What Did Most Jews Do When Hitler Came to Power (Rav Avigdor Miller zt'l)

1:29or break down the Semite, so maybe he'll disregard Haman's advice. But Haman came and he proposed to the king that we should destroy the nation of Israel. Haman came and advised him to destroy the nation of Israel, and the king took off his ring from his finger And he placed his ring on the hand of a woman. An unprecedented thing to do with the king's ring. It meant, do as you desire. And it was like an earthquake in the Jewish world. The Jewish people were shocked. And what did they do? They erupted in response with outcries, fasting, and praying to Hashem. All over. but they were crying out to Hashem, the God of their hearts, a national outcry. Now, let's understand. This outcry was planned and intended by HaKadosh Baruch Hu. In one place, Rashi says, why is there such a thing as illness?

2:56Illness is for the purpose that people should cry out to Hashem. When troubles come, they're reminded of crying out to Hashem. So, one of the purposes of illness, as she says, is to induce people to cry out to Hashem. That's a tremendous benefit. To cry out to Hashem is a tremendous benefit. Hashem is Shomea Mimarom. He is up in the heavens. Laila is a yesod maskil. Isn't there a wise man down below? There is this other king who is thinking about me. He looks down and says, is anybody thinking about me? Not everybody is thinking about us. We are good people. And therefore, sometimes he sends troubles to Laila. We should think about it. In those days, Malka was a leader. He banged on the doors of the Hadoh, Moshivos Ketanot. He banged on the doors and he said, take out the children and let them all cry out to Hashem. The children, the entire Jewish nation, cried out to Hashem. It was an event of the utmost importance. You know, one of the expressions of Tefillah is "Vayechal," we pray to Hashem. It signifies fervent supplication.

4:23It's a curious word. Where does it come from, and what does it mean? Ayatollah is like a pitchfork. You want to pick up the straw with a pitchfork. You turn it upside down and turn the earth upside down. When you pray to Hashem with very great fervor, then you can reverse the situation. The evil decree can be overturned. We have to cry out because of it. And he cried out so long, from the bottom of their hearts, that Hashem turned it upside down. From the tragedy, the most terrible tragedy, it became a great simcha that every year Jews celebrated with the most wild happiness. The worst tragedy turned into the wildest happiness for the holiest day of the year. And how did it happen? Well, they cried out to us. I want to say something. Not everyone likes to hear this. I was in Europe just before Hitler came into Russia, Lithuania, and Poland. I was there. And the yeshivas—they were frightened to death. The yeshivas were mispalelim, they cried out to us. But how big were the yeshivas compared to the general population?

5:52Nothing. I was up in the ocean. The general population did not come together to cry out to Hashem. Why not? Everybody read the newspapers. And the newspapers were all run by atheists. All the newspapers. There were very many newspapers. I was there. There was one full newspaper, the one she was talking about, from the Gerer Chassidim. But otherwise, there are so many wicked newspapers. Rabbi Yisacharim said, of course, in the newspapers, in a single house, they won't find their mess. A mess means somebody is spoiled. People are spoiled. The public was ruined by the newspaper. And there was no outcry. Come together, a public fast. The newspapers weren't charged. Didn't enter their mind. Atheists! So cry out to Hashem. They all wrote against Hitler. They made him more angry. The newspapers. Those letters, editorials, articles against Hitler. They didn't say one word about crying out to Hashem. Hashem said, look, I'm trying to make them wake up. That's what happened. That's what happened.

7:21Had they cried out to Hashem, it wouldn't have happened. It wouldn't have happened. The purpose was to cry out to Hashem. That's the purpose of silence that was there. To cry out to Hashem. Anyhow, in those moments, it would have been the same thing. Only they cried out. They cried out. They cried out. But that's the awkward denial of... I wished for a long time to live faster. Now, Hashem heard and said, all right, I accomplished my purpose. I don't need any soldiers. From now on, I'm going to give my nice big suit as a reward. A nice proper suit I'm going to give as a reward. And then things started happening as a result of my crying out.