preferred to use those uh keynote that was said about the crusades of 1096 and other crusade other persecutions and so on who were written these these were written by Moram Rutenberg great great great of the greats of the middle ages to read between the lines and show that that on on some level these things happened again in the period of the shawah that was his position that was his position with regard to the ongoing so we we I'm sure we didn't forget lea sedar not long ago leaed so by the time you get to you're signed with relief You're looking at the watch and trying to figure out what time it is now in the AM zone. Um, and you're singing and finally get to the last one. So, this is not a kindergarten song. This is the song of of it's and hand in hand walking through the tumultuous Jewish history and each stage and each era there is an issue and it gets worse as the story progresses until it comes to the and then it comes to and that's the will come a day God will wipe away all the tears it's going to come to an end and at each juncture what's left walking together walking together and so on and therefore the RV understood the in the context of the it's just it's the next it was the next thing on the level and hopefully the end there shouldn't be more you know that we have to there was more there was but there was more right but there was more so there's going to be but um there were many communities that felt the need for for having something tangible and not having to homalytically rewrite the medieval keynote and snuff out the idea of the sha. There was somebody in 1947 here in Israel. His name was Biala and he wrote an unbelievable poem and now we say it for the Shaw. And then there was um Rabbi Rosenfeld, Abraham Rosenfeld from England wrote a sensational poem for the Shawah for the forishabove. Uh and then there was Rabbi Shiman Schwab from the Bruer's community in Washington Heights also writing a very very moving uh poem and then you have the bubba. So they printed all of these in the in the U book because they figured look we have something from Israel from merit Israel we have something from England we have something from the kidic world we have something from the the ger the German Jewish remnant of the fun Jewish community so it's a type of mixed bag of different communities who all suffered in the shawah and having some rabbitic writer author pen a kina for the sha. So and and therefore our you know custom already is our is that we do say these so let's see what the bubba had to say and you should know that bab is the largest today in in America in America the largest in Israel is g second is is bells and and both all three of them suffered the shawah mean the bell s he he got out he He was released but most of his community perished and the Grebba also most of G of the world perish and he makes it and uh and he um there's all controversy with regard to great rabbitic leaders whether or otherwise who when asked what should we do we have an opportunity to go to is or to flee to America it was to stay here Chev not That was the general answer that was given not by all not by all but by some of the leading leading leaders but the the the really crushing blow is that they got out themselves at the end of the day and it's very difficult to accept this very difficult but again I wasn't there you know you can't judge and so on but one thing is true the grebba ended up resuscitating the whole g so did the bellza And so did the Satma by the way and so did the I mean Satma rebel was saved by the cast deal with a man and by the Zionists that's you know the most anti-ionist of the rebels was saved by Zionists and by the castner deal with right and and and the Baba who was able to come to America so Baba became very large in the United States as Baba and Sansa are first cousins they were halbush right so when I got engaged uh It's a long time ago. Who remembers? So my wife's maiden name is Halbashtat. And the and I told the Ro I forgot Ge what's a caller's name. Said he asked me what K's name. I said no halbushtat. What did he hear? Halbusham. He said ah Sansza. I said the last thing in the world my father-in-law from Frankfurt was a Sansza. The last thing in the world. But but not a bad uh blurb because u the Halbashtam family name was originally Halbashtat. The halves family name that's all theim were originally halvishtats and they became halvishams but the halvishtats didn't change because you know yeish don't change the sed right so you have there there are many halvishams families and I'm sure they're somehow related um the the rebba of sons halbashtam he had a sona halbashtam who was the rebba of shinv some of us on the trip we went to Kev of the Shreb. So he was the son of the sons of but the Halbasham was the was the grandson already. And then there was a greatgrandson whose name was Yukel Yehuda Halbasham who becomes the founder and rebans in Natana right so he's a great grandson of the sons of he was in the shawah and did go google go to YouTube and see the movie about they made a fulllength movie about the rebuff sons a sensational sensational person who I had aut of meeting several times over biscuit a great uncle of mine who was the reb's right-hand man name the um so there there there