Why Did the Jews Not Revolt against the Germans?
Why the Rebbe Felt we Ought to Say No to President Carter
- April 15, 2011
- |
- 11 Nisan 5771
Rabbi YY Jacobson
33 viewsWhy Did the Jews Not Revolt against the Germans?
Why the Rebbe Felt we Ought to Say No to President Carter
Rabbi YY Jacobson
- April 15, 2011
The Owner
An anti-Semite walks into a bar and sees a Jew sitting there. So he walks over to the bartender and says give the most expensive drink to everyone besides for the Jew.He sees the Jew smiling. So the anti-Semite, desperate to denigrate the Jew, tells the bartender give another round to everyone besides for the Jew. Once again the Jew smiles.. The anti -Semite does it again. At this point the Jew has a massive smile.The anti-Semite asks the bartender what's wrong with the Jew that he is smiling so much?The bartender answers: He is the owner of the bar.The Great ShabbosThis Shabbat has a special name—Shabbos Hagadol, meaning The Great Shabbos. It is strange. There are approximately 50 Shabbosim throughout a year. Why has this Shabbos, from all shabbosim of the year, earned the title “The Great Shabbos?”If anything, it is the other way around: On this Shabbos, traditionally, the Kiddush is always the most meager. No babke, no prune danishes, no abundance of challah; it’s a small Kiddush and hence a small Shabbos… there are at least ten guys who did not show up because they knew that the Kiddush will be impoverished.The Rabbis explain that something special and great happened on this Shabbos, during that original year when the Jews left Egypt. The Jewish people exited the land of Egypt on Thursday, Nissan 15, meaning that, in that year, the Shabbos before was Nissan 10.What happened on that “Great Shabbat” five days before the Exodus?Says the Tur: [1]On the eve of their departure from Egypt, the Jewish people were commanded to bring a “Passover offering” (korban pesach) to G-d and enjoy its meat during the first Passover seder in history, on the night before they left Egypt. “On the tenth of this month,” G-d instructed Moses, “every man shall take a lamb for his family, one lamb for each household... It should be held in safekeeping until the fourteenth of this month; the entire community of Israel shall then slaughter their sacrifices in the afternoon... They shall eat the meat that night, roasted over fire, with matzos and bitter herbs...” [2]Now, the lamb was worshipped as a deity in ancient Egypt; the sheep was worshipped (similar to the modern worship of the cow In India.) To slaughter and consume a lamb in Egypt was akin to killing and eating a god. In fact, when Moses requested of Pharaoh to allow the Jewish people to go on a holiday to offer sacrifices to G-d, Pharaoh demanded that they do it in Egypt. Moses’ response was simple: “Can we slaughter the deity of the Egyptians before their eyes and they will not stone us?” [3] Clearly, for offering a sheep, the Egyptian would stone you.Imagine then the scene the Jews expected when they were commanded to round up in one day thousands upon thousands of lambs for all of the people? They would have expected a mass “pogrom” attacking and stoning the Jews. Yet, lo and behold, the Egyptians watched this happen and they kept their mouths shut and their fists low. They did nothing. Hence, to commemorate this extraordinary event, we call this Shabbos “The Great Shabbos.”It was a great event indeed. Yet there is something strange here. Granted, it was a special moment when the Egyptians said and did nothing. A calamity was avoided. But does this event which occurred on that Shabbos really earn it the title of “The Great Shabbos?” Let’s face it: This was not the greatest miracle that occurred in the Exodus story. In fact, it pales in comparison to the Ten Plagues, to the actual Exodus, to the splitting of the sea, manna from heaven, clouds of glory, etc. In those cases, an active miracle occurred which saved the people from death and destruction and shattered the ego and evil of the Egyptian regime. This event, on the other hand, was merely a passive miracle, that the Egyptians should remain silent in the face of the sheep being amassed. (Let’s also recall that this occurred after nine plagues which devastated the country.) Yet it is this event, seemingly from the more minor stories in this entire saga, which earned not only recognition, but the naming of an entire Shabbos for it, and giving it a title unlike any other day throughout the entire year—The Great Shabbos?Why did this story “deserve” such honor and such a title?Harvey Swados and the RebbeThe answer to this will be understood based on a story.It was a cold frigid winter night in 1964—it actually turned out to be the coldest night of that winter, with a heavy snow storm descending on New York. The secular Jewish novelist Harvey Swados paid a visit to Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe—whose 109th birthday we commemorated yesterday, 11 Nissan.Harvey Swados (1920-1972) was an American social critic and a brilliant author of novels, short stories, essays and journalism. The eloquent essay he wrote following the meeting with the Rebbe, was never published. It lay in the archives of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst until 1993, when a writer who was researching material for a possible biography came across it and brought it to the family's attention. It was first published in The New York Time Up-Ed page one day after the Rebbe’s passing, on June 13, 1994. [4]“The Rebbe sat very still,” Swados writes, “attending to my queries with his head bent forward so that his broad-brimmed hat shaded his face, which appeared deceptively ruddy. He is a strikingly handsome man, whose almost classically regular features are not at all obscured by a graying beard which is full but not bushy, and whose pale blue eyes remain fixed upon you with an unblinking directness that can be disconcerting. He rather reminds one of a Rembrandt rabbi in the shadowed planes of his composed countenance, which is not simply dignified but somber in repose; and yet the tilt of his hat seems at times almost rakish, and the glint of his eyes under its brim puts you in mind of those gifted bohemians of 19th-century Paris whom one encounters in Impressionist portraits. It is easy to imagine the figure he must have cut as a young man at the Sorbonne.”
