Dying On Kiddush HaShem--Pittsburg Massacre vs. Holocaust

1:11They caught him and all of his students. When they put him in the camps, they were at a time when they all knew they were going to die. It wasn't a question of if, it was a question of minutes until when. Rav Elchonon Wasserman spoke to all of his righteous students. He said, "Rabotai, listen very carefully. It is obvious..." Hashem has chosen us to be the korbanot for Am Yisrael. It's no secret. It is obvious that Hashem has decided that we are going to be the korbanot of Am Yisrael. We, the Bnei Torah, who have sanctified His name our whole lives, are going to be the korban for Am Yisrael. Now we all know, we all learned the halacha of the korban. This is a shiur Torah in the middle; they're about to kill you. We all know the halacha. The halacha is if you have a bad thought in your mind when you're about to bring a korban, it's called pigul. What's pigul? Non-kosher korban. No good. Korban not accepted. Keep it for yourself. Make a steak out of it. It's not a korban. So we must be happy right now and not have a single negative thought about it right now. We have to all be happy and celebrate that Hashem has given us the opportunity to die al kiddush Hashem, sanctifying His Name. That's what's important. That's the mission.

2:29So we must be happy right now and not have a single negative thought about it right now. We all have to be happy and celebrate that Hashem has given us the opportunity to live. That's it. That is correct. That's the way. You're comparing this to Pittsburgh? You have to be blind, deaf, stupid, and manipulative to think such a thing. What kind of mindset is that? Who are you comparing the two? Did any of them even know what pigul is b'chlal, what halachah is b'chlal? They have crosses on their graves, rabotai. We cannot compare the two, I'm sorry. Yes, we feel bad people died. We don't want anyone to die. The ghosts start dropping names, oh, Kiddush Hashem, Kiddush Hashem, like it's giving out Kit Kats and Twix bars for the Avodah Zarah holiday of Halloween. Come on, guys, please. Please, have a little bit of honor for the Torah. Rav Wasserman tells his students, don't have a bad thought, even though the evil empire is about to kill you. Don't have a bad thought in your head. That's Kiddush Hashem.

3:56so he's saying a few things and I'll add something else he said, that what happened in other places where people got murdered in cold blood, it's not and the answer is you're right. It's not. It's not so easy to be Rabbi Akiva, it's not so easy, which we learned very likely. So he's saying a few things, and I'll add something else he said. What happened in other places where people got murdered in cold blood—it's not Kiddush Hashem. The answer is, you're right, it's not. It's not so easy to be a Rabbi Akiva. It's not so easy, which we learned very clearly. But to say that something is Kiddush Hashem, it has to follow the halacha. Not your own Reuven's opinion. Not such-and-such rabbi's opinion. Halacha. Halacha means Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu, from Moshe to Moshe, lo kam keMoshe. Rambam. What does the Rambam say? Rambam says you have to be given the option, either die or protect the Torah.

5:16Which one? Do you choose to die or protect the Torah? You're great. Why? Because you now die protecting the Torah. But if someone kills a Jew because he's a Jew... It wasn't what the halacha says. The halacha says they have to tell you either die or worship an idol, either die or commit a sexual transgression, or either die or murder somebody. Those are the conditions. If a person dies under these circumstances, then they died al Kiddush Hashem. If not, it's not al Kiddush Hashem. It's a big kaparah. They're definitely holy, but it's not like Rabbi Akiva. Now, we're going to ask a more difficult question regarding the Holocaust. The biggest reason why people have a problem with this whole thing in Pittsburgh is because it distorts the argument about the Holocaust. Because everyone knows that a lot of people, unfortunately, during the Holocaust that got killed were not exactly tzaddikim when they entered the camps.

6:33Many of them weren't keeping Shabbat. Many of them were intermarried. Many of them even converted to Catholicism. However, it's important to recognize that despite these behaviors, their suffering and death have significant meaning in our tradition. We must remember the tragedy and honor the lives lost. But it's very common among all kehillot, whether it be Sephardic, Ashkenazi, or in between, for people to say that six million Kedoshim, six million people died al Kiddush Hashem, six million died like Akedat Yitzchak, and other things that are elevating their neshamot. Now, there are opinions that disagree with it completely, simply because... If you didn't die defending the Torah, you didn't exactly die on Kiddush Hashem. You're not Rabbi Akiva. It's a kappara, for sure. Is it a huge malchut? Possibly. Al Kiddush Hashem, it's a further stretch. But still, even if you want to do a limud zechut, you want to give them the zechut, you want to give them the benefit that they did die al Kiddush Hashem, comparing

7:42the Holocaust to 11 people in Pittsburgh is a distortion of facts, and I'll explain to you why. A person that was alive during the time of the Holocaust, one day was doing fine. One day, they could have possibly been rich. One day, they could have been in government, could have had a company, could have had a whole life ahead of them. Wife, kids, even if he was intermarried, even if he was Mechalel Shabbat, even if he hated Jews, he identified as a Jew. Before the Holocaust, he was one thing. Once he entered the camps in Auschwitz and all the other places akin to Gehenom in this world, he was no longer the same person. He became a Jew whether he liked it or not. Whether he liked it or not, he became a Jew. He was now forced to be in a camp and was treated with torture and horrible things on a day-to-day basis, starved, and forced to think differently.

8:58Because it wasn't a simple one-two-three process for most people, where they went in from their house, were killed, and it was finished. Many of them were tortured, enslaved, and subjected to numerous trials, unfortunately. Hashem put them through many difficult tests and horrible experiences. Meaning, it wasn't a simple, quick event like the tragic incident that happened in Pittsburgh. It wasn't the same at all. That event lasted seconds, a minute, five minutes, or twenty minutes. The suffering during the Holocaust could have lasted years for people. Meaning that even if he came into the Holocaust as a kofer, a hater of Hashem, by the time he finished his life, he became the biggest Baal Emunah in the world. Why? He saw Hashem. He saw Hashem in the Holocaust. If he didn't see Hashem, he was blind. If he didn't see Hashem during the Holocaust, he was blind, simply blind. It's unnatural what happened. Comparing somebody that started this way and went through torture for years to somebody like this, you can say they went through an experience which, over time, maybe—just maybe—they could have arrived at the truth at some point.

10:18Because all of the things that were steering their opinion were no longer in existence. The money that was blinding them was gone. The goya wife was gone. All the fame and fortune was gone. All the things that the yetzer hara was blinding them with, We're gone. All of the reasons why Hashem made the Holocaust happen in the first place—the intermarriage, the assimilation, the Chilul Shabbat—all the sins we committed, all the Yetzer Hara we had, were gone now. Why? It was a time of Din. It was a time of punishment. There was no Chilul Shabbat anymore during the Holocaust.