are some noteworthy people uh that came out of sans and and which is buff which is also a cousin to s correct okay let's look at the poem so you have one page is the translation so it's a little bit awkward because the way my book opened to take the picture but here it is All right. Always remember and mourn all of Israel. Let your voices be heard on high. Not a good translation. Not a good translation. Look at source number one in the the bottom. I don't have numbers there but it says from from we read this on onash on the second day of this is the prologue to right when starts the song he begins with [Music] That's the first line of which right so so here what does the embryo say on right the place is called Rabba or it's Heights and it's not Washington Heights and it's not Crown Heights. Some claim it's the Golden Heights. Why the Golanites? Because Yo is talking about Yo is talking about Ben Israel after the destruction of the first beta mikdash and Am is being exiled to Bavl. Now, Bavl is modern day Iraq, which is due east of Israel, except nobody walked that way because it was complete desert. There was the oasis travelers route. It was an arc. If you went up norththeast of Israel, you get to Golden Heights. You continue further where we have Israeli soldiers there now. And you pass Kenetra, you get Damas Damascus, and you continue in this arc, and you make it down to Baghdad. So that's really the the uh the route the travels route of of the exiles who left and as they're leaving a voice comes out from the heights. These are the golden heights and it's Rael who's crying and the midrash says all of the forefathers matriarchs and patriarchs cried to God but God only listened to Rafael. Why? because of a secret secret uh marking in her file of what Rael did aid without calling a press conference to brag about it with Leia. So Lavan gives Yakov switches Rael with Leia and Rael knows that and and and Yakov knew that his future father-in-law is going to pull stick. is going to do something and because of this high level of of modesty he thought that they will be together in a totally dark environment. So he Yakov gives Rael secret signs that will be he she'll be able to reveal to him that indeed she's Rael. What Rael does is she gives over these signs these signals to her sister Leia so she won't be embarrassed. And this is indicated by the in the morning it turns out that it was Leia. He thought it was Leia. And that's what Amedra says that at night time he didn't know because she gave him the signals. Leia gave the signals. And this was tremendous on the part of Rael. She knew she was being stolen away from Yakov at that moment. And she's willing to do it not to embarrass the sister Leia. And God writes it down. This is a that deserves to be rewarded. And he saved it in the for posterity for this moment when Ami is leaving Israel for Bavl and all of the patriarchs and matriarchs yell and cry to God. And ah says I'm going to listen to Rael Rael and to Rael I will give the message and they will return to the borders. So the the looks at this pulish we don't have the resolution here we don't have the sh the sound was heard echoed from the heights from the Raman was terrible bitter bitter tears you would translate this bitter tears is crying she refuses to be consoled for her sons, her children are not here. So what the what theb does he just lifts out of context their voices can be heard in the clearly flashing at this clearly. By the way, this p has caused big problems with the geographic location of Rael. Is it is it Bethlehem the traditional place or might be north of Shallayim in Eris Byamid those who go on that road number 60 towards Adam right before Adam there's a place we point this out by Rafael Benoon several times over that there is a a a cemetery there and the Arabs have remained with a with a ke that they claim is Rael Mayu so maybe that is really Kev Rael or Maybe Rael was actually buried in the Golan. And this jives with something that Ramban says that our forefathers say observe the Torah. Well, is that true? Yakov marries two sisters Rael and Leia. That's a biblical violation. That's giot. How can you have that? So Ramban says that their forefathers observed mitzvot only init but they did not observe mitzvot and therefore when Jacob returns to Israel with his family one of the two has to go and the one who was destined to die would be Rael that talk to God about but the idea was that she dies before before Yakov enters inherits Israel and one of the resolutions to this is that she dies before but they bring they don't bury her on that spot but the Torah seems to indicate apologetically that Rael couldn't be slept to maran but if she was very slept to be from Golan it's not a long continuation journey to so there's a big question as to where is I remember used to say so many have been poured out already at the traditional burial place of that it's already her burial place. It makes no difference if her body is there or not. It's already but I'm just pointing out that there's an issue and this is one of the focal points of the discussion. So let's continue in the poem. Germans destroyed our nation in the wrath of the days of the wrath of the war right in cruel and unusual death by hunger