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Chapter 4. The Holocaust Lessons, Explanation, Meaning
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Chapter 4 The Holocaust Lessons, Explanation, Meaning Shalom Rosenberg Just as standing upon sacred ground requires us to remove our shoes, and those entering the Holy of Holies remove any golden garments, so do I feel myself obligated, when writing about the Holocaust, to, so to speak, remove my academic robe—and declare that I am not speaking in the name of any academic discipline, but purely in terms of my own most intimate feelings, in the sense of “things that come from the heart.”1 The focus of the present study is theological. But in order to present my arguments fully, I shall first need to situate my views vis-à-vis the broader Jewish discussion of the Holocaust. In my opinion, an understanding of this subject requires that we confront ideological and cultural categories and frameworks. I shall divide this preliminary discussion into three foci, which I will refer to by the brief and simple rubrics of “lessons,”“explanation ,” and “meaning.” Zakhor: Remember I do not think that it would be incorrect to say that the initial religious Jewish reaction to history is to remember. I am not referring to an academic or sterile remembrance but to a free, existential remembrance that penetrates to the innermost part of the human being. Memory sanctifies the historical dimension. Even though nature is not absent from it, the Bible teaches us the centrality of history. Nature and history are intermingled within the Jewish year. But this mingling connects two different concepts of time. Natural time is cyclical; historical time is linear and cannot 82 be turned back. It does not repeat itself; hence, it is dominated by forgetfulness . The first commandments that Israel was given upon leaving Egypt are thus related to the need to preserve this singular historical experience. The Paschal sacrifice and the festival of unleavened bread, and in their wake the family Seder as known to us, are an attempt to preserve the historical heritage. “To remember the exodus from Egypt” is thus the first mitzvah. This is the archetypal memory that influences all other remembering . But the cause of forgetting is rooted not only in the nonrepeatable nature of time and the uniqueness of historical events but also in the transience of human existence. One generation goes and another generation comes. Beneath the external facade of stability, the nation and the society change their essence after only a few years. Individual memory cannot be the guarantor for the possibility of collective memory. Collective memory is not a natural phenomenon but a cultural and educational imperative. “When your son shall ask you tomorrow” provides the surety of collective memory. But the opposite thesis—namely, that the Torah speaks of four different types of sons—indicates that memory depends upon the existential identity of the inquirer and of the one remembering. Even prior to memory there must be a certain identification that determines whether what we are remembering is in fact our own memory. In the archetypal memory, we must ask whether we are in fact the successors of that same generation that went out of Egypt. The answer is found in the call in the Haggadah: “In each generation a man person must see himself as if he went out of Egypt, as is said, ‘And you shall tell your son on that day, saying, Because of this the Lord did for me when I went out of Egypt.’” The Haggadah emphasizes that even after many generations the father must say “for me.” Memory is thus inextricably connected with the issue of identity that transcends history. I remember in the first person— both my own memories and those of my people. Before I remember I must know myself and my identity, what is mine and what is not. One of the central elegies recited on the Ninth of Av is built upon the contrast between “when I went out of Egypt” and “when I went out of Jerusalem.” “Remember what Amalek did to you” intermingles with “remember the exodus from Egypt.” The memory of the Holocaust is another archetypal memory: “In each generation a person must see himself as if he is part of the saven remnant, in the sense of, ‘You shall tell your son on that day, saying: “the Lord did this for me when I went out of Auschwitz.” For, “If I had been there then, I would not have been The Holocaust 83 [3.80.211.101] Project MUSE (2024-03...