Holocaust -- where was G-d? (Rabbi Ben Porat) Part 1

0:18Let us now delve into the teachings of the Rambam, who elucidates the mitzvah of Talmud Torah. The Rambam, in his Mishneh Torah, specifically in Hilchot Talmud Torah, discusses the importance of continuous learning. He emphasizes that even if a person is wealthy, he must not neglect his study of Torah. For instance, the Chazon Ish, Rabbi Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz, would study tirelessly, regardless of his health. He demonstrated immense dedication to Torah learning. Similarly, Rav Shach, Rabbi Elazar Menachem Man Shach, would spend hours immersed in his sefarim, showing us the value of perseverance in Torah study. When we examine the writings of the Chafetz Chaim, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, in his sefer, Mishnah Berurah, we see a meticulous approach to halachah. His work remains a cornerstone for anyone seeking to understand the Shulchan Aruch. This level of commitment is also seen in contemporary leaders. For instance, Rav Chaim Kanievsky, known as the "Sar HaTorah," continues to inspire through his rigorous learning schedule. In conclusion, the dedication to Torah learning exemplified by these gedolim serves as a guiding light for us all. ...you must have kavana during tefillah. This means having the proper intention and focus while praying. As the Rambam explains in Hilchot Tefillah, without kavana, it's as if you haven't prayed at all. The Chazon Ish also emphasized this point. Good evening. We are talking about this topic, the topic of the Holocaust. Maybe the most difficult and most complex topic. And it is difficult to understand the things that happened. And it is very complicated. There is no historical memory that we need to do in order to understand things. And there is no material material that from year to year new references appear in the books.

1:47And it is difficult to understand the things that happened. It is very complicated. There is no historical memory that we need to access in order to understand things. And there is no material that from year to year new references appear in the books. of research, of books, in different fields. And, of course, it includes many, many new chapters and many revolutionary times. We will try to reach only a few points, points that are less known, less discussed. In a book, he deals with the issue of the Holocaust, of a researcher at a university called Boaz Neumann, at the University of Haifa. He raises very interesting points.

3:14that I did not see that the scholars approached them. In the absence of the Jews and what happened in the camps, there is something that is unprecedented in many ways in history. Not only in the huge number of people, to clear the difference in the form of treatment. Ever since the birth of mankind, and mankind has endured wars, the First World War was a tremendous trauma in the world. But everything was done in a warlike, emotional way. The transition to the destruction of Jews in camps, in an organized, sterile manner, is what defines the Jewish murderers—six million and maybe more—from the other millions of the dead. Because in the Second World War, around 50 million people were killed from Europe, from different nations.

4:16in an organized, sterile manner, is what defines the murder of Jews—six million and maybe more—from the other millions of the dead. Because in the Second World War, around 50 million people were killed from Europe, from different nations. Germans alone, about 20 million, Russians, and so on. But they were all killed by military activity that had been going on since then. The only ones who were killed in such a way were the Jews. But this is known to everyone. He stands here

5:18Neumann, a very interesting thing. Who killed the Jews? The Germans built a model where the Germans almost didn't come into contact with the Jews. Who sent Arvala? They established units called Sonderkommando, whose job... ...of the same Sonderkommando was to lead the victim to the fire, to check that he had perished during the fire due to the expected cause. They were to check his body and soul, to clean the body, to prepare him for the arrival of additional victims. To remove the golden teeth, to remove the body armor, everything, everything. They were asked to work with the victims who arrived at the camp. And they were killed with the help of other victims who captured them. Unfortunately, this kind of killing has happened many times, where children were forced to deal with the process of killing their parents. The people of the Sonderkommando are the example of the connection between the killer and the victim. And the final transformation of the murderer: the victim kills himself.

6:44Each one in the ranks of someone else. They created a distance. The Sonderkommando office, wrote Primo Levi, was the most suspicious of all the Nazis' crimes. He presented the attempt to transfer to the victim the ashtray. Thus, before his death, his only comfort was to be free from crime. The victim kills himself. All the connection between the Sonderkommando and the SS people was created only with the help of the responsible Kapo, who, of course, was also a Jew. And everything was planned in advance, so as not to overestimate the German character. Not to bring them in with blood, with bloodshed, with children.