by thirst never forget the says we are not allowed to forget this for generations to come until a day until we worthy to see the consolation. And then he goes on their yells, their shouts, and their cries. Theim were the cars, the cattle cars. And we can still hear the cries and their shouts as they were stuffed into the cattle cars. So here he's talking about the transport, you know, they were brought transported like sheep for the to their slaughter to be burnt in the in the crerematorium. We're going to remember the sounds of their shoutings forever. basically before God. That's a phrase before God with the calling of Israel before they gave up their lives to God. Well, yes, many did say Israel, but not everybody did. And that has to be said also. That has to be said also. So, we had a gentleman in modern you know big and funny every year the night of he wasn't there in next morning where were you? I went to the GB. Okay. I went to Why'd you go to Greb? He says because my family was they're all okay. So once a year he doesn't look like once a year he pays tribute to his his his heritage goes back to G. So I said um any he said most of the family perished. I said um any any survivors in the family still giddim? He says, "I'm the only one with a kip. All the others, forget about throwing the in the garbage. They threw the kip in the garbage. Shabas in the garbage in the garbage. Everything went the only one that still believes in God." And believe me, he's not the only one because I met other people who also were Holocaust survivors and they left it all. And you know what teach us a long time ago that don't judge another person until you're there. And thank God I wasn't there and thank God we thank God. Thank God. I don't want to be tested in that kind of a test. Yeah. But always amazed me that anybody came out and was correct. My my father sham said this many years ago. He said remember was again with a season. So my father had to get up very early to catch a in the regular year work day and catch a train to Manhattan and he got picked up by his boss who drove him then to the the place the the factory that he worked in in New Jersey. A long trip but in so my father remember D in the living room. I remember seeing him in still in the weekday in the living room but in he left the house at 5:30 in the morning so he can catch a minion in Manhattan for and he said okay it's the season again you know he said you know after the sha says you make a kdish that I'm still making kdesh Friday night I heard him say that my father answer the question why stately riches of one of my sons right he said policy wouldn't hit level would win would win would have won. You're fair. You're fair. So there are all kinds of good reasons that people continued. So yeah, people are coming out of the funnels and it's unbelievable. It's unbelievable what's happening in the last year and a half in terms of the who were released. um the emergence of people who were not religious before and now becoming deeply deeply bala to the extent of observance whatever level it might be. It's it's absolutely amazing. It's absolutely amazing that um that that this actually has happened. You'd think otherwise. You'd think otherwise. And uh and there were people um that you only voices in the dark. Okay, ye only he deep voices in the dark. That's a very good point. Very good. I remember when um Vad Vashm once asked me to uh to to lead a a conversation of Holocaust survivors. They had a program for Holocaust survivors uh to help deal with the fact that they're survivors because many of them didn't say a word for for years to their family. Now to their grandchildren, they start talking a little bit. So uh they need they needed help post trauma. So so they had people there that psychologist that historian that raon different carrying on conversations with leading basically to lead conversations but have them talk out. And the truth of the matter is uh I was very uh apprehensive because never did this before. I didn't know what type of people I'm going to meet and I heard it was a mixed bag. It was religious, not religious. It was men, women, really a mixed bag of 20 people going to sit around the table. And how do you begin such a conversation? And you know, most of you know me already by now. I'm usually not short of words. And here I walked into Yadbashm. I didn't have a clue how I'm going to begin this conversation. And I looked at the muza of walking into the building of Yadashem and I said, "God, do me a favor. Just put the first sentence in my mouth. You know that you made me good enough to continue to the second sentence. I just need that first sentence. just get me on the get me on the track. Just start. And and and what flew into my head was I was all set. I was Oh, you don't know what it says? All right. Where did I people there? Not going to embarrass anybody publicly. There theor talks about the part and the part the orchard is is interpreted in multiple ways multiple ways. But what happens is the uh this is the the baka re the aftermath of the baka revolution the hriicic persecutions. Rabika is the only one of the four who comes out sane religiously. One leaves the fold, one commits suicide, one this goes to goes to work, goes to