Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler. Michtav Me'Eliyahu, vol IV, pp. 124-5 - Assimilation
"It is clear that the era of the Emancipation was given to us by God to serve as a time for preparation for the coming of Moshiach. To this end, the yoke of exile was eased from upon us... But we used the situation to mix with the Gentiles and imitate them. The process of assimilation has been progressing at an ever-quickening rate, and yet the disaster has not overtaken us until now. This is because the Holy One Blessed Be Her delays His anger. He does not punish until we have reached the limit and there is no longer hope that kindness will lead to improvement."
Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky, Achiezer, vol. III (Vilna 1939) - Reform
"The whole Jewish People drowns in rivers of blood and seas of tears. In the Western countries, the Reform Movement has struck at the roots, and from there [i.e. Germany] the evil has gone forth now, to pursue them with wrath, to destroy them and expunge them. They [i.e. the non-Orthodox] have caused the poison of hatred against our people to spread to other lands as well.
Despite all this, the people have not yet understood of why they are so persecuted, they have been struck by blindness..."
Rav Yoel Teitelbaum, Va'Yoel Moshe - Zionism
"No one takes note of the fact that six million Jews were killed because of these [Zionist] groups, who drew the hearts of the nation [to their cause] and violated the oath of hastening the end by claiming sovereignty and freedom before the time... the very beginning of their establishment for many years they "informed" terribly on the Jews to the nations, and spoke of them badly to the authorities, as though [the Jews] were highly dangerous to the nations and they had to be expelled from their countries, [which the Zionists did] thinking that it would thereby be easier for them to carry out their scheme to come to the land of Israel and to organize a government there.
We saw already then, in their letters, that great rabbis were greatly, deathly fearful that they [the Zionists'] would bring about that which, for our many sins, did come to be afterwards."
Rabbi Shlomo Teichtel, Em Ha-Banim Semeichah pp. 95-96 - The decline that precedes Redemption
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Greatness and prosperity generally develop following the despair which is caused by enormous calamity. The same is true of “existence,” for one of its four causes is “the absence” which precedes it. Accordingly, Chazal (our Sages) state, “[The chick] grows when [the egg] decays” (Temurah 31a). This explains how we, the Chosen Nation, have declined so drastically in the exile before reaching a state of tranquility and security. The last descent has been extremely difficult, proportionate to the absolute and everlasting good that will sprout after it. Hence, the Talmud (Megillah 16a) states that when the Jews descend, they descend to the dust, but from there they ascend, as it says, “He lowers it to the dust” (Yeshayah/Isaiah 26:5), and, “Our soul is bowed down to the dust…Arise, assist us” (Tehillim/Psalms 44:26-27). According to this, it is natural that there be a great “absence” before our great “existence,” as is the case with all existence. In historical terms, the Holocaust was a nullification of the reality of life in exile – in fact, an absolute loss of life – in order that a new form of existence could arise, namely, national existence in Eretz Yisrael." |
Eliezer Berkovitz, Faith After the Holocaust - Hester Panim & Free Will
"Not for a single moment shall we entertain the idea that what happened to European Jewry was divine punishment for any sins committed by them. It was injustice absolute. It was injustice countenanced by God. But if we hold onto our faith in a personal God, such absolute injustice cannot be a mere mishap in the divine scheme of things. Somehow there must be room for it in the scheme in which case the ultimate responsibility for this ultimate evil must be God's."
"Such is God. He is a God who hides himself. Man may seek him and he will not be found; man may call to him and he may not answer. God's hiding his face in this case is not a response to man, but a quality of being assumed by God on his own initiative... God does not determine in advance that one person be a Tzadik (a righteous person), and another a Rasha (a wicked person). But unless the possibility existed for a man to be a Rasha, if he so desires, one could not only not be a Rasha, one could not be a Tzadik either. For one can only be a Tzadik as a result of responsible choices made in the freedom of available alternatives. Where the choice is nonexistent, where the possibility of becoming a Rasha is not open to man, the possibility of becoming a Tzadik too has been excluded...
God cannot as a rule intervene whenever man's use of freedom displeases him. It is true, if he did so the perpetration of evil would be rendered impossible, but so would the possibility for good disappear. Man can be frightened; but he cannot be bludgeoned into goodness. If God did not respect man's freedom to choose his course in personal responsibility, not only would the moral good and evil be abolished from the earth, but man himself would go with them. For freedom and responsibility are the very essence of man. Without them man is not human. If there is to be man, he must be allowed to make his choices in freedom. If he has such freedom, he will use it. Using it, he will often use it wrongly; he will decide for the wrong alternative. As he does so, there will be suffering for the innocent."
Neusner, Faith Renewed, article by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, “The Holocaust In The Context Of Judaism,” p. 47 – Never a victim.
"But there was a further Jewish response to suffering, different in kind from those we have considered. It was best expressed by Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, who discerned two different stances through which evil could be experienced, one passive, the other active. Man suffers: he is an object to whom things happen. But he also acts: he is a subject through whom things happen. As object, he asks “Why has this happened?” As subject, he asks a different question: “What then shall I do?”…The first, in which man-as-object seeks to understand what is happening to him, has its place in Jewish thought…But the second, in which man-as-subject seeks to discern how to act, is characteristic of what Soloveitchik sees as the primary mode of Jewish consciousness – halakhah or Jewish law."
Neusner, Faith Renewed, article by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, “The Holocaust in the Context of Judaism,” pp. 44-5 – The vibrant Jewish people is the most powerful testimony that God still lives.
"The Holocaust…revealed the awesome power of faith that could not be murdered by the most systematic assault on it ever undertaken. The Jewish people is…the living witness to God’s presence in history. The attempt to eliminate the people of God was an attempt to eradicate the presence of God in the human situation. The fact that after Auschwitz the Jewish people still lives and can still affirm its faith is the most powerful testimony that God still lives."