Harvey Swados brought up the painful and gut wrenching “question” of why so many Jews obediently followed the Germans to their deaths. “Why did they go like sheep to slaughter?”This was only three years after the Eichman trial, 50 years ago, in Jerusalem. Chanah Arendt (1906-1975), an influential German Jewish political theorist, reported the Eichmann trial for The New Yorker, which evolved into her book “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil” (published in 1963).Chanah Arendt was extremely critical of the way that Israel conducted the trial. She was also critical of the way that many Jewish leaders acted during the Holocaust, which caused an enormous controversy and resulted in a great deal of animosity directed toward Arendt within the Jewish community. She claimed that the victims of the holocaust and their leaders did almost nothing to defend themselves. They passively went to the gas chambers. Her friend Gershom Scholem, a major scholar of Jewish Mysticism, broke off relations with her. Arendt was criticized by many Jewish public figures, who charged her with coldness and lack of sympathy for the victims of the Shoah. (Due to this lingering criticism, her book has only recently been translated into Hebrew.)Harvey Swados wanted to know the Rebbe’s opinion about Chanah Arendt’s accusations, which gained major fame just a few months earlier when her book was published.The Rebbe explained that the accusation on the “passivity of the Jews” was based on ignorance of the realities, of understanding the methods used by the Germans to seduce and round up the Jews, and nature of the German tyranny which left almost no room for revolt. No! The Rebbe said firmly, “the miracle was that there was any resistance at all, that there was any organization at all, that there was any leadership at all!”The Rebbe was basically saying that the Germans were brilliant in their strategic sadism. They deceived the Jews, and never took away hope completely, so that Jews always felt that if they would “follow orders,” they had a chance of survival; if they behave, they might make it… And yet the Germans never allowed too much hope to give foster a spirit of revolution. It was a brilliant perfect balance the Germans created. The miracle was that anybody did revolt under the circumstances -- as in the Warsaw Ghetto, Treblinka, and Sobibor.Mr. Swados, it seems, was unconvinced. Why could the Jews not stage more revolts? He was taken aback by the Rebbe’s response. The Rebbe—or so it seemed to Mr. Swados—changed the subject completely. Swados must have thought that the Rebbe said was he said and was off to the next topic.Harvey Swados underestimated the Lubavitcher Rebbe.On the LineThe Rebbe suddenly began asking the author questions about the books he has written. Particularly the Rebbe was interested in his book, published in 1957, “On the Line,” in which Swados had attempted, by means of a series of fictional portraits of auto assembly workers, to demonstrate the impact of their work on their lives. It was a theme he had originally selected because it seemed to him, as a former factory worker, that it was being neglected by other novelists.In this novel, Swados has taken life on the assembly line in a big automobile factory as a kind of allegory of America today, and, devoting a chapter to each of eight men who work on the line, presents a picture of what is happening to the individual in our society today. The book brings out the challenges, the yoke, the enslavement of the ordinary workman. They are exploited, abused, mistreated, denigrated and miserable."What conclusions did you come to?" asked the Rebbe.“The question nettled me,” Swados wrote. “It struck me as obtuse, coming from a man of such subtle perception.”"Did you suggest," the Rebbe persisted, "that the unhappy workers, the exploited workers, the workers chained to their machines, should revolt?""Of course not. It would have been unrealistic," Swados tells the Rebbe."What relation would you say that your book bears to the early work of Upton Sinclair?" the Rebbe continued to ask.Harvey Swados was in shock, he later wrote. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, a Chassidic master sitting in 770 Eastern Parkway, it talking about Upton Sinclair. Sinclair, who was still alive at the time (he died in 1968) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author who wrote more than 90 books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the 20th century, acquiring particular fame for his 1906 muckraking novel The Jungle. In The Jungle (published in 1906), Sinclair gave a scathing indictment of unregulated capitalism as exemplified in the meatpacking industry. His descriptions of both the unsanitary conditions and the inhumane conditions experienced by the workers shocked and galvanized readers. Sinclair had intended it as an attack upon capitalist enterprise, but readers reacted viscerally. Domestic and foreign purchases of American meat fell by half as a result of his novel! Sinclair lamented: "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach." The novel was so influential that it spurred government regulation of the industry, as well as the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. Sinclair wrote brilliant propaganda against the evils Capitalism.Now, the Rebbe wanted to know the relation of Swados’s ideas about the automobile workmen to Sinclair’s.Swados wrote: “I was flabbergasted. Here I was, sitting in the study of a scholar of mystic lore late on a wintry night, and discussing not Chabad Hasidism, Aristotelianism or scholasticism but proletarian literature!"Why," I said, "I would hope that it is less narrowly propagandistic than Sinclair's. I was trying to capture a mood of frustration rather than one of revolution."“Suddenly,” Swados writes, “I realized that he had led me to the answer that he was seeking -- and what was more, with his next query I realized how many steps ahead of my faltering mind he was: "You could not conscientiously recommend revolution for your unhappy workers in a free country, or see it as a practical perspective for their leaders. Then how could one demand it from those who were being crushed and destroyed by the Nazis?"Swados was in shock, yet once again. The Rebbe changed the subject of the Holocaust, delved into proletarian literature, only to show Mr, Swados how even in a country like America people don’t just revolt…"But when I questioned you, I wasn't associating myself with the Arendt positon on Eichmann and the Jewish leaders," I protested, "I was simply trying to solicit your opinion of a question that has troubled me deeply.""I realize that," the Rebbe smiled. "I am only suggesting that you might search for some of the answers in your own background and your own writing…”Internal LiberationNow we will understand the awesomeness of the event that transpired on Shabbos Hagadol, giving it the name of “The Great Shabbos.”The miracle of Shabbos Hagadol was not so much about the Egyptians remaining silent in the presence of such a Jewish “atrocity.” The greater miracle was what the Jews did—that they found the courage to gather the lambs. It was not about what the Egyptians did NOT do; it was about what the Jews DID DO. A band of slaves, subjected to tyranny and oppression for decades, transcended fear to confront their brutal oppressors in the face. G-d told them to prepare a lamb and they discovered the strength to declare to themselves and the world that they have no master but the Creator of the world. This is the moment they became a free people. Logistically, they were still slaves. But psychologically they were free.All of the other great events of the Exodus were G-d’s doing. G-d worked the plagues (through Moses and Aaron); He split the sea, sent them manna, gave them the Torah, led them 40 years through a barren desert, etc. G-d broke the rigid laws that usually dictate the universe. He shattered the structures of physics and miracles flowed. But G-d is not a slave. He is a master. What makes this Shabbos great is that the Jews ceased being slaves IN THEIR OWN HEART AND SOUL. The slaves revolted. And not only externally, fighting their oppressors with weapons. Rather even deeper: they revolted INTERNALLY. They decided that they would henceforth chart their own destiny based on their inner Divine calling.A far greater miracle than G-d making miracles for the Jews is when Jews themselves are not afraid to be who they are called to be. Taking the Jew out of exile is a miracle; but taking exile out of the Jew is yet a greater miracle.And sure enough, when the Egyptians observed this type of self-determination, fearlessness, and courage, they remained quiet… when they observed the courage of the Jewish people, their willingness to stand up to their oppressors with complete readiness and reliance on G-d, they became “tatalach,” they became silent. When the Egyptians observed the unwavering conviction of the Jews to the point of complete dedication, they remained frozen in their tracks. [5]For this is the truth about our world: The world is embarrassed by Jews who are embarrassed with themselves; the world respects and admires Jews who respect themselves and their Judaism.Carter and ShemtovA story:In 1979, a public menorah was staged for the first time ever on the White House Lawn. What is more, the President of the US, Jimmy Carter, came out to the lighting of the menorah. It was sensational and was featured as top news on all of the TV networks.It was the fourth night of Chanukah and the Lubavitcher ambassador to Washington, Rabbi Avraham Shemtov, standing on the cherry picker with the President of the US, had the four candles lit.President Jimmy Carter requested from Rabbi shemtov that he kindle all of the eight lamps in