7:47Yosef Saker, the commander of the UN, never spoke to a German in the camp. All the orders, a Jew gave to a Jew, and a Jew to a Jew, until the end. And something even more terrible happened here, even more difficult: the death penalty. They tested many methods until they got to that famous method of gas chambers. From the moment the door of the gas chamber was closed, listen carefully, to the extent that today I am astonished. The last struggle of the victim began. The gas was poured into the chamber in a bucket. Whoever visited the camps saw how it was built. There was a bucket that was poured into a bucket, and the chamber was closed. It was from bottom to top.

8:49The calf is heavy from the air, it starts from the bottom, from the foot, and goes up. The victim fought for the last moments of his life, in order to try to catch a breath, to catch a bit of air. In the forest, the rest of the victims. His fight was not against the killer, but against another victim. That's how it happened. Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, a ten-year-old doctor who went to the hospital after his death. The bodies were lying on the wall, one on top of the other. It was a waste of sacrifices to throw one on top of the other in a crazy attempt to get rid of the gas. With that, the gas came up to them as well. What kind of struggle is there for a living? If only they had thought about their actions, they would have understood that they had led their children to their neighbors. And the doctor noticed that their movements did not reflect the instinct of survival. I noticed that the bodies of the women, the children, and the elderly were below the upper part of the stronger ones. You see, where was it?

10:08Not only did the victims kill themselves, but also within that last group, within that instinctive reflex, one fell on the other, and the stronger on the weaker, all died. But even within those clashes, they were forced to be worse than living beings. No, no, what kind of introduction is this? In no place. Although, when the Torah describes what is supposed to be during the time of destruction, this is the first Beit HaMikdash, this is the second Beit HaMikdash, the mother will be able to destroy them. It describes a struggle, and this is how it was during the time of the first Beit HaMikdash and the second Beit HaMikdash, struggles.

11:09of one against the other, and not just one, but hundreds against one another. He describes here the same man who worked in these doctors' camps, what he saw. People attacked a system, how do you call it, a planet, a different planet. He was one of the writers who described the biggest mistakes he ever made as a catechist. That's how my book is called. It's not over-educated. Rabbot wrote about everything that led to this process. And of course, here too, I went to the source, on Hitler himself and his brother, in his famous book translated into Hebrew, Mein Kampf (My Struggle), which appeared in two editions. There he presented the plan

12:34His dreams against the Jews. And it's interesting. What pushed him? He wrote it. And we'll give it a follow-up. And it also appears in a publication on the Holocaust in Te'ud, from Yad Vashem. translations from the book. And Hitler says something like this, my friends. There is something that is very dangerous to Germany, to you all, the Germans, and what is it? The Jews took over the Soviet Union, over Russia, and turned it into the Soviet Union. The Jews killed, that's how he writes, 30 million Russians in the revolution. They destroyed all the Russian elite. They left a primitive people so that the Jews could control them. They made the revolution. They

14:02want to make a revolution all over the world. For those who know, this is called the Communist International. Workers of all countries unite. This is the main motto of Mein Kampf. The country that came after Russia is Germany. And indeed, there was a time of the communist government, a short government in Germany, at that time. And then he writes, they want to deprive you. The method to deprive in every country, in every country, the elite, and then the Jews will rule the whole world. After all, we all know who did the revolution in Russia. Lenin was a figure, but whoever looks at the picture of the first political hero will see everything.

15:04The KGB, the previous name, the NKVD, all the other things were made by the Jews. The call for control over Russia was Trotsky's during the war. And the great man returned on purpose. On purpose. He surrendered to his Judaism and to the Jews. And he rebelled against the Russians. Of course, Rabotai, he saw it, he presented it, they accepted it. It was a thing with Kabbalists. In that short-term change of the communists and Germany, when they made invasions, they immediately started the same method of invasions as in Russia. There were Jews in the communists and the Germans. But if we go back, there is a study by Moshe Zimmerman on Wilhelm Marr, the patriarch of anti-Semitism. Maybe you have heard of Wilhelm Marr, one of the fathers who invented the word anti-Semitic. Wilhelm Marr. And there he speaks clearly, and I can show you all the fathers of modern anti-Semitism.

16:34On the Jewish sovereignty over Germanic life. In complete silence of the Germans. I will read a few verses. The free daily media is closed to us. You know, you have become your own monopoly. Yes, the holy freedom itself has become a Jewish monopoly. And he states here one significant thing. And that's how it was. The Jews took over all the media, the theater, the lawyers, the businessmen, the banks, everything. And then comes Meyer, Wilhelm Meyer, and says, we also want a little bit of equality of rights. Emancipation.

