Today is Yom HaShoah.
There's a great deal I don't know about the contents of the Jewish history books of the next century or the next millennium. But I know this much. Everything that has happened in our lifetimes will be nothing but a footnote to the Shoah.
Hopefully the State of Israel will have some significance in the history books as well.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I have found that dwelling on the Holocaust to have a negative influence on my mental, physical and even spiritual health.
ReplyDeleteI do not read books or watch films about the Holocaust. I know that it was horrible, and I agree with Dennis Prager who said that however horrible you think the Holocaust was, it was worse. I opposed having my kids visit the death camps in Poland, I don't see any value in them. Generations of Jews observed Tisha B'av and identified with the destruction of the two Batei HaMikdash without ever seeing photos, hearing first-person strories or visiting the killing fields the Romans made.
Rav Eliezer Berkovits makes a very good theological point in his book "Faith After the Holocaust" when he says, that as far as G-d is concerned and our lack of understanding of why good people suffer, there is no difference if ONE innocent person suffers or millions (as opposed to the problem of "hillul Hashem" and Israel being "am segulah" and yet being so humiliated and ground down). In spite of that, the enormity of it all is just overwhelming. I just don't see how delving further and further into the details is going to make me a better person.
Good blog poost
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