the menorah. Rabbi Shemtov explained it was the 4th night of Chanukah and we light tonight only four… but thePpresident insisted. He said that in his honor and the honor of the Office, let them make an exception and light the entire menorah.What would you do? The most powerful person in the world is standing with you, a Chassidic Jew, and is asking you a small favor: light another four candles. All the media is there. The President has conferred upon you and your movement a great honor by showing up to this menorah lighting. The pressure is on. Do you give in or not?Rabbi Shemtov consented. He made a calculation that according to Jewish law there was a way to permit this behavior… and it is important to make the President happy. Rabbi Shemtov kindles all eight candles.The next day the Rebbe sent a message to Rabbi Shemtov: “From you I expected more… From you I expected that you would not cave in…”Oy, the Rebbe understood about Jimmy Carter in 1979 what we all know today about Mr. Carter. We all we how far we got with Carter…The Rebbe understood that people like Carter, and all leaders of the free world, must observe strength, conviction, a healthy Jewish spine, not wishy washy spinelessness and appeasement. Because when they observe true conviction, based not on arrogance, but on our Divine calling, on what G-d wants of the Jewish people, the world respects it.A Tale of Two Israel’sOy, how we observed this truth concerning Israel.When were the two times that Israel was celebrated the world over? During the two times it “violated” all of laws at the Geneva Convention: In 1967 following the Six Day War and in 1976 after the spectacular Entebbe raid. During these events Israel showed much aggression, but it was the envy of the world.When was Israel attacked worst in world opinion? After the Oslo accords when it stretched its neck out to make peace, and after the Gaza withdrawal when it expelled 10,000 Jews to give the Arabs a country cleansed of Jews.Does that make sense? After Oslo they should have been praised, and after the Six Day War and Entebbe condemned? Yet the opposite occurred. Why?There is one overriding principle in Judaism that in matters of life and death there can be no compromise, or any political and diplomatic considerations. Jewish law states unequivocally that when life is in danger, even a single life, there can be no political considerations. The country must mobilize, go to war, uproot and stamp out the terrorist threat at its source. Nothing is more voluble in Judaism than the preservation of human life.As long as Israel followed this vital principle it was the envy of the world. When it came to matters of life and death Israel couldn't care less about public opinion. In 1967, in 1976 in Entebbe or in 1981, when Israel stubbornly defied America and the entire world and took out Iraq’s nuclear reactor, Israel demonstrated its absolute moral conviction that no games would be played when it came to life. Israel was the world’s leader in the war against terror, dealing decisive blow after decisive blow against terrorism International. The Jew was chosen to lead the world, and Israel delivered.But when Israel began doubting its right to the land, and embarked on the path of appeasement, it lost its commanding respect.With the Oslo accords and many following developments, life and death decisions have become infected with politics. Almost every decision by the government today is colored with diplomatic and political calculations. Consequently, Israel has lost the world’s respect and has become instead the universal punching bag of the media and of the intellectually elite.The world does not like Jews who limp. What made Shabbos Hagadol so great was that Jews stopped limping.I am Amish…Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twersky is a Chassidic psychiatrist from Pittsburgh, who dresses in "serious Chassidic garb": the long black cote, the long white beard, the round black hat; you know – the full garb! Once on an airplane, he was approached by a very irritated and angry Jew. The Jew began chastising him in Yiddish:"A shandeh! A busah! What’s the matter with you? Why do you insist on prancing around in that medieval get-up? Don’t you realize how ridiculous you look. You bring scorn and derision onto all Jews! If you could only dress and behave like everybody else…""I fail to understand your verbiage," Dr. Twersky responded in a perfect English accent. "Is there something that is bothering you? Perhaps you're mistaking me for somebody else, but – (say very slowly:) I am Amish!""Oy vey! I beg your forgiveness," pleaded the quickly back-pedaling Jew. "I didn’t realize that you were Amish. I thought you were Hassidic. You should know that I only have the utmost respect for you and your people — keeping your ways without bowing to society’s whims of the day."Now it was Dr. Twersky's turn to respond in Yiddish:"Aha! Oyb eich volt geven Amish…" If I would have been Amish, then you have nothing but the utmost respect for me; but since I am Jewish, you are ashamed with me. Hopefully one day you will respect in your own people that which you admire in other people."The Gift of the RebbeWhy did Providence have the Rebbe born a few hours before Shabbos Hagadol, Friday, 11 Nissan, 1902?Perhaps because the message of Shabbos Hagadol embodies so much of the Rebbe’s vision: Teach the Jewish people how to become free. Truly free. Internally free, Infuse them with the perspective of redemption.The Rebbe believed that we must teach our children the mentality of redemption. Sure, we must be sensitive, respectful, and wise. But we must never ever limp. At the end of the day, we have only one Master, and the world must know it. It is true, our true master wants us to engage in diplomacy and work with the “laws of the land,” but when the moment of truth comes, we know that they too have only one master. Paradoxically, this is what the world wants from the Jew. No one understood this as acutely as the Rebbe.[1] Tur Orach Chaim section 430. There is another explanation for the miracle of Shabbos Hagadol quoted in Tosefos Shabbos 87b; Shulchan Aruch HaRav Orach Chaim 430:1[2] Exodus ch. 12[3] Exodus 8:21[5] See Sichas Shabbos Hagadol 5727 (1967).- Comment
Class Summary:
The soul of the Rebbe came into our world just a few hours before the onset of Shabbos Hagadol --on Friday, 11 Nissan, 1902. What is the significance of that?
There is something strange about the name “Shabbos Hagadol.” Granted, it was a special event when Egyptians said and did nothing when the Jews fetched lambs, the deity of Egypt. But does it really deserve the title “The Great Shabbos?” This was not the greatest miracle that occurred in the Exodus story. In fact, it pales in comparison to the Ten Plagues, to the actual Exodus, to the splitting of the sea, manna from heaven, clouds of glory, etc. In those cases, an active miracle occurred which saved the people from death and destruction and shattered the ego and evil of the Egyptian regime. This event, on the other hand, was merely a passive miracle, that the Egyptians should remain silent in the face of the sheep being amassed. Yet it is this event, seemingly from the more minor stories in this entire saga, which earned not only recognition, but the naming of an entire Shabbos for it, and giving it a title unlike any other day throughout the entire year—The Great Shabbos?
In 1963, Chanah Arendt published her book “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.” She claimed that the victims of the holocaust and their leaders did almost nothing to defend themselves. They passively went to the gas chambers. A year later, secular Jewish novelist Harvey Swados asked the Lubavitcher Rebbe whether Arendt was correct?
The Rebbe delved into proletarian literature, analyzing one of the novels of Mr. Swados, “On the Line.” The Rebbe showed the author how the answer to his question was contained in his own works.
Why was the Rebbe discontent when Rabbi Avraham Shemtov acquiesced to the President of the US to light the entire Chanukah Mednorah?
This was the miracle of Shabbos Hagadol—not so much of what the Egyptians did NOT do; but what the Jews did do. And it captures the Rebbe’s vision: Teach the Jewish people how to become free. Truly free. Infuse them with the perspective of redemption.
The Owner
An anti-Semite walks into a bar and sees a Jew sitting there. So he walks over to the bartender and says give the most expensive drink to everyone besides for the Jew.
He sees the Jew smiling. So the anti-Semite, desperate to denigrate the Jew, tells the bartender give another round to everyone besides for the Jew. Once again the Jew smiles.. The anti -Semite does it again. At this point the Jew has a massive smile.
The anti-Semite asks the bartender what's wrong with the Jew that he is smiling so much?
The bartender answers: He is the owner of the bar.
The Great Shabbos
This Shabbat has a special name—Shabbos Hagadol, meaning The Great Shabbos. It is strange. There are approximately 50 Shabbosim throughout a year. Why has this Shabbos, from all shabbosim of the year, earned the title “The Great Shabbos?”
If anything, it is the other way around: On this Shabbos, traditionally, the Kiddush is always the most meager. No babke, no prune danishes, no abundance of challah; it’s a small Kiddush and hence a small Shabbos… there are at least ten guys who did not show up because they knew that the Kiddush will be impoverished.
The Rabbis explain that something special and great happened on this Shabbos, during that original year when the Jews left Egypt. The Jewish people exited the land of Egypt on Thursday, Nissan 15, meaning that, in that year, the Shabbos before was Nissan 10.
What happened on that “Great Shabbat” five days before the Exodus?
