Lead Tidbit
K'doshim in Holocaust Terms
Yom HaSho'a V'haG'vura is usually on 27 Nissan. Because that is Friday this year, the official commemoration of Yom HaSho'a is pulled back to Wednesday night and Thursday. In a different way of looking at things, the Holocaust is still recent enough, and we all know survivors, or are survivors, or their children or grandchildren— to make every day, Yom HaSho'a.

The term K'doshim is applied to people who died sanctifying G-d's name, and this includes any Jew who died because he was a Jew. All victims of the Holocaust are K'doshim. But let's apply the term K'doshim - in the context of this week's sedra - to people who behaved in such a way, during the most terrible of dark times for the Jewish people, that we can see their superhuman efforts to strive for holiness, when they had ample reason to abandon that quest... and a lot more.

Rabbi Ephraim Oshry z"l was a rav in the Kovno ghetto. He survived the Holocaust and published many Sh'eilot & T'shuvot from those terrifying years, and stories of a spiritual heroism that gives us a glimpse as to what it means to be part of G-d's "Kingdom of Kohanim and Holy Nation".

These are some of the people who show us what K'doshim Tih-yu means:
The Jews of a forced labor detail who slaved from pre-dawn too dark and asked for halachic permission to put T'filin on at night - at great risk to their lives. The Jew who repeatedly smuggled flour into the ghetto and was mercilessly beaten when caught, who did Hatarat Nedarim to be able to soften his matza with water since all his teeth had been kicked in by the Nazi guards. The Jews who asked if they could make a Sukka with lumber stolen from a German workstation, rather than asking to be excused from Sukka under the circumstances. Jews who risked their lives to save others, to maintain some semblance of religious practice in the most difficult of circumstances. These are our K'doshim and our inspirations.

Rabbi Oshry's full work contains hundreds of Responsa from the ghetto prior to and during the Holocaust. Each question is a testament to the remark- able character of the individual Jew and the Jewish People, who would not abandon their belief, faith, and commitment to G-d, no matter what was happening to them.

This does not at all negate the status of K'doshim of any victims of the Sho'ah who behaved differently. But the point of this Lead Tidbit was to link Yom HaSho'a with Parshat K'doshim, because they are juxtaposed this year.