17:37That was the motto. For everyone. For shtarker, for treishtker. For everyone. Chachamim, zichronam livracha, limdu otanu: When you are in exile, when you are with the goyim, don't push. Don't push. And you won't control them. And it's obvious that you won't try them. You are in exile. The ghetto, writes Dr. Nahum Goldmann, the Jewish ghetto was created by Jews, not by goyim. Wherever Jews came, they wanted to be alone, to be themselves. The first ghetto

18:37When Jacob came to Egypt, he said to Pharaoh, "I want to live in the land of Goshen, far from the water, far from the heart. Not next to the armon, not in the place of the aristocracy, but to ourselves." This is how Israel's attitude was in the countries of the East and in the countries of the West, and so on. Because a Jew needs his area. the Knesset, and the mikveh, and the makolet, and the kashrut, and the tzniut, and in the first place, not to give up. Then he heard his holiness and his preaching. The Gaon Rav, he turned to the person who helped him to develop the economy. The Jews developed the economy everywhere in the world. From Spain, and then Poland, of course Germany. Until the Jews started taking Germany into their hands, it was a very complicated country. But, to keep the proportion, when the process of emancipation began, the equality of rights, you will know, my friends, you also learned about it in history, I will reveal to you another thing. War, war, equality of rights, all the Gedolei HaTorah are against emancipation, against equality of rights.

20:04It's not our country. It's not our religion. We don't want equality of rights. The things are written. I don't want them. We want to be distant. The same emancipation that Israel has is the opening to assimilation, to separation. And we have already experienced this. In Galut Mitzrayim, I mentioned to you, we read in the Haggadah, we read in the book of Shemot, "And it was said to Yosef, and everyone, and the whole generation saw, and the children of Israel were fruitful, and they increased abundantly, and they multiplied, and they grew exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled with them." They began to show off and to indulge in the Egyptian society. They began to work hard, said the prophet Yechezkel. They stopped saying the same thing. And what happened then? The same hatred of slavery began, which became a rift, which became a wall that was built for them, to the Rikud of Avodah Zarah in Egypt, which resulted in the fall of the Jewish people. So,

21:32that's what we read in the Haggadah. The same process. And there was a war. We fought and no one left the land. The Jews took over us. They took all the positions. They are wiser, more wise, more aggressive, they rule the business. On the contrary, to what Yaakov wanted in Eretz Goshen. From the moment they started to enter the ranks of the people of Egypt, says the book of Tehillim, he became a slave to his people. In the book of Yechezkel, the holy parashah is written, and he separated you from the nations to be mine. Am Yisrael needs to be separated; if not, he doesn't have the taste of his existence. And Rashi says in this place, if you are separated, you are mine. If not, you are Nebuchadnezzar and his friends. And what is wrong with you? So, what happened the first time in Egypt, 3,500 years ago, repeated itself in various versions, in Ashur, in Bavel, and everywhere else.

22:59One of the famous writers in Galut Sefarad, in 1492, Yosef Yaavetz, says, "I will go to my grave and reveal a secret. And I will tell you why there was such a revelation, such a revelation, such a revelation, which in 1492..." 300,000 Jews were exiled from Sefarad. 200,000 were exiled that day because they didn't want to be exiled. They wanted to stay alive. Why? It says, we came here to Sefarad 500 years ago. I am Merudim from Galut Bavel. Lack of language, lack of property. Slowly, slowly, we advanced. Slowly, slowly, we went up. We established centers of Torah. We began to advance in publishing. We began to raise the bar on the map.

24:24I think Sephardism was just a place to fight, to fight. The Lord was with us, that's what it says, and he died in that period. And we were saved. In all the fields. The golden age of Sephardic Judaism is in history. All the fields. But, in the last period, Those successful Jews started to reveal themselves. God stands against us. The ruling position: Isabella and Ferdinand. And that's why they betrayed us, especially in Portugal. Meaning, the wolf returns to itself. The Jews come from a poor family that preserves the Torah, preserves the mitzvot. It is also described in the sefer Meshech Chochmah, which was written in the 1920s, by Rabbi Meir Simcha HaKohen of Dvinsk, when no one dreamed about the Holocaust.