Says the Tur: [1]
On the eve of their departure from Egypt, the Jewish people were commanded to bring a “Passover offering” (korban pesach) to G-d and enjoy its meat during the first Passover seder in history, on the night before they left Egypt. “On the tenth of this month,” G-d instructed Moses, “every man shall take a lamb for his family, one lamb for each household... It should be held in safekeeping until the fourteenth of this month; the entire community of Israel shall then slaughter their sacrifices in the afternoon... They shall eat the meat that night, roasted over fire, with matzos and bitter herbs...” [2]
Now, the lamb was worshipped as a deity in ancient Egypt; the sheep was worshipped (similar to the modern worship of the cow In India.) To slaughter and consume a lamb in Egypt was akin to killing and eating a god. In fact, when Moses requested of Pharaoh to allow the Jewish people to go on a holiday to offer sacrifices to G-d, Pharaoh demanded that they do it in Egypt. Moses’ response was simple: “Can we slaughter the deity of the Egyptians before their eyes and they will not stone us?” [3] Clearly, for offering a sheep, the Egyptian would stone you.
Imagine then the scene the Jews expected when they were commanded to round up in one day thousands upon thousands of lambs for all of the people? They would have expected a mass “pogrom” attacking and stoning the Jews. Yet, lo and behold, the Egyptians watched this happen and they kept their mouths shut and their fists low. They did nothing. Hence, to commemorate this extraordinary event, we call this Shabbos “The Great Shabbos.”
It was a great event indeed. Yet there is something strange here. Granted, it was a special moment when the Egyptians said and did nothing. A calamity was avoided. But does this event which occurred on that Shabbos really earn it the title of “The Great Shabbos?” Let’s face it: This was not the greatest miracle that occurred in the Exodus story. In fact, it pales in comparison to the Ten Plagues, to the actual Exodus, to the splitting of the sea, manna from heaven, clouds of glory, etc. In those cases, an active miracle occurred which saved the people from death and destruction and shattered the ego and evil of the Egyptian regime. This event, on the other hand, was merely a passive miracle, that the Egyptians should remain silent in the face of the sheep being amassed. (Let’s also recall that this occurred after nine plagues which devastated the country.) Yet it is this event, seemingly from the more minor stories in this entire saga, which earned not only recognition, but the naming of an entire Shabbos for it, and giving it a title unlike any other day throughout the entire year—The Great Shabbos?
Why did this story “deserve” such honor and such a title?
Harvey Swados and the Rebbe
The answer to this will be understood based on a story.
It was a cold frigid winter night in 1964—it actually turned out to be the coldest night of that winter, with a heavy snow storm descending on New York. The secular Jewish novelist Harvey Swados paid a visit to Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe—whose 109th birthday we commemorated yesterday, 11 Nissan.
Harvey Swados (1920-1972) was an American social critic and a brilliant author of novels, short stories, essays and journalism. The eloquent essay he wrote following the meeting with the Rebbe, was never published. It lay in the archives of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst until 1993, when a writer who was researching material for a possible biography came across it and brought it to the family's attention. It was first published in The New York Time Up-Ed page one day after the Rebbe’s passing, on June 13, 1994. [4]
“The Rebbe sat very still,” Swados writes, “attending to my queries with his head bent forward so that his broad-brimmed hat shaded his face, which appeared deceptively ruddy. He is a strikingly handsome man, whose almost classically regular features are not at all obscured by a graying beard which is full but not bushy, and whose pale blue eyes remain fixed upon you with an unblinking directness that can be disconcerting. He rather reminds one of a Rembrandt rabbi in the shadowed planes of his composed countenance, which is not simply dignified but somber in repose; and yet the tilt of his hat seems at times almost rakish, and the glint of his eyes under its brim puts you in mind of those gifted bohemians of 19th-century Paris whom one encounters in Impressionist portraits. It is easy to imagine the figure he must have cut as a young man at the Sorbonne.”
Harvey Swados brought up the painful and gut wrenching “question” of why so many Jews obediently followed the Germans to their deaths. “Why did they go like sheep to slaughter?”
Harvey Swados brought up the painful and gut wrenching “question” of why so many Jews obediently followed the Germans to their deaths. “Why did they go like sheep to slaughter?”
This was only three years after the Eichman trial, 50 years ago, in Jerusalem. Chanah Arendt (1906-1975), an influential German Jewish political theorist, reported the Eichmann trial for The New Yorker, which evolved into her book “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil” (published in 1963).
Chanah Arendt was extremely critical of the way that Israel conducted the trial. She was also critical of the way that many Jewish leaders acted during the Holocaust, which caused an enormous controversy and resulted in a great deal of animosity directed toward Arendt within the Jewish community. She claimed that the victims of the holocaust and their leaders did almost nothing to defend themselves. They passively went to the gas chambers. Her friend Gershom Scholem, a major scholar of Jewish Mysticism, broke off relations with her. Arendt was criticized by many Jewish public figures, who charged her with coldness and lack of sympathy for the victims of the Shoah. (Due to this lingering criticism, her book has only recently been translated into Hebrew.)
Harvey Swados wanted to know the Rebbe’s opinion about Chanah Arendt’s accusations, which gained major fame just a few months earlier when her book was published.
The Rebbe explained that the accusation on the “passivity of the Jews” was based on ignorance of the realities, of understanding the methods used by the Germans to seduce and round up the Jews, and nature of the German tyranny which left almost no room for revolt. No! The Rebbe said firmly, “the miracle was that there was any resistance at all, that there was any organization at all, that there was any leadership at all!”
The Rebbe was basically saying that the Germans were brilliant in their strategic sadism. They deceived the Jews, and never took away hope completely, so that Jews always felt that if they would “follow orders,” they had a chance of survival; if they behave, they might make it… And yet the Germans never allowed too much hope to give foster a spirit of revolution. It was a brilliant perfect balance the Germans created. The miracle was that anybody did revolt under the circumstances -- as in the Warsaw Ghetto, Treblinka, and Sobibor.
Mr. Swados, it seems, was unconvinced. Why could the Jews not stage more revolts? He was taken aback by the Rebbe’s response. The Rebbe—or so it seemed to Mr. Swados—changed the subject completely. Swados must have thought that the Rebbe said was he said and was off to the next topic.
Harvey Swados underestimated the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
On the Line
The Rebbe suddenly began asking the author questions about the books he has written. Particularly the Rebbe was interested in his book, published in 1957, “On the Line,” in which Swados had attempted, by means of a series of fictional portraits of auto assembly workers, to demonstrate the impact of their work on their lives. It was a theme he had originally selected because it seemed to him, as a former factory worker, that it was being neglected by other novelists.
In this novel, Swados has taken life on the assembly line in a big automobile factory as a kind of allegory of America today, and, devoting a chapter to each of eight men who work on the line, presents a picture of what is happening to the individual in our society today. The book brings out the challenges, the yoke, the enslavement of the ordinary workman. They are exploited, abused, mistreated, denigrated and miserable.
"What conclusions did you come to?" asked the Rebbe.
“The question nettled me,” Swados wrote. “It struck me as obtuse, coming from a man of such subtle perception.”
"Did you suggest," the Rebbe persisted, "that the unhappy workers, the exploited workers, the workers chained to their machines, should revolt?"
"Of course not. It would have been unrealistic," Swados tells the Rebbe.
"What relation would you say that your book bears to the early work of Upton Sinclair?" the Rebbe continued to ask.
Harvey Swados was in shock, he later wrote. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, a Chassidic master sitting in 770 Eastern Parkway, it talking about Upton Sinclair. Sinclair, who was still alive at the time (he died in 1968) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author who wrote more than 90 books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the 20th century, acquiring particular fame for his 1906 muckraking novel The Jungle. In The Jungle (published in 1906), Sinclair gave a scathing indictment of unregulated capitalism as exemplified in the meatpacking industry. His descriptions of both the unsanitary conditions and the inhumane conditions experienced by the workers shocked and galvanized readers. Sinclair had intended it as an attack upon capitalist enterprise, but readers reacted viscerally. Domestic and foreign purchases of American meat fell by half as a result of his novel! Sinclair lamented: "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach." The novel was so influential that it spurred government regulation of the industry, as well as the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. Sinclair wrote brilliant propaganda against the evils Capitalism.
