{"id":37665,"date":"2015-07-08T12:40:25","date_gmt":"2015-07-08T12:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/?p=37665"},"modified":"2016-09-21T13:18:11","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T13:18:11","slug":"the-parchment-burnedthe-letters-ascended","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/the-parchment-burnedthe-letters-ascended\/","title":{"rendered":"The Parchment Burned\u2026The Letters Ascended\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

We cried out to the Eternal from the harsh sting of Pharaoh\u2019s whip.\u00a0 We wept by the waters of Babylon, bereft that our glorious Temple had been destroyed and we were driven to exile.\u00a0 We were lost and vulnerable when we were cast out to the four corners of the globe when the Romans destroyed the Second Temple.\u00a0 In the centuries since, we have endured persecution at the hands of governments and thugs. Our own part in the narrative has smokestacks as backdrop.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

It is true, in each generation a Haman arises to plague us.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is it any wonder that it is both easy and understandable to view Jewish history as a narrative of distress and persecution?\u00a0 Yes, we have suffered.\u00a0 We have cried out to the Almighty to save us, to deliver us.\u00a0 We have ached and we have bled.\u00a0 We have been packed in railway crates and marched to the crematoria.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, we have suffered.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

We have been murdered.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Is there a lesson to be learned from our experience?\u00a0 Is there transcendence to be realized from our suffering?\u00a0 We have known the darkness of the darkest night.\u00a0 Is it, as Rabbi Soloveichik taught, that in the midst of every galut<\/span> there is geula<\/span>; that there can be no night without the morning to come?\u00a0 The world moves on, leaving behind and forgetting those who suffered and died.\u00a0 Is my father\u2019s lesson, that those who perished left us with a clear mission \u2013 to live and thrive, to build a Jewish world, true?<\/span><\/p>\n

Not so long ago, my dear wife, Clary, and I were sitting on \u201cour\u201d bench in Yerushalaim\u2019s Keren Hayesod Street. From there we could see the beautiful stained glass windows embracing the Beit Knesset on the ground floor of Rehov Washington 12.\u00a0 As we sat enjoying the Jerusalem breeze, Clary could not take her eyes from those windows.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\"photo4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is it?\u201d I asked her.<\/span><\/p>\n

Slowly, and with tears in her eyes, she recalled the stained glass windows in the bombed-out shul in her native Szerencs, Hungary hometown.\u00a0 Her last memories of the shul was only of those windows.\u00a0 The interior had been destroyed and desecrated by the Nazis.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I reached across to hold her hand, I could only imagine the image in her mind\u2019s eye and how seeing these beautiful windows in our rebuilt Yerushalaim had caused her memories to be rekindled.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I looked at her, I could not help but remember my father, Rav Yosef ben Harav Bezalel Ze\u2019ev and his community of fifty thousand.\u00a0 Elected to be chief rabbi at only twenty-seven years of age, an acknowledgement of his deep learning and wisdom, he brought together a community committed to unity, education and tradition.\u00a0 Each member of the community was as a member of his family, dear to him.<\/span><\/p>\n

As chief rabbi, he together with my mother, Esther, were witness to the full brutality of the infamous pogrom in Iasi, Romania in June 1941.\u00a0 Three days of terror, described by historians as one of the most horrific and inhumane in Jewish history.\u00a0 He was one of the first to be shot, sustaining wounds to his legs.\u00a0 During those three days, thirteen thousand, thirteen thousand<\/span>, were brutally and gruesomely slaughtered. <\/span><\/p>\n

I thought of the horrors that befell the Hungarian Jewish community in those dark days of Shoah and destruction, a dynamic community of hundreds of thousands of good Jews, blessed by rebbes, rabbanim, shuls, yeshivas, centers of Jewish life and lore.\u00a0 A Jewish community in which Clary\u2019s parents Reb Shiya Guttmann and his beloved Alte Rochel Leah were separated, \u00a0each to another part of hell on earth.\u00a0 He, alone.\u00a0 She, with her five kinderlach.\u00a0 Soon after their arrival in Auschwitz the children were taken from her.\u00a0 In anguish and desperation, she begged the cursed officer, \u201cWhere are my children?\u00a0 Where are my children?\u201d He, rasha <\/span>that he was, held her with the cold, cruel glint in his eye.\u00a0 He nodded up toward the sky.\u00a0 \u201cYour children, look up there at the top\u00a0of \u00a0the chimney.\u00a0 Do you see the smoke coming out?\u201d\u00a0 She looked up, confused by his words.\u00a0 He laughed harshly.\u00a0 \u201cThat smoke. There are your children!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Talmud tells of the time Rabbi Chananya ben Tradyon went to visit Rabbi Yosi ben Kisma when he had taken sick.\u00a0 Rabbi Kisma said, \u201cChanaya my brother, don\u2019t you know that this