Tuesday, July 22, 2008

As the Trains Left For Auschwitz, Where Was God?

Prof. Halivni (himself a Holocaust survivor) has devoted a new book to this topic. Alan Nadler reviews the book here.

Perhaps the following quote would not be inappropriate:

Indeed the Book of Job avowedly only answers mystery with mystery. Job is comforted with riddles; but he is comforted. Herein is indeed a type, in the sense of a prophecy, of things speaking with authority. For when he who doubts can only say 'I do not understand,' it is true that he who knows can only reply or repeat 'You do not understand.' And under that rebuke there is always a sudden hope in the heart; and the sense of something that would be worth understanding.

G. K. Chesterton - The Everlasting Man

Or:

The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man

2 comments:

pashute said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
pashute said...

Yisrael Azim Shebaumot.

What would have been the Jewish attitude in Palestine, if there was no Holocaust. If the Arabs continued uprising against the Jews, but the British continued assisting the Zionist movement, since it was a counter force to the Arabs, and because the Anglican church believed that this was a stage before the anti-Christ. What would have been the Jewish attitude if instead of Hitler, there was a German nationalist government, that signed a treaty with England, succeeded a fast blitz on Russia, and fought communism and "the Jews" sending all Jews to "exile" in Palestine.

Who would be listening to the Weitzmann's, Magness, or Sturman of the time (each with a bit different ideology, but all pacifist in their way)?

What would happen following a 1939 replica of the 1929 massacre in Hebron? I'm not only asking how the revizionistim would behave. I'm asking how would the ex-communist extremists behave (ie. Henrietta Szold etc.)

What would the IDF look like today, and would there be any hope of improvement?

I'm not saying this is an answer to the question above. It IS though an answer to the question of human behavior, and we Jews are human just as well. We are also special. We were at the time a subdued and hated nation wherever we were dispersed. And at the same time leading intellectuals and - similar to women's position in that era, extremely skilled and powerful in pulling the strings on the backstage.

 
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