Now, the Rebbe wanted to know the relation of Swados’s ideas about the automobile workmen to Sinclair’s.
Swados wrote: “I was flabbergasted. Here I was, sitting in the study of a scholar of mystic lore late on a wintry night, and discussing not Chabad Hasidism, Aristotelianism or scholasticism but proletarian literature!
"Why," I said, "I would hope that it is less narrowly propagandistic than Sinclair's. I was trying to capture a mood of frustration rather than one of revolution."
“Suddenly,” Swados writes, “I realized that he had led me to the answer that he was seeking -- and what was more, with his next query I realized how many steps ahead of my faltering mind he was: "You could not conscientiously recommend revolution for your unhappy workers in a free country, or see it as a practical perspective for their leaders. Then how could one demand it from those who were being crushed and destroyed by the Nazis?"
Swados was in shock, yet once again. The Rebbe changed the subject of the Holocaust, delved into proletarian literature, only to show Mr, Swados how even in a country like America people don’t just revolt…
"But when I questioned you, I wasn't associating myself with the Arendt positon on Eichmann and the Jewish leaders," I protested, "I was simply trying to solicit your opinion of a question that has troubled me deeply."
"I realize that," the Rebbe smiled. "I am only suggesting that you might search for some of the answers in your own background and your own writing…”
Internal Liberation
Now we will understand the awesomeness of the event that transpired on Shabbos Hagadol, giving it the name of “The Great Shabbos.”
The miracle of Shabbos Hagadol was not so much about the Egyptians remaining silent in the presence of such a Jewish “atrocity.” The greater miracle was what the Jews did—that they found the courage to gather the lambs. It was not about what the Egyptians did NOT do; it was about what the Jews DID DO. A band of slaves, subjected to tyranny and oppression for decades, transcended fear to confront their brutal oppressors in the face. G-d told them to prepare a lamb and they discovered the strength to declare to themselves and the world that they have no master but the Creator of the world. This is the moment they became a free people. Logistically, they were still slaves. But psychologically they were free.
All of the other great events of the Exodus were G-d’s doing. G-d worked the plagues (through Moses and Aaron); He split the sea, sent them manna, gave them the Torah, led them 40 years through a barren desert, etc. G-d broke the rigid laws that usually dictate the universe. He shattered the structures of physics and miracles flowed. But G-d is not a slave. He is a master. What makes this Shabbos great is that the Jews ceased being slaves IN THEIR OWN HEART AND SOUL. The slaves revolted. And not only externally, fighting their oppressors with weapons. Rather even deeper: they revolted INTERNALLY. They decided that they would henceforth chart their own destiny based on their inner Divine calling.
A far greater miracle than G-d making miracles for the Jews is when Jews themselves are not afraid to be who they are called to be. Taking the Jew out of exile is a miracle; but taking exile out of the Jew is yet a greater miracle.
And sure enough, when the Egyptians observed this type of self-determination, fearlessness, and courage, they remained quiet… when they observed the courage of the Jewish people, their willingness to stand up to their oppressors with complete readiness and reliance on G-d, they became “tatalach,” they became silent. When the Egyptians observed the unwavering conviction of the Jews to the point of complete dedication, they remained frozen in their tracks. [5]
For this is the truth about our world: The world is embarrassed by Jews who are embarrassed with themselves; the world respects and admires Jews who respect themselves and their Judaism.
Carter and Shemtov
A story:
In 1979, a public menorah was staged for the first time ever on the White House Lawn. What is more, the President of the US, Jimmy Carter, came out to the lighting of the menorah. It was sensational and was featured as top news on all of the TV networks.
It was the fourth night of Chanukah and the Lubavitcher ambassador to Washington, Rabbi Avraham Shemtov, standing on the cherry picker with the President of the US, had the four candles lit.
President Jimmy Carter requested from Rabbi shemtov that he kindle all of the eight lamps in the menorah. Rabbi Shemtov explained it was the 4th night of Chanukah and we light tonight only four… but thePpresident insisted. He said that in his honor and the honor of the Office, let them make an exception and light the entire menorah.
What would you do? The most powerful person in the world is standing with you, a Chassidic Jew, and is asking you a small favor: light another four candles. All the media is there. The President has conferred upon you and your movement a great honor by showing up to this menorah lighting. The pressure is on. Do you give in or not?
Rabbi Shemtov consented. He made a calculation that according to Jewish law there was a way to permit this behavior… and it is important to make the President happy. Rabbi Shemtov kindles all eight candles.
The next day the Rebbe sent a message to Rabbi Shemtov: “From you I expected more… From you I expected that you would not cave in…”
Oy, the Rebbe understood about Jimmy Carter in 1979 what we all know today about Mr. Carter. We all we how far we got with Carter…
The Rebbe understood that people like Carter, and all leaders of the free world, must observe strength, conviction, a healthy Jewish spine, not wishy washy spinelessness and appeasement. Because when they observe true conviction, based not on arrogance, but on our Divine calling, on what G-d wants of the Jewish people, the world respects it.
A Tale of Two Israel’s
Oy, how we observed this truth concerning Israel.
When were the two times that Israel was celebrated the world over? During the two times it “violated” all of laws at the Geneva Convention: In 1967 following the Six Day War and in 1976 after the spectacular Entebbe raid. During these events Israel showed much aggression, but it was the envy of the world.
When was Israel attacked worst in world opinion? After the Oslo accords when it stretched its neck out to make peace, and after the Gaza withdrawal when it expelled 10,000 Jews to give the Arabs a country cleansed of Jews.
Does that make sense? After Oslo they should have been praised, and after the Six Day War and Entebbe condemned? Yet the opposite occurred. Why?
There is one overriding principle in Judaism that in matters of life and death there can be no compromise, or any political and diplomatic considerations. Jewish law states unequivocally that when life is in danger, even a single life, there can be no political considerations. The country must mobilize, go to war, uproot and stamp out the terrorist threat at its source. Nothing is more voluble in Judaism than the preservation of human life.
As long as Israel followed this vital principle it was the envy of the world. When it came to matters of life and death Israel couldn't care less about public opinion. In 1967, in 1976 in Entebbe or in 1981, when Israel stubbornly defied America and the entire world and took out Iraq’s nuclear reactor, Israel demonstrated its absolute moral conviction that no games would be played when it came to life. Israel was the world’s leader in the war against terror, dealing decisive blow after decisive blow against terrorism International. The Jew was chosen to lead the world, and Israel delivered.
But when Israel began doubting its right to the land, and embarked on the path of appeasement, it lost its commanding respect.
With the Oslo accords and many following developments, life and death decisions have become infected with politics. Almost every decision by the government today is colored with diplomatic and political calculations. Consequently, Israel has lost the world’s respect and has become instead the universal punching bag of the media and of the intellectually elite.
The world does not like Jews who limp. What made Shabbos Hagadol so great was that Jews stopped limping.
I am Amish…
Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twersky is a Chassidic psychiatrist from Pittsburgh, who dresses in "serious Chassidic garb": the long black cote, the long white beard, the round black hat; you know – the full garb! Once on an airplane, he was approached by a very irritated and angry Jew. The Jew began chastising him in Yiddish:
"A shandeh! A busah! What’s the matter with you? Why do you insist on prancing around in that medieval get-up? Don’t you realize how ridiculous you look. You bring scorn and derision onto all Jews! If you could only dress and behave like everybody else…"
"I fail to understand your verbiage," Dr. Twersky responded in a perfect English accent. "Is there something that is bothering you? Perhaps you're mistaking me for somebody else, but – (say very slowly:) I am Amish!"
