As Israel’s annual nationwide Yom Hashoah siren blared in memory of the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis, a Holocaust survivor was serving as sandak at his great-grandson’s bris – a poke in the eye to those who tried ridding the world of Jews.
R’ Nosson Weinberg, a 90-year-old survivor of the Holocaust’s atrocities, immigrated from Europe to the United States following World War II, where he rebuilt his life and family before making aliyah several years ago.
The child from today’s bris was named Nachshon Eitan Asher, and is the R’ Nosson’s 49th great-granchild.
“When asked what my answer is to the Nazis, I always answer that I have four daughters – three here in Efrat and one still in the US,” he said after making aliyah.
The bris was purposely scheduled to coincide at the exact same time as the Yom Hashoah sirens were set to sound.
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12 Responses
Thank you for your helpful headline, YWN. Without it, I would not have know that I should cry when reading this heartrending story.
Am Yisrael Chai!
Can someone explain what significance there is to Yom hashoa?
Like, I know it means holocaust day, but what significance does it have that random people at best (and horrible anti semites at worst) made a random day to sound sirens and why would that have any extra meaning, to add to the already very meaningful moment.
?
Good health and years with his family. This is the answer to all that happened. Family, Family, Family.
Beautiful,
He should have many more descendants
Speachless
My uncle, a”h, was a Holocaust survivor, as were my mother and my two aunts. He passed away last year at age 90 still with the number on his arm. He was known for his warmth and kindness in his Shul, particularly to the little children. His favorite saying when seeing the children playing was “we won”. He admitted that the Bnai Yisroel suffered terrible casualties in the Shoah, including his parents and two older brothers, but had the zchus to live long enough to see a strong State of Israel and millions of Jewish children learning more Torah throughout the world than ever before. Pity that he was niftar before his granddaughter got married earlier this year.
“a Holocaust survivor was serving as sandak at his great-grandson’s bris – a poke in the eye to those who tried ridding the world of Jews.”
This borders on heresy.
Let’s review, as Rav Miller pointed out in his sefer on the Holocaust. Hashem runs Klal Yisrael on a system of sichar viOnesh. Leading up to WW II, there was a massive defection from Torah. Entire towns became haskala towns, etc. There were people who were singing the Zionist “national” anthem as they entered through the gates of Auschwitz.
Hitler and the Nazis, while obviously liable for the genocidal murder they committed against the Jews (which the Zionists only made worse in so many ways), are just the “stick” that Hashem used to punish Klal Yisrael, as Rav Elchonon noted. He wrote that the two idols that Jews worshipped in that time (pre-WW II) were Nationalism (Zionism) and Socialism. So Hashem sent the Nazi beast – Nazi is a shortened form of, of course, Nationalist Socialist – as a “stick” to chastise Klal Yisrael, which culminated in the Holocaust in all its horror.
So “poking the eye” of those who tried to kill Jews is no different than attempting to punish a stick for hitting rather than the wielder of that stick.
On a related note, it is all the more ironic that this bris happened on the Zionist-invented propaganda day that – not only totally ignores Zionist “mischief” during the Holocaust but also – (mis)uses that Holocaust to promote today the same Zionist idolatry that led up to that Holocaust.
@Hakatan:
Regardless of whether or not we accept the presentation of cause and effect that you wrote — keeping in mind that many gedolim felt that giving reasons for v the Holocaust was impossible to do — I
believe there is no contradiction between the statement in the article and the view you attribute to Rav Miller zt”l.
When Hashem utilizes a nation as a “rod of punishment”, that nation is still acting with free will and is responsible for its tremendous crimes against the Jewish people. The article was stating as many have before that Jewish continuity and specifically continued connection to Torah and Mitzvos – the 2 concepts the Nazis wished to eradicate – serve as a thwarting of their evil plan. The fact that ultimately the Ribono shel Olam utilized them for His master plan is no contradiction to this statement. This is similar to the Rashi on כאשר יענו אותו כן ירבה וכן יפרוץ. Important nuance is oftentimes missing in statements that are made in this forum.
@hakatan
Well said.
I would go even further, maybe a different day…..
@ych:
I didn’t spell out the exact cause and effect. Gedolim, like the Satmar Rav, Rav Elchonon and Rav Miller, differed somewhat on the exact cause or causes, though all clearly viewed this as “schar viOnesh”.
Also, I already wrote that the Nazis were absolutely responsible for their tremendous crimes against the Jews, as you indicated.
But spiritual achievements, like “continued connection to Torah and Mitzvos” are not “a poke in the eye to those who tried ridding the world of Jews”, because, in essence, they were merely the stick and sticks don’t have eyes. Not to mention that those “sticks” are long dead by now, B”H.
In other words, even if the Nazis specifically targeted our religion, it doesn’t matter. Other than their responsibility for their atrocities (and they’re surely burning in a very special place in Hell now), since the Nazis were (seemingly) human, the Nazis were, as far as we are concerned, merely a stick.