Kinot Prep 2022

[8:06 AM, 8/7/2022] Jacob Bernstein: אַאֲדֶה עַד חוּג שָׁמַיִם. אַאֲלֶה אִתִּי שָׁמַיִם. אָאֹר יוֹם מַחֲרִיבִי פַּעֲמַיִם. אֶתְאוֹנֵן מִי יִתֵּן רֹאשִׁי מַיִם:
[8:07 AM, 8/7/2022] Jacob Bernstein: Manager
Desert - the original purposeless cries that led to today’s destruction
[8:12 AM, 8/7/2022] Jacob Bernstein: וּכְתִיב: ״וַתִּשָּׂא כׇּל הָעֵדָה וַיִּתְּנוּ אֶת קוֹלָם וַיִּבְכּוּ הָעָם בַּלַּיְלָה הַהוּא״, אָמַר רַבָּה אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן: אוֹתוֹ לַיְלָה לֵיל תִּשְׁעָה בְּאָב הָיָה. אָמַר לָהֶם הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא: אַתֶּם בְּכִיתֶם בְּכִיָּה שֶׁל חִנָּם — וַאֲנִי קוֹבֵעַ לָכֶם בְּכִיָּה לְדוֹרוֹת.
[8:13 AM, 8/7/2022] Jacob Bernstein: Don’t get past the Alef in every paragraph - so much to cry and complain and call out about, can’t get past the first letter - could stay here all day.
[8:14 AM, 8/7/2022] Jacob Bernstein: That said, at bash - beginning and end - total loss and total despair.
[8:17 AM, 8/7/2022] Jacob Bernstein: אֶדְאַג אַיֵּה רוֹעֶה וְלֹא אֶמְצָאֵהוּ.
Where is our Shepard. We rely on Him and come at this kinah with a challenge - we don’t understand how these difficult moments have happened - going to read and hear about - looking for our Shepard
[8:18 AM, 8/7/2022] Jacob Bernstein: אֱיָלוּתִי לְעֶזְרָתִי תַּרְתִּי חֲזוֹת. אֲיוּמָתִי בְּכָל שָׁנָה אוֹמֶרֶת הִיא הַשָּׁנָה הַזֹּאת. אֲיַדַּע לַכֹּל כִּי מוּדַעַת זֹאת. אִם לֹא כִּי יַד יְיָ עָשְׂתָה זֹאת:
LORD, I asked for Your help, every year my people say that this will be the year, but I will let all know that I am aware of their plight “That the hand of the LORD has done this”.
[8:19 AM, 8/7/2022] Jacob Bernstein: Yerushalmi Yoma 1:1 the phrase:
כל דור שאינו נבנה בימיו מעלין עליו כאילו הוא החריבו
Any generation in which [the Temple] was not rebuilt in their days, They consider it upon them as if they destroyed it
[8:20 AM, 8/7/2022] Jacob Bernstein: In each generation in which the Temple isn't rebuilt, it's as if it was destroyed anew". כל דור שלא נבנה בית המקדש בימיו, כאילו נחרב בימיו.
[8:20 AM, 8/7/2022] Jacob Bernstein: Personal responsibility
[8:20 AM, 8/7/2022] Jacob Bernstein: Day of Teshuva
[8:21 AM, 8/7/2022] Jacob Bernstein: Chasam Sofer
[8:21 AM, 8/7/2022] Jacob Bernstein: יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵעֵת בִּדְרָכַי לֹא הָלָכוּ. עֲזָבוּנִי וַעֲזַבְתִּים וּפָנַי מֵהֶם נֶהְפָּכוּ. רָגַנְתִּי וְהֵילַלְתִּי וּמֵעַי וְלִבִּי נִשְׁפָּכוּ. אֵיכָה תִּפְאַרְתִּי מֵרַאֲשׁוֹתַי הִשְׁלִיכוּ:
(God responds) Since the time Israel has not followed my ways, left Me so I left them and turned My face from them; I grieved and crieded, my bowels and my heart poured out. How they have torn My glorious crown from My head.
[8:22 AM, 8/7/2022] Jacob Bernstein: Imo Anochi Btzarah - we need to bring it back because the manager is in mourning too
[10:15 AM, 8/7/2022] Jacob Bernstein: Holocaust Kinah

[11:16 AM, 8/7/2022] Jacob Bernstein: Rabbi Tzvi Hersch Meisels
[11:16 AM, 8/7/2022] Jacob Bernstein: Im a very tired, old and worn out man
And my eyes have long been blind
Most things that people say to me
Just seem to slip my mind
Oh but the suffering and painful times
That were in years long gone
Are still as clear upon my memory
As the numbers on my arm
"What will become of all the memories
Are they to scatter with the dust in the breeze
And who will stand before the world
Knowing what to say
When the very last survivor--fades away"
When i hold my grandson close to me
And his fingers trace the pattern of my tears
He asks me granpa, tell me why do you cry
What is it that you fear
And i tell him there once was another child
Who smelled as sweet and felt as warm
But he was taken from before my eyes
And only i remain to mourn
"What will become of all the memories
Are they to scatter with the dust and the breeze
And who will stand before a world
That now wishes to deny
How will they believe in someone
Who never heard the cries"
[11:19 AM, 8/7/2022] Jacob Bernstein: It was in Mauthausen, shortly after liberation. The camp was visited by Rabbi Eliezer Silver, head of Agudat Harabbanim (Union of Orthodox Rabbis of North America), on a mission to offer aid and comfort to the survivors. Rabbi Silver also organized a special service, and he invited Wiesenthal to join the other survivors in prayer. Wiesenthal declined, and explained why.