"Oy vey! I beg your forgiveness," pleaded the quickly back-pedaling Jew. "I didn’t realize that you were Amish. I thought you were Hassidic. You should know that I only have the utmost respect for you and your people — keeping your ways without bowing to society’s whims of the day."
Now it was Dr. Twersky's turn to respond in Yiddish:
"Aha! Oyb eich volt geven Amish…" If I would have been Amish, then you have nothing but the utmost respect for me; but since I am Jewish, you are ashamed with me. Hopefully one day you will respect in your own people that which you admire in other people."
The Gift of the Rebbe
Why did Providence have the Rebbe born a few hours before Shabbos Hagadol, Friday, 11 Nissan, 1902?
Perhaps because the message of Shabbos Hagadol embodies so much of the Rebbe’s vision: Teach the Jewish people how to become free. Truly free. Internally free, Infuse them with the perspective of redemption.
The Rebbe believed that we must teach our children the mentality of redemption. Sure, we must be sensitive, respectful, and wise. But we must never ever limp. At the end of the day, we have only one Master, and the world must know it. It is true, our true master wants us to engage in diplomacy and work with the “laws of the land,” but when the moment of truth comes, we know that they too have only one master. Paradoxically, this is what the world wants from the Jew. No one understood this as acutely as the Rebbe.
[1] Tur Orach Chaim section 430. There is another explanation for the miracle of Shabbos Hagadol quoted in Tosefos Shabbos 87b; Shulchan Aruch HaRav Orach Chaim 430:1
[2] Exodus ch. 12
[3] Exodus 8:21
[5] See Sichas Shabbos Hagadol 5727 (1967).
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Parshas Bo 5771
Rabbi YY Jacobson
- April 15, 2011
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- 11 Nisan 5771
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Why Did the Jews Not Revolt against the Germans?
Why the Rebbe Felt we Ought to Say No to President Carter
Rabbi YY Jacobson
- April 15, 2011
The Owner
An anti-Semite walks into a bar and sees a Jew sitting there. So he walks over to the bartender and says give the most expensive drink to everyone besides for the Jew.He sees the Jew smiling. So the anti-Semite, desperate to denigrate the Jew, tells the bartender give another round to everyone besides for the Jew. Once again the Jew smiles.. The anti -Semite does it again. At this point the Jew has a massive smile.The anti-Semite asks the bartender what's wrong with the Jew that he is smiling so much?The bartender answers: He is the owner of the bar.The Great ShabbosThis Shabbat has a special name—Shabbos Hagadol, meaning The Great Shabbos. It is strange. There are approximately 50 Shabbosim throughout a year. Why has this Shabbos, from all shabbosim of the year, earned the title “The Great Shabbos?”If anything, it is the other way around: On this Shabbos, traditionally, the Kiddush is always the most meager. No babke, no prune danishes, no abundance of challah; it’s a small Kiddush and hence a small Shabbos… there are at least ten guys who did not show up because they knew that the Kiddush will be impoverished.The Rabbis explain that something special and great happened on this Shabbos, during that original year when the Jews left Egypt. The Jewish people exited the land of Egypt on Thursday, Nissan 15, meaning that, in that year, the Shabbos before was Nissan 10.What happened on that “Great Shabbat” five days before the Exodus?Says the Tur: [1]On the eve of their departure from Egypt, the Jewish people were commanded to bring a “Passover offering” (korban pesach) to G-d and enjoy its meat during the first Passover seder in history, on the night before they left Egypt. “On the tenth of this month,” G-d instructed Moses, “every man shall take a lamb for his family, one lamb for each household... It should be held in safekeeping until the fourteenth of this month; the entire community of Israel shall then slaughter their sacrifices in the afternoon... They shall eat the meat that night, roasted over fire, with matzos and bitter herbs...” [2]Now, the lamb was worshipped as a deity in ancient Egypt; the sheep was worshipped (similar to the modern worship of the cow In India.) To slaughter and consume a lamb in Egypt was akin to killing and eating a god. In fact, when Moses requested of Pharaoh to allow the Jewish people to go on a holiday to offer sacrifices to G-d, Pharaoh demanded that they do it in Egypt. Moses’ response was simple: “Can we slaughter the deity of the Egyptians before their eyes and they will not stone us?” [3] Clearly, for offering a sheep, the Egyptian would stone you.Imagine then the scene the Jews expected when they were commanded to round up in one day thousands upon thousands of lambs for all of the people? They would have expected a mass “pogrom” attacking and stoning the Jews. Yet, lo and behold, the Egyptians watched this happen and they kept their mouths shut and their fists low. They did nothing. Hence, to commemorate this extraordinary event, we call this Shabbos “The Great Shabbos.”It was a great event indeed. Yet there is something strange here. Granted, it was a special moment when the Egyptians said and did nothing. A calamity was avoided. But does this event which occurred on that Shabbos really earn it the title of “The Great Shabbos?” Let’s face it: This was not the greatest miracle that occurred in the Exodus story. In fact, it pales in comparison to the Ten Plagues, to the actual Exodus, to the splitting of the sea, manna from heaven, clouds of glory, etc. In those cases, an active miracle occurred which saved the people from death and destruction and shattered the ego and evil of the Egyptian regime. This event, on the other hand, was merely a passive miracle, that the Egyptians should remain silent in the face of the sheep being amassed. (Let’s also recall that this occurred after nine plagues which devastated the country.) Yet it is this event, seemingly from the more minor stories in this entire saga, which earned not only recognition, but the naming of an entire Shabbos for it, and giving it a title unlike any other day throughout the entire year—The Great Shabbos?Why did this story “deserve” such honor and such a title?Harvey Swados and the RebbeThe answer to this will be understood based on a story.It was a cold frigid winter night in 1964—it actually turned out to be the coldest night of that winter, with a heavy snow storm descending on New York. The secular Jewish novelist Harvey Swados paid a visit to Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe—whose 109th birthday we commemorated yesterday, 11 Nissan.Harvey Swados (1920-1972) was an American social critic and a brilliant author of novels, short stories, essays and journalism. The eloquent essay he wrote following the meeting with the Rebbe, was never published. It lay in the archives of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst until 1993, when a writer who was researching material for a possible biography came across it and brought it to the family's attention. It was first published in The New York Time Up-Ed page one day after the Rebbe’s passing, on June 13, 1994. [4]“The Rebbe sat very still,” Swados writes, “attending to my queries with his head bent forward so that his broad-brimmed hat shaded his face, which appeared deceptively ruddy. He is a strikingly handsome man, whose almost classically regular features are not at all obscured by a graying beard which is full but not bushy, and whose pale blue eyes remain fixed upon you with an unblinking directness that can be disconcerting. He rather reminds one of a Rembrandt rabbi in the shadowed planes of his composed countenance, which is not simply dignified but somber in repose; and yet the tilt of his hat seems at times almost rakish, and the glint of his eyes under its brim puts you in mind of those gifted bohemians of 19th-century Paris whom one encounters in Impressionist portraits. It is easy to imagine the figure he must have cut as a young man at the Sorbonne.”