politics, that's also suicide. Says, so is the only one. One out of four. One out of four. And and you know what it means? It means that great. You don't know what their exit is going to look like after they go through and suffer a mammoth tragedy. The same with the show. So I walk in and I realized this is going to be the opening number with this group men that lowi everything. I said look there are some people who were religious with the sha and they survived and they're not religious today. You see some people going like this and there are some people who entered not religious and they exited religious and there's another person going like this and some people who entered religious and exited religious. another person, two women, another person who was not religious before and not religious after all four scenarios existed. And I said, and it's all legitimate, legitimate. They thought I was going to come, you know, and everything. No, no, no, no, no, no. Legitimate. Let's talk about it. That's how I began. It cleared the ear because everybody's response was legitimate and now they can talk. Now they were able to open up and so on. It's not simple. What the exit is is not simple. So one of my trips to Melbourne, Australia, I met up with a lovely family whose mother the wife of the mother of the the wife of the family, she himself a holocaust survivor and has uh grandchildren here in Israel. So she told me that she was invited by her class. It was a it was a type of betakov one of the bet stools and uh whatever it was I think of more than than yashawa but she was invited to tell her story to the class to her granddaughter's class. It's a very nice thing to do but the principal told her you have to say that everybody went with Israel and an imam. So this woman says yeah but that's not what happened. So the principal says I know I know I know but you can't say that to the kids. So she said if I can't tell the whole story I'm not going to tell the story at all the story at all. So she declined the invitation had her daughter invite the class to come up to our house here in New Shallay and she told the story. So what did the principal accomplish by that? No, you can't falsify. You cannot falsify because you have to deal with the fact that people lost faith in the Holocaust. You have to deal with it. you can extol the virtue of those who kept it and it's it's heroic heroic absolutely heroic. So it's true that people went without and that's based on when he dies he's saying with the word that's how he leaves this world and that's where it became that you say is at the end if you know it's all over you say is okay but not everybody can do that from the point of view of the b of rebba he doesn't want to deal with those who didn't he is talking about those who did right he says it's true many did but others didn't that has to be pointed out also they were great yeshiva and their students and the masses so it's not just a shah for Torah it is a shawah But it's a shaw for the masses. The masses, right? They made them work slave they enslaved them with with terrifying and punishing work and they murdered them you know the blood of the children of young delicate sensitive children are screaming to you if you look down from parat from cayenne and Cen kills his brother and God says, "What did you do? The blood of your brother is screaming from me from the ground." and Kazal point out it doesn't say it says in pluralim the blood of why doesn't it say dam because when he was killed 50% of humanity potentially was killed so it was a big big murder every single person who potentially could have come out of he and their children and their children and their children was murdered as well so it wasn't a one-shot deal of killing have was killed killing 50% of your men called the and the Reb takes this when he talks about the children. Okay. Okay. that uh that the dam was actually accusing effect because there is a story of the not necess not related to the uh shawat but to pumrums that happened in his days and he has a a thing called a dyra with the he summons god to a din you know how can you do this and it ends with kadesh I mean it almost sounds like lenard co but it's the same idea by the way very similar idea concentration that in the concentration camp you can say the same thing the entire for sure for sure. So and the last line is that God should revenge the child and the women nobody should left nobody should be left alive. Where does that ple come from? So you look at the next source on the bottom. It's the third from the end from I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's the third to third third from the top from the eradicating the seven nations of Cananan. And there it says eradicate don't leave anyone alive with regard to it. Not just this sounds very harsh but teach us and it's that teaches us that Yeshua actually sends out letters to the seven nations and offers them a choice and choice number one was that they should all become geraf not gimm not converts but residents of Israel with the absum um assuming the responsibilities of the seven mitzvot of mit and they will be okay the other is if they don't want to do that, they can pack their bags and leave. And if they don't want to do that, we're