Writing A Psak Halacha During Holocaust (Rav Ephraim Oshry)

0:08I'll finish with a story, and then you can ask any questions you want. However, many of the Holocaust stories that I try to share with you—which I hear from my Rav or read in books—are usually not well-known for various reasons. It seems that Am Yisrael only likes to mark Memorial Day for the Holocaust in theory, as very few actually read about it today. Some of the tzaddikim that died during the Holocaust, whether it's Rav Elchonon Wasserman or many of the other tzaddikim that we've spoken about in the past, they actually provide an incredible testimony of not only what happened there, but also what's written in the Torah about the neshamah of a Jew. Rav Ephraim Oshry, he lived through the Holocaust and wrote a comprehensive five-volume book about halachic decisions he passed in the concentration camps. Now, my Rav told me some of these halachot that he judged on. I'm telling you, it's like having a beit din in Gehenom.

1:39Horrible, horrendous stories of what people went through and how they were tortured. I'll give you a small example: One guy comes to the Rav — and this is for the love of the Rav — the Nazis, yimach shemam vezikhrom, said that anybody who goes to... goes to the shul because they lived in a place that wasn't precisely a barracks; it was like a mini city but still surrounded by the Nazis. Any Jew that went to the synagogue could be punished. Some died, and 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 in front of the family, in front of the kids. And he 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 Kohen, he says. I'm a Kohen. Am I still allowed to do Birkat Kohanim? Because it says the Kohen cannot be a Ba'al Mum. Cannot have a deformity.

3:05Can I have a deformity? But all right, I'm already suffering. I'm already not going to have any more kids. I'm already in Gehinnom already. But can I still, at least, be allowed to do Birkat Kohanim legitimately? Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin wrote a whole halachic response, mamash, that he's allowed. Who can have the mind, the clear mindset and focus to write 50 or 100 different sources to prove that this is allowed? To go against all these challenges, I mean, things like that when you're surrounded by gehinnom, all types of vicious things, and you see amazing things. One of the things that he writes about is that they asked him another question. They said, Kefar Arav, the Nazis say that we're not allowed to go to synagogue. Can we be absolved from this mitzvah? Because they said that anybody that goes, they're going to kill him. So Rav Oshi writes on Halacha and he says, even though we have three things in the Torah, three things, that the Torah says, die but don't sin.

4:21If somebody tells you to go worship an idol, you must die rather than commit that sin. Similarly, if someone demands that you kill another person, you must choose death over committing the murder. Your life is not more valuable than theirs. Additionally, if someone commands you to commit a sexual crime, you must die rather than sin. These are the three main transgressions. However, the Torah specifies that this applies during normal times. When it's one-on-one, if a goy puts a gun to your head and says, drive on Shabbat or I will kill you, you're allowed to drive. However, if someone tells you to go to a church or they will kill you, you are not allowed; you would have to die. But that's only when it's one-on-one. If it's in front of people, or it's Sha'at Hashmad—a time when there is a decree on the world and they are destroying Jews everywhere, killing people everywhere—Rav Oshri says that even for a minhag, you would have to die. A minhag. What's a minhag? The Rambam says if there's a minhag to tie your right shoe, and then your left shoe. And the Goyim say, if you tie your right shoe, and then your left shoe first, I'm going to kill you. Go with the left shoe first. You have to go with the right shoe anyway, even though your life's on the line. Why? Because it's Sha'at Hashmad. So Rabbi Oshri says,

5:38Even though going to shul is not De'oraita, it's not a biblical mitzvah. Because it's sha'at hashmad, 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 shul? Who are the ones that made the biggest sacrifices to go to shul? You and I would answer logically: all the tzaddikim, all the religious. They all... Maybe they weren't religious before. They're religious now, right? He gives a chidush of all chidushim, rabotai. He says the ones who would literally put their lives on the line, fighting to go to shul, were the ones that used to be kofrim. The hilonim. The secular. They literally died just to go to shul. He says, this doesn't make any sense. You didn't go to shul before the Holocaust. You were married to goyot, you were married to goyim. Why are you going to shul here? Nevertheless, why are you putting your life on the line? He says, this proves to us that every Jew, no matter where he was, has a nitzotz, has a spark in him of Kedusha that at the moment of truth, he could implement it. He could push it. He could actually shine.

6:57Not everybody, but some of them allowed that spark to shine at that moment of truth. And that's why anyone who wants to say that all six million died al kiddush Hashem, no one argues. It's not just because of the tragedy. of six million Jews dying, but you could literally learn about them, where you know that every single one of them who was in the concentration camps, who saw the horrors—especially after you see with your own eyes what they went through, you learn about it, you read about it—no one is going to remain indifferent 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 an extended period of time. But you see that at the moment of truth, the Jews were literally willing to die just to go to Bet Knesset. This book is mamash unbelievable. It's five volumes. I'm learning it with my Rav a little bit.

8:05It's something that's, 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. He's in it also with them. How do you have a yeshuv ha'da'at? How do you have focus to write all these sources? There's bullets everywhere. There's people dying every day. This is kedusha, Rabotai.