Writing A Psak Halacha During Holocaust (Rav Ephraim Oshry)

[Music] I'll finish with a story and then you guys could ask any questions you want but many of the stories of the holocost that I try to tell you that I hear from my r or reading books are usually not known to many for whatever reason or another it seems like am only likes to have a Memorial Day for the Holocaust in in theory very few actually read about it now some of theik that died through the Holocaust whether it's shalom or many of the other that we've spoken about in the past they actually they actually give a fantastic testimony of not only what happened there but also what's written in the Torah about the of a Jew he lived to the Holocaust and wrote a couple of a uh wrote a five volume book about alic decisions he pined in the concentration camps now my love told me some of these that he judged on I'm telling you it's like having a horrible horrendous stories of what people would do and went through and how they got tortured I give you a small example one guy comes to the the Nazis said that anybody that goes to uh goes to the uh sh CU they lived in like it wasn't a uh Barracks it was like a mini City but still surrounded by the Nazis any Jew that goes to the synagogue will get punished some died some were mutilated he says well I had to go to the synagogue and once the Nazis found out they came to the house and they crushed my testicles front of the family in front of the kids they says the fact of the pain and the agony and all that stuff that's fine I'm just worried about one thing I'm a coin he says I'm a coin am I still allowed to do because it says the the cannot be a cannot have a deformity cannot have a deformity but all right I'm already suffering and already not going to have any more kids I'm already in Hell already but can I still at least be allowed to do legitimately a whole that is's allowed who can have the the the mind the clear mindset and focus to write 50 100 different sources to prove that this is allowed to go against all the I mean things like that when you you're surrounded by G all types of things that were vicious and you see amazing things one of the things that he writes about is that they asked him another question they said says that we're not allowed to go to synagogue can we be absolved from this mitvah because they said that anybody that goes they're going to kill him writes and he says even though we have three things in the Torah three things that Tora says die but don't sin if somebody tells you to go worship an idol die but don't sin somebody tells you go kill somebody die but don't sin your blood is not better than theirs somebody tells you to go make a Sex crime die but don't sin there's three main things but the Tora also says that this is during normal times when it's oneon-one one puts the gun to the head and says drive on Shabbat I kill you you're allowed to drive but somebody tells you go to a church or I kill you you're not allowed you have to die but that's when it's oneon-one if it's in front of people or it's it's a it's it's time where there's a de on the world and it's they're Des they're destroying Jews everywhere they're killing people everywhere he says even on a Min you have to die for AAG what's AAG the rambam says if there's AAG to tie your right foot and then your left foot and the g say if you tie your right foot and then your left foot first I'm GNA kill you go with the left foot first you have to go with the right for anyway even though your life's on the line why because so says says even though going to is not it's not a Biblical mitvah because it's you have to go and sacrifice your life just to go to synagogue and he writes who are the ones that made the biggest sacrifices to go to sh who are the ones that made the biggest sacrifices to go to you and I would answer logically all theim all the religious they all this maybe they were religious before they're religious now right he gives a he says the ones that will literally put their lives literally on the line fighting to go to sh were the ones that used to be K the the secular they literally died just to go to Sho he says this doesn't make any sense you didn't go to sh before the Holocaust you were married to go you married to go why you going to Sho here nonetheless why you putting your life on he says this proves us this proves to us that every Jew no matter where he was has a nit has a spark in him of Kad that at the moment of truth he could implement it he could push it he could actually shine not everybody but some of the that allowed that spark to shine shine at that moment of truth and that's why anyone that wants to say that all six million died on kashem no one argues it's not because of just the tragedy of six million Jews dying but literally that you could learn on them where you know that every single one of them that was in the concentration camps that saw the horrors especially after you see it when you own eyes of what they went through you learn about it you read about it no one is going to stay R after seeing that but that's not the same as other events that have happened whether it be Pittsburgh or other massacres that have happened that were momentary not uh you know uh an extended period of time but you see that at the moment of truth that the Jews that were K and were literally willing to die just to go toet this book is M unbelievable it's five volumes I'm learning it with my a little bit it's something that's uh I mean first of all I'm thinking how do you even write this stuff and you're in the Holocaust yourself it's not like he's writing after the fact oh he's in it also with them how do you have yesu how do you have Focus to write all these sources there's bullets everywhere there's people dying every day this is [Music]