Harvey Swados brought up the painful and gut wrenching “question” of why so many Jews obediently followed the Germans to their deaths. “Why did they go like sheep to slaughter?”This was only three years after the Eichman trial, 50 years ago, in Jerusalem. Chanah Arendt (1906-1975), an influential German Jewish political theorist, reported the Eichmann trial for The New Yorker, which evolved into her book “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil” (published in 1963).Chanah Arendt was extremely critical of the way that Israel conducted the trial. She was also critical of the way that many Jewish leaders acted during the Holocaust, which caused an enormous controversy and resulted in a great deal of animosity directed toward Arendt within the Jewish community. She claimed that the victims of the holocaust and their leaders did almost nothing to defend themselves. They passively went to the gas chambers. Her friend Gershom Scholem, a major scholar of Jewish Mysticism, broke off relations with her. Arendt was criticized by many Jewish public figures, who charged her with coldness and lack of sympathy for the victims of the Shoah. (Due to this lingering criticism, her book has only recently been translated into Hebrew.)Harvey Swados wanted to know the Rebbe’s opinion about Chanah Arendt’s accusations, which gained major fame just a few months earlier when her book was published.The Rebbe explained that the accusation on the “passivity of the Jews” was based on ignorance of the realities, of understanding the methods used by the Germans to seduce and round up the Jews, and nature of the German tyranny which left almost no room for revolt. No! The Rebbe said firmly, “the miracle was that there was any resistance at all, that there was any organization at all, that there was any leadership at all!”The Rebbe was basically saying that the Germans were brilliant in their strategic sadism. They deceived the Jews, and never took away hope completely, so that Jews always felt that if they would “follow orders,” they had a chance of survival; if they behave, they might make it… And yet the Germans never allowed too much hope to give foster a spirit of revolution. It was a brilliant perfect balance the Germans created. The miracle was that anybody did revolt under the circumstances -- as in the Warsaw Ghetto, Treblinka, and Sobibor.Mr. Swados, it seems, was unconvinced. Why could the Jews not stage more revolts? He was taken aback by the Rebbe’s response. The Rebbe—or so it seemed to Mr. Swados—changed the subject completely. Swados must have thought that the Rebbe said was he said and was off to the next topic.Harvey Swados underestimated the Lubavitcher Rebbe.On the LineThe Rebbe suddenly began asking the author questions about the books he has written. Particularly the Rebbe was interested in his book, published in 1957, “On the Line,” in which Swados had attempted, by means of a series of fictional portraits of auto assembly workers, to demonstrate the impact of their work on their lives. It was a theme he had originally selected because it seemed to him, as a former factory worker, that it was being neglected by other novelists.In this novel, Swados has taken life on the assembly line in a big automobile factory as a kind of allegory of America today, and, devoting a chapter to each of eight men who work on the line, presents a picture of what is happening to the individual in our society today. The book brings out the challenges, the yoke, the enslavement of the ordinary workman. They are exploited, abused, mistreated, denigrated and miserable."What conclusions did you come to?" asked the Rebbe.“The question nettled me,” Swados wrote. “It struck me as obtuse, coming from a man of such subtle perception.”"Did you suggest," the Rebbe persisted, "that the unhappy workers, the exploited workers, the workers chained to their machines, should revolt?""Of course not. It would have been unrealistic," Swados tells the Rebbe."What relation would you say that your book bears to the early work of Upton Sinclair?" the Rebbe continued to ask.Harvey Swados was in shock, he later wrote. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, a Chassidic master sitting in 770 Eastern Parkway, it talking about Upton Sinclair. Sinclair, who was still alive at the time (he died in 1968) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author who wrote more than 90 books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the 20th century, acquiring particular fame for his 1906 muckraking novel The Jungle. In The Jungle (published in 1906), Sinclair gave a scathing indictment of unregulated capitalism as exemplified in the meatpacking industry. His descriptions of both the unsanitary conditions and the inhumane conditions experienced by the workers shocked and galvanized readers. Sinclair had intended it as an attack upon capitalist enterprise, but readers reacted viscerally. Domestic and foreign purchases of American meat fell by half as a result of his novel! Sinclair lamented: "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach." The novel was so influential that it spurred government regulation of the industry, as well as the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. Sinclair wrote brilliant propaganda against the evils Capitalism.Now, the Rebbe wanted to know the relation of Swados’s ideas about the automobile workmen to Sinclair’s.Swados wrote: “I was flabbergasted. Here I was, sitting in the study of a scholar of mystic lore late on a wintry night, and discussing not Chabad Hasidism, Aristotelianism or scholasticism but proletarian literature!"Why," I said, "I would hope that it is less narrowly propagandistic than Sinclair's. I was trying to capture a mood of frustration rather than one of revolution."“Suddenly,” Swados writes, “I realized that he had led me to the answer that he was seeking -- and what was more, with his next query I realized how many steps ahead of my faltering mind he was: "You could not conscientiously recommend revolution for your unhappy workers in a free country, or see it as a practical perspective for their leaders. Then how could one demand it from those who were being crushed and destroyed by the Nazis?"Swados was in shock, yet once again. The Rebbe changed the subject of the Holocaust, delved into proletarian literature, only to show Mr, Swados how even in a country like America people don’t just revolt…"But when I questioned you, I wasn't associating myself with the Arendt positon on Eichmann and the Jewish leaders," I protested, "I was simply trying to solicit your opinion of a question that has troubled me deeply.""I realize that," the Rebbe smiled. "I am only suggesting that you might search for some of the answers in your own background and your own writing…”Internal LiberationNow we will understand the awesomeness of the event that transpired on Shabbos Hagadol, giving it the name of “The Great Shabbos.”The miracle of Shabbos Hagadol was not so much about the Egyptians remaining silent in the presence of such a Jewish “atrocity.” The greater miracle was what the Jews did—that they found the courage to gather the lambs. It was not about what the Egyptians did NOT do; it was about what the Jews DID DO. A band of slaves, subjected to tyranny and oppression for decades, transcended fear to confront their brutal oppressors in the face. G-d told them to prepare a lamb and they discovered the strength to declare to themselves and the world that they have no master but the Creator of the world. This is the moment they became a free people. Logistically, they were still slaves. But psychologically they were free.All of the other great events of the Exodus were G-d’s doing. G-d worked the plagues (through Moses and Aaron); He split the sea, sent them manna, gave them the Torah, led them 40 years through a barren desert, etc. G-d broke the rigid laws that usually dictate the universe. He shattered the structures of physics and miracles flowed. But G-d is not a slave. He is a master. What makes this Shabbos great is that the Jews ceased being slaves IN THEIR OWN HEART AND SOUL. The slaves revolted. And not only externally, fighting their oppressors with weapons. Rather even deeper: they revolted INTERNALLY. They decided that they would henceforth chart their own destiny based on their inner Divine calling.A far greater miracle than G-d making miracles for the Jews is when Jews themselves are not afraid to be who they are called to be. Taking the Jew out of exile is a miracle; but taking exile out of the Jew is yet a greater miracle.And sure enough, when the Egyptians observed this type of self-determination, fearlessness, and courage, they remained quiet… when they observed the courage of the Jewish people, their willingness to stand up to their oppressors with complete readiness and reliance on G-d, they became “tatalach,” they became silent. When the Egyptians observed the unwavering conviction of the Jews to the point of complete dedication, they remained frozen in their tracks. [5]For this is the truth about our world: