Journey To London 2024: Free Will, October 7th, and the Holocaust - Q&A With R' Glatstein

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com if anyone would like to ask Roy glatstein any questions um I have one but I'm allow people to go first do you have any any questions at all yeah sorry sorry guys at the back I'm going to keep you behind at the end if you don't stop talking it's not okay there's got interfering in people plans against the Jews not remove that extent could you I I didn't cat you does God interfering in the plans of people who hope to crush DS not interfere in their Free Will by twisting their plans good question good question does God interfere in the to frustrate the plan of man sometimes he does and sometimes he doesn't can he yes can he choose to retreat absolutely is it a violation of their Free Will yes and no because sometimes the Free Will of a king or a leader of a nation has been suspended entirely once he assumes the position of King there's an idea the navi teaches us that the king or the leader of a Nation upon assuming that position is now an official puppet of the almighty so upon assuming that position that individual may have lost their free choice to begin with so so God's interfering in the choices of kings and officers is a different level of hashak than the way he interferes or doesn't in man's regular activities but there's an idea that it is more difficult and I'll explain what I mean by that for God to interfere in man's choices than in the regular working of the world what that would mean is for example if somebody's walking in a dangerous forest and there are dangerous animals there God will sooner protect that person from an animal because he doesn't have to interfere in anyone's free will then protect them from someone who has an evil scheme to harm them but God could certainly save somebody from any situation it's a very complex and important question but that's in a nutshell what we say Sammy um so I just wondering seven eight years prior to that second sure the Jewish people have gone through many PS in concentration Cs and being murdered and it's like well if there's got interv then to save two million why could you done it in the past you know like why choose then that we I'm not I'm not disputing that what he did then is not Miracle completely is there's many other opportunities where he could have showed his power and poy did okay look you're asking a very challenging and difficult question my own grandfather was in aitz and he was actually on the selection line and he was literally put into the gas chamber he wasn't selected for life he was selected for death and at the very last moment he was pulled out by his hair and his life was saved by a Nazi officer who came out of nowhere and just pulled him out and my grandfather said it was an open Miracle so yes people ask where was God in the Holocaust but my grandfather says where was he he was at the doorstep of the crematoria and he pulled me out so there are very challenging things that we see in this world on the one hand in our own lifetime we just saw in October 7th terrible atrocities that were perpetrated against our people but I want to share with you a very important perspective you know the IDF has now been fighting for many many months that means it's a very formidable opponent that means they're well armed they're trained they have vicious intent they have a whole network of tunnels and after 5 months we still haven't defeated them which means think about what they could have done think about what they were capable of perpetrating there are tens of thousands of them think about what they were capable of doing and it was only that limited number now now I I don't mean to be callous even one Jew is a whole world by itself but they could have perpetrated terrible numbers so it was a terrible atrocity but was someone looking out for us there's no question that was also an open miracle that what they did was limited to that [Music] extent yeah Ryan I in a way disagree with what you're saying so you're saying that because Hashem was looking out for us there was only x amount saying it could have been much more but surely if someone was truly looking out for us and even those people that have already s passed away wouldn't have in the first place remember the war is Reed so the je reunited we had to lose yes every bad happen you just say it's good because it wasn't more bad it's still a bad thing to happen the big picture the these are massive topics and I think longer for the Q&A session we this afternoon and what I suggest pass Hill and the followup JS lesson it would be very important to have these conversations about suffering I just just end something interesting that happened to me last week and I think I may have told some of you about this this was remarkable I just called up I'm talking a lot about hash proest about everything's for a reason sorry I'll wait for the boys in the back unfortunately you're going to be staying behind afterwards this isn't okay this isn't this really is not okay just to end this whole idea of Pur things that things happen for a reason so I filled up American Express last Thursday week ago because there was a transaction on my credit card that didn't seem to make sense to me so I fell on American Express and for those of you who have bank accounts I'm sure you've had this feeling when you've been put on hold put on hold 5 minutes 10 minutes 15 minutes finally I get through to someone good afternoon American Express Aon K how I help you and the voice something about the voice I said hi I question what's your name my name is yny goker Rabbi gka like one second who is this this was a guy that I was m k in I officiated his wedding a couple of years back he works for American Express and he randomly picked out my call at the other end of the of the of the phone it was literally out of nowhere now we were discussing afterwards we spoke lateer that evening the funny bit was he couldn't even help me because he said as soon as I Know Who You Are I'm legally not allowed to help you had to put me back on hold so I went back on hold but he said to me late that evening he spoke on the phone it was almost like a message from Hashem he got married two years ago he's lives in a non-religious area he hadn't connected with his Judaism he was saying you know I really need to care with my Rabbi and I was put through to him the rabbi who married him put through to who knows why why am I why am I ending with this story the point is we don't have all the answers but we just need to try and wake up and smell the coffee smell the has in our own life and I think that for me today's one of the big messages of Pur is we don't have all the answers we don't know why bad things happen we don't know all the details but we do know that ouru knows Hashem has a plan and I think that very much ties in when our enemies try to destroy us they end up being the ones that sometimes end up saving us as well it's quite remarkable to see I want to just conclude with one question to you for me if I'm going home this evening and I want to watch one of your sh online out of the 10,400 which one should I watch watch and how do I access it that's a question for everyone here watch you could you could binge watch them right you know um while purm is coming I would suggest puram Fest 1947 puram Fest 1947 Google that with Rob you'll find it on Tora anytime [Music] okay huge thanks to G for coming in back you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by Torah anytime.com