25:48By the way, at the beginning of the century, there was no anti-Semitism. The anti-Semitism that I describe is anti-Semitism at the end of the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, there was no anti-Semitism in Germany. It happened in the West. The period is called in history the period of self-hatred. The period of self-hatred is the period when the Jews wrote against themselves things that were worse than what the great ones wrote about them. This is how it is written in history. He says, in a sense, Rabbi Meir Simcha. Everywhere we went, he says, we were in the beginning complete with ourselves, with our faith, with our God. We advanced. And then comes a time, a period, that we are already here, and we want to begin to develop. And today they say, he writes, that Berlin is Jerusalem. that we are already here, and we want to begin to develop. And today they say, he writes, that Berlin is Jerusalem. This is known to all of you. The Reform Movement, which was established at the beginning of the 19th century, in 1805, studied from the recordings

27:16Jerusalem and the Land of Israel. They changed the language from Hebrew to German, and from the United States to English. And instead of praying, they called it a Temple. A Temple is a Temple. And they said Frankfurt is Jerusalem. Berlin is Jerusalem. This is the Temple. To build more of a Temple, we will never return to the Land of Israel and not to Jerusalem. This is a fantasy, the collection of roots. That's how he writes. And you all know it. But he says, come quickly with joy. In a short time, a minister will come to you with the roots and prove to you that Jerusalem is Jerusalem. And Berlin will never be Jerusalem.

28:16Because that's how it was in all the previous times. And yet, it's not the time to estimate, but look at all the data. Since the Jews received emancipation, during a short period of time, huge parts of Berlin, lands, went under their control. units, judges, everything. Economy. In a short time. And contrary to the Torah, you certainly heard about Moshe Mendelssohn. He's called the father of the Haskalah. All of his sons became Christians. They got married. His son didn't convert, but the son who converted to Christianity was the famous king, Mendelssohn. His hatred and hatred for him caused Wagner to write his famous book. Therefore, the argument is always, yes Wagner, no Wagner, yes concerts, no concerts.

29:46The entire anti-Semitic book of Wagner is personally directed against Mendelssohn. In other words, there was a certain development here in Germany, mainly, a certain development. that he brought, and our sages warned him. They wrote in the newspapers, they spoke in lectures. And you want me to give you more proofs? Every person who didn't see him would have seen it. In the beginning of the war, Hitler and his brothers took over the government. On April 1st, 1933, I read to you from the book of Yad Vashem, the authentic document, translated into Hebrew. It is called The First Order of April 1st, the announcement of the National Socialist Party. Indeed, the announcement in all of Germany. On April 1st, all the stores of the Jews were closed.

31:18In front of every store stood two people, the Gestapo, the SS, and they said that no one would enter the store. But in no way to harm the Jews. These are the instructions. Not in the store, not in the stores, economic violence. Until when? Until the new order. Why? The Cherem is a way to protect the German work. Lod and Araz are not about murderers. Not about murderers. Simple things. The Cherem begins. I'm calling you from here. The Cherem begins suddenly on Shabbat, the 1st of April, at 10. and he would continue to fight until the party would stop. The war was decided in all of Germany. One German did not break the war. And on the other hand, because of Shabbat, there was no violence between the two sides of Germany. It happened. On November 11,

32:45And this is the responsible procedure so that the whole process does not take place in complete silence, in complete silence. Even for my father, he did not get a single hair cut from a Jew's head. That's how it was. The ceremony was very successful. The ceremony was canceled. The trial, as they called it here, the trial of kelim, was successful. What did the Jews have to see? Why is it only on Shabbat? Sorry. The rabbis said to them, "Rabbis, if you don't want to keep the Shabbat, G-d will show you. Understand the truth. But there is a law and there is a halacha." Do you want to see another issue? Well, here you go. Among the first laws, there were the Nuremberg Laws, which you all know. The Nuremberg Laws. What did the Nuremberg Laws say? Every great nation wants to rule over the small nation. That's how it happened. Very few Jews remained in the great Germany.

34:13who were not molested. In the book of Nuremberg, they say that it is forbidden for any Jew to marry a German. And of course, the opposite is true. It is called the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, September 15th, 1935. Two. Jews are not allowed to enter the house of their countrywomen, who have German blood, who are under the age of 45. Do you hear? Not just to get married. You can't be with a Jewish man in a Jewish family, with a German wife at home. What is written on the table is written in the Nuremberg Law. Excuse me.

35:15Why did they rebel at Nuremberg? They didn't tell the Jews to go to hell and take their money. Here is the quote. Here is the whole law, the famous Nuremberg Laws, which call them the Laws of Geza. Just, excuse me, they will tell you in the books.