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The Nazi regime in Germany was basically anti-religion and anti-God so to speak. It was not a random event that synagogues were destroyed and scrolls of Torah were desecrated. The Jewish people represented and still represent faith and awe of the Almighty. Individual Jews, even though millions of them may have abandoned Jewish practice and even faith, were nevertheless caught in the net of the Jewish faith and tradition, of Torah. Hitler stated that the Jewish problem was genetic and not one of individual behavior. Most of the Jews in Germany were assimilated, proud Germans who placed their Germaness over their Jewish ancestry. But Jewishness can never be separated from Torah and if there were Jews who did not understand this, the Nazis certainly did. Kristallnacht was the attack against Judaism, against Torah, against God Himself, so to speak. Jews were always persecuted not for their own personal behavior or human failings but for the faith and value system that they represented. Judaism was the antithesis of all that Naziism and its barbarism stood for. And therefore Kristallnacht marks the beginning of that all out war against Judaism, the Jewish people, Torah and the God of Israel. And we can say of Kristallnacht what the great martyr of Roman times, Rabi Chanina ben Tradyon said of the scroll of Torah in which he was wrapped and burned alive "The scrolls and parchment may burn to ashes but the letters of the Torah still float in the air." The synagogues and Torahs of the Jews of Germany were reduced to ashes and the Jews were killed but the words and values of Torah and the souls of the murdered still float in the air giving the world still no rest and raising matters of conscience.
Kristallnacht demands of us to strengthen our ties to the Torah and Judaism and to stand strong on behalf of the values and lives of Jews the world over and in defense of the Jewish state. It is tragic beyond words that Hitler should gain posthumous victory over Torah and the Jewish people. Saying "never again" is wishful and in itself impractical. Only actions and constructive efforts can guarantee "never again" as a reality. Every Jew has a responsibility to one’s self and to one’s family future as well as to Jewish history and destiny to strengthen one’s attachment to Judaism and the Jewish people. The fires of Kristallnacht must be converted to the fire of Judaism and Jewish life within the souls of the Jewish people. Fire destroys and fire warms, it can be constructive or destructive. Those choices really remain with us and Kristallnacht and its events focus our attention on these choices. May the memory of Kristallnacht light the fire of a greater Jewish future within all of us.
Ein Aya Why Donate a Kiddush?! Life of Greatness With Israel or Life of Smallness Alone
Ein Aya, Shabbat 2, 283
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Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