going to beat them. That's all. And if we do have to do that didn't want locals who are idol practicers, you know, to be on hand. And therefore, the Reb uses this out of context. No Nazi should remain alive. They still there's still handful. They're still Well, they should do it yet right today. Right. Right. Right. Look, we have a problem. Not I'm not as they say I'm not sitting there in government to make decisions. The Israeli court the Israeli law has it that terrorist murder terrorists there can be a capital punishment. They can be and um we just don't do it for a variety of reasons. For a variety of reasons we don't do it. Um, one is that if they would murder, if they would execute right now all the the uh prisoners that we have, and we do have quite a few, uh, they would simply slaughter all the hostages. That's a it's a death blow to them, too. We know that. But again, I I'm not speaking in the name of the government. I'm just saying that because um, as the R pointed out in the name of his grandfather, Amal is not necessarily a nation. It's a policy of spelled out beautifully in the it's total annihilation of the Jewish people. So if you assign a Mullik status to Nazi Germany then the truth is at first the like they were against receiving uh all the various reparation fund monies in this country rocked in 1951 when Bengurian made a deal with with Adenhau the president of Germany for these monies later and the rub believed you shouldn't buy any German products and everything everything was a mullik but truth is late in life the rough softened up softened up already and he realized that now we're already second third generation of Germans they're not Nazis and it's just a different country of all things the closest diplomatic country to Israel today is Germany it's a very very ironic but it but it's true it happens to be true and um and and and many Germans have expressed remorse there are Germans who come to Israel to volunteer on kibbutim and so on just to do something to do nothing. Um I I may have said over the the story that happened to me once in in Avitz where I have a group there and we were right outside um u okay one of the blocks of one of the buildings and a gentleman comes over me he was about 40 years old look about 40 and he asked me if I'm Jewish. I thought that was very funny you know like no I'm actually Chinese but I'm wearing a mask. Are you Jewish? Okay, what what can I do for you? He says would you forgive me? I said for what? He said, "For all of this in Avitz," I said, "Well, look, you know, you you look like you're a little younger than me. I wasn't here. You weren't here. We weren't here. What are you asking forgiveness for?" So, he tells me, "Doesn't it say in your Torah?" He doesn't say Bible. He says, "In your Torah, doesn't it say that God will punish three or four generations?" So I looked at him and I said, you know, that verse was dealt with by our sages by in contrast to the it says that God will not punish someone for the sins of his father. Won't won't punish a father for the sins of the son. Everyone has their own record. So how does that jive with three or four generations down the run? So say if the third fourth generation continue in the way of the grandfather and great-grandfather they're going to get the bill for everybody. If not then everybody has a clean slate. And I told this guy I said look I don't know what your background is but it was pretty clear that he's got a grandfather who was there and and he's walking around with this guilt. And I said, "If you weren't here and you disavow all of this that you know you were not part of it and you wouldn't have been part of it, then God won't hold you accountable." This man took a sigh of relief. A sigh of relief. Like a whole burden off his shoulder right then and there. And we walked away and I looked up and I said, "Okay, now I know why you put me here right there that day." Because the rough talked about And it's an article by the and it's there's limited limited is do me a favor stock 100 check I'll give it over there I can't get there or some other things you can do a lot of things by messenger the things you can't do you can't fast for somebody by you can't eat matzah for somebody by you know there's certain things you have to do but the things in that you can do with that's called it's limited has a beginning has an end it's defined and so on. And then the said ongoing says that's life. That's life. Says God sends you from place to place. You don't even realize it's a but sometimes afterwards you realize you were put there. You were sitting next to somebody on the plane for a reason because he needed some to know something and you filled in that information and you made him feel good. like the woman sitting next to me in the plane who was so nervous about uh flying and had to calm her down the whole flight. And we came to the landing, she's ready to go bananas. So I said, "Listen, there's nothing flying. Landing is very easy. It's nothing more than a controlled free fall out of the sky." And she was ready to jump out the window. I got that from Microsoft simulator. That's the definition. It's a controlled free fall out of the sky. So let's just continue and finish this. It says it's not that's that