The world is embarrassed by Jews who are embarrassed with themselves; the world respects and admires Jews who respect themselves and their Judaism.Carter and ShemtovA story:In 1979, a public menorah was staged for the first time ever on the White House Lawn. What is more, the President of the US, Jimmy Carter, came out to the lighting of the menorah. It was sensational and was featured as top news on all of the TV networks.It was the fourth night of Chanukah and the Lubavitcher ambassador to Washington, Rabbi Avraham Shemtov, standing on the cherry picker with the President of the US, had the four candles lit.President Jimmy Carter requested from Rabbi shemtov that he kindle all of the eight lamps in the menorah. Rabbi Shemtov explained it was the 4th night of Chanukah and we light tonight only four… but thePpresident insisted. He said that in his honor and the honor of the Office, let them make an exception and light the entire menorah.What would you do? The most powerful person in the world is standing with you, a Chassidic Jew, and is asking you a small favor: light another four candles. All the media is there. The President has conferred upon you and your movement a great honor by showing up to this menorah lighting. The pressure is on. Do you give in or not?Rabbi Shemtov consented. He made a calculation that according to Jewish law there was a way to permit this behavior… and it is important to make the President happy. Rabbi Shemtov kindles all eight candles.The next day the Rebbe sent a message to Rabbi Shemtov: “From you I expected more… From you I expected that you would not cave in…”Oy, the Rebbe understood about Jimmy Carter in 1979 what we all know today about Mr. Carter. We all we how far we got with Carter…The Rebbe understood that people like Carter, and all leaders of the free world, must observe strength, conviction, a healthy Jewish spine, not wishy washy spinelessness and appeasement. Because when they observe true conviction, based not on arrogance, but on our Divine calling, on what G-d wants of the Jewish people, the world respects it.A Tale of Two Israel’sOy, how we observed this truth concerning Israel.When were the two times that Israel was celebrated the world over? During the two times it “violated” all of laws at the Geneva Convention: In 1967 following the Six Day War and in 1976 after the spectacular Entebbe raid. During these events Israel showed much aggression, but it was the envy of the world.When was Israel attacked worst in world opinion? After the Oslo accords when it stretched its neck out to make peace, and after the Gaza withdrawal when it expelled 10,000 Jews to give the Arabs a country cleansed of Jews.Does that make sense? After Oslo they should have been praised, and after the Six Day War and Entebbe condemned? Yet the opposite occurred. Why?There is one overriding principle in Judaism that in matters of life and death there can be no compromise, or any political and diplomatic considerations. Jewish law states unequivocally that when life is in danger, even a single life, there can be no political considerations. The country must mobilize, go to war, uproot and stamp out the terrorist threat at its source. Nothing is more voluble in Judaism than the preservation of human life.As long as Israel followed this vital principle it was the envy of the world. When it came to matters of life and death Israel couldn't care less about public opinion. In 1967, in 1976 in Entebbe or in 1981, when Israel stubbornly defied America and the entire world and took out Iraq’s nuclear reactor, Israel demonstrated its absolute moral conviction that no games would be played when it came to life. Israel was the world’s leader in the war against terror, dealing decisive blow after decisive blow against terrorism International. The Jew was chosen to lead the world, and Israel delivered.But when Israel began doubting its right to the land, and embarked on the path of appeasement, it lost its commanding respect.With the Oslo accords and many following developments, life and death decisions have become infected with politics. Almost every decision by the government today is colored with diplomatic and political calculations. Consequently, Israel has lost the world’s respect and has become instead the universal punching bag of the media and of the intellectually elite.The world does not like Jews who limp. What made Shabbos Hagadol so great was that Jews stopped limping.I am Amish…Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twersky is a Chassidic psychiatrist from Pittsburgh, who dresses in "serious Chassidic garb": the long black cote, the long white beard, the round black hat; you know – the full garb! Once on an airplane, he was approached by a very irritated and angry Jew. The Jew began chastising him in Yiddish:"A shandeh! A busah! What’s the matter with you? Why do you insist on prancing around in that medieval get-up? Don’t you realize how ridiculous you look. You bring scorn and derision onto all Jews! If you could only dress and behave like everybody else…""I fail to understand your verbiage," Dr. Twersky responded in a perfect English accent. "Is there something that is bothering you? Perhaps you're mistaking me for somebody else, but – (say very slowly:) I am Amish!""Oy vey! I beg your forgiveness," pleaded the quickly back-pedaling Jew. "I didn’t realize that you were Amish. I thought you were Hassidic. You should know that I only have the utmost respect for you and your people — keeping your ways without bowing to society’s whims of the day."Now it was Dr. Twersky's turn to respond in Yiddish:"Aha! Oyb eich volt geven Amish…" If I would have been Amish, then you have nothing but the utmost respect for me; but since I am Jewish, you are ashamed with me. Hopefully one day you will respect in your own people that which you admire in other people."The Gift of the RebbeWhy did Providence have the Rebbe born a few hours before Shabbos Hagadol, Friday, 11 Nissan, 1902?Perhaps because the message of Shabbos Hagadol embodies so much of the Rebbe’s vision: Teach the Jewish people how to become free. Truly free. Internally free, Infuse them with the perspective of redemption.The Rebbe believed that we must teach our children the mentality of redemption. Sure, we must be sensitive, respectful, and wise. But we must never ever limp. At the end of the day, we have only one Master, and the world must know it. It is true, our true master wants us to engage in diplomacy and work with the “laws of the land,” but when the moment of truth comes, we know that they too have only one master. Paradoxically, this is what the world wants from the Jew. No one understood this as acutely as the Rebbe.[1] Tur Orach Chaim section 430. There is another explanation for the miracle of Shabbos Hagadol quoted in Tosefos Shabbos 87b; Shulchan Aruch HaRav Orach Chaim 430:1[2] Exodus ch. 12[3] Exodus 8:21[5] See Sichas Shabbos Hagadol 5727 (1967).- Comment
Class Summary:
The soul of the Rebbe came into our world just a few hours before the onset of Shabbos Hagadol --on Friday, 11 Nissan, 1902. What is the significance of that?
There is something strange about the name “Shabbos Hagadol.” Granted, it was a special event when Egyptians said and did nothing when the Jews fetched lambs, the deity of Egypt. But does it really deserve the title “The Great Shabbos?” This was not the greatest miracle that occurred in the Exodus story. In fact, it pales in comparison to the Ten Plagues, to the actual Exodus, to the splitting of the sea, manna from heaven, clouds of glory, etc. In those cases, an active miracle occurred which saved the people from death and destruction and shattered the ego and evil of the Egyptian regime. This event, on the other hand, was merely a passive miracle, that the Egyptians should remain silent in the face of the sheep being amassed. Yet it is this event, seemingly from the more minor stories in this entire saga, which earned not only recognition, but the naming of an entire Shabbos for it, and giving it a title unlike any other day throughout the entire year—The Great Shabbos?
In 1963, Chanah Arendt published her book “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.” She claimed that the victims of the holocaust and their leaders did almost nothing to defend themselves. They passively went to the gas chambers. A year later, secular Jewish novelist Harvey Swados asked the Lubavitcher Rebbe whether Arendt was correct?
The Rebbe delved into proletarian literature, analyzing one of the novels of Mr. Swados, “On the Line.” The Rebbe showed the author how the answer to his question was contained in his own works.
Why was the Rebbe discontent when Rabbi Avraham Shemtov acquiesced to the President of the US to light the entire Chanukah Mednorah?
This was the miracle of Shabbos Hagadol—not so much of what the Egyptians did NOT do; but what the Jews did do. And it captures the Rebbe’s vision: Teach the Jewish people how to become free. Truly free. Infuse them with the perspective of redemption.
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