“In the camp,” Wiesenthal said to Rabbi Silver, “there was one religious man who somehow managed to smuggle in a siddur (prayerbook). At first, I greatly admired the man for his courage—that he’d risked his life in order to bring the siddur in. But the next day I realized, to my horror, that this man was ‘renting out’ this siddur to people in exchange for food. People were giving him their last piece of bread for a few minutes with the prayerbook. This man, who was very thin and emaciated when the whole thing started, was soon eating so much that he died before everyone else—his system couldn’t handle it.”
He continued: “If this is how religious Jews behave, I’m not going to have anything to do with a prayerbook.”
As Wiesenthal turned to walk away, Rabbi Silver touched him on the shoulder and gently said in Yiddish, “Du dummer (you silly man). Why do you look at the Jew who used his siddur to take food out of starving people’s mouths? Why don’t you look at the many Jews who gave up their last piece of bread in order to be able to use a siddur? That’s faith. That’s the true power of the siddur.” Rabbi Silver then embraced him.
“I went to the services the next day,” said Wiesenthal.
[11:20 AM, 8/7/2022] Jacob Bernstein: Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Meisels relates the following incident in his Introduction to Responsa Mekadshei Hashem:
On the eve of Rosh Hashana (5705/1944), they rounded up and took ... 1400 boys to an isolated, closed block (at Auschwitz). The next day, the first day of Rosh Hashana, the rumor spread through the whole camp that in the evening the youths would be taken to the furnace. Many people in the camp had an only son among these youths, the only child left to them ... and all that day they ran in confusion around the closed block, in the hope that perhaps they could catch some glimmer of light to save their precious son from there...
A simple Jew came and said to me: "Rabbi! My only son is in there among the boys condemned to the furnace, and it is within my power to purchase his release. Since it is known to us, without any doubt, that they will take someone else in his place, I present before you a halachic decision. Tell me what the law is according to the Torah. Am I allowed to redeem him? I shall act according to your decision."
When I heard this question, the thought of rendering a decision on the matter of life and death caused me to tremble. I replied: "My dear friend, how can I give a clear-cut ruling on a question like this? When the Temple was standing, a question like this would have been brought before the Sanhedrin. And I am here in Auschwitz, without a single book of halacha (Jewish law), without other rabbis, and without a calm and settled mind, due to the many disasters and troubles. If it were the practice of these wicked ones to first release the redeemed one, and afterwards to take another in his place, there would be some room to lean toward a permissive [ruling]..."
But the man wept greatly, and begged me very much. He said to me: "Rabbi, you must tell me the halacha now." I in turn pleaded with him: "Release me from this question, for I cannot tell you anything at all." But he continued to beg me, saying, "Rabbi, does that mean that you do not permit me to redeem my only son? If so -- I accept the ruling with love."
I pleaded with him and objected to his inference, but he went on begging me and trying to make me give him a clear answer. When he saw that I stood my ground and did not want to give a halachic ruling, he answered me with emotion and with tremendous inspiration:
"Rabbi, I have done my duty as the Torah requires me to do. I brought my question before the rabbi. There is no other rabbi here. If His Honor, the rabbi, cannot answer that it is permitted for me to redeem my child, that is a sign that he is not completely sure that the halacha permits [it]. If it were permissible without any doubts, certainly you would tell me so. To me this means that according to the halacha it is forbidden to me. I accept this with love and joy, and I shall not do anything to redeem him, because that is what the Torah commanded..."
All my pleadings to him not to put the responsibility on me were to no avail. He only repeated what he had said, with heartrending weeping. He fulfilled his words, and did not redeem his son. That whole day, Rosh Hashana, he walked and spoke to himself joyfully, saying that he merited to sacrifice his only son to God, since even though it was in his power to redeem him, he would not, seeing that the Torah did not permit him to do such a thing. This would be considered by the Holy One, Blessed is He, like the Binding of our Father Isaac, which also had taken place on Rosh Hashana. (Cited in Ani Ma'amin, pp. 63-64. Another eye-witness account of this incident is recorded in Zichron Kedoshim, p. 380.).