word is not but the word is one second let me just read it right I know I was a mistake give me a second I'll find it it's river vote thank you it's river vote right English it's river vote tens of thousands of Torah and study of Torah. Here there was a little problem with the with the word what the word went and the translation in English was we will eulogize with songs of desolation. There were shels, mikdash, jewels that were burnt and we were forced to witness it. We saw it with our own eyes that comes from this the third to the last sign what's called the if somebody causes fire and does damage. So the Torah says and it it burnt his uh his silo or his field and everything. So you you you're responsible. So here whips this out and he says this was all they will pay in the language of the Torah. The burners will will pay for those who are victims. That's the second to the last from that we know from the we know this is talking about that is going to get back at those who who harmed Davidid and obviously by extrapolation later generations. It means that God will judge those nations that are full of bodies. And the idea being I went to Rashan Falh to see how he how he understood this puk and he said that obviously it wasn't that they're full of bodies they kill people and on their record are all the body numbers and so on and and it's applied to Nazi Germany perfectly by the rebot and then he reads and the the heavens will will will yell and the and the earth will shake for the thousands of of centers of Torah. the countries in Europe and their communities, those who who kept the tradition to connected with the pure faith. The day that we were exiled from Israel almost 2,000 years ago, there was never such destruction. Awesome, terrible destruction. So you see in the last two paragraphs his focus is on his life. Yes. On his life. It's very clear. It's very clear. God should have compassion on those who survived remnants to the camps of the of the mser 10 times the number of those who left Egypt. How many left Egypt? 600,000 times 10 is 6 million mdash to be rebuilt and he will he will give us the twice. I think what he has in mind is the last verse on the page the double and I've spoken about this often that the medish in Yeshu says he father that beat he he he had already the remedy on the shelf because 110 years later is going to write you're going to cry you're going to cry at night so why is there a double expression of crying so the med says has all kinds of answers. One is first beta mikdash, second beta mikdash, derd take on that was that within the context of every great tragedy, you also have the individual who suffers and we shouldn't lose sight on there's we're doing it for the last 20 years. Every person has a name. I remember last year I was in Phoenix, Arizona to give a lecture and the Jewish community center had a yashawa and I just went there to be with them, not with the people ploing away about uh Jewish studies and uh and and and they asked people to come up and say names, you know, for family. Okay, Rakasha, I have family names also to say and remember saying some names at this Yashaw thing, but they do it here in the Knesset and other places in schools. Every person has a name not to forget the individual and DV said that's why on some of the keynote the focus is on particular individuals the children of the the the and others particular particular people and and I think the Reb also was talking about the and there's the national tragedy and we need national and that's why gives us the double because of the double cry of Yeah, for sure. The second one is God. Don't just comfort the people, also comfort. Okay, that's And by the way, there's some basis to there's some basis to it. There's some basis. The idea that is that needs that's very good that can be said as well. Um it was the rebent in the ghetto who read and I heard this from he read the which means even if I'm in the valley of death I won't fear the evil because you're holding my hand. So the Reb read it I won't fear but she says I feel horrible you also have to be here in this mess. The idea of that God is with us in Sah and the Reb says that theb says it's bad enough that I have to be in this s you also have to be here in the sun. We say on a sukas yes it says God will take us out of but he ought to take himself out also because he was also there tells I am going down personally to take them out and we say it on the father used to say you notice that name is not there in the what happened to him? He's the main personality in the answer is if you think you need aua we would have given up a long time ago. You don't need au that's all. And and and here the brings us to it's it's an unbelievable poem. It's an unbelievable poem. Short, compact, says a lot. None of them say it all because you can't say it all. But nevertheless, it's a it's a very very very good poem for for By the way, a little of an announcement. I got notice from Rabbi Shore from the OU just a few days ago that next Wednesday there will be no shirim here. It's yum kon and the center is actually putting up online a ceremony from at 11:00 and uh the he just said that there won't because of yon there won't be formal shirim here uh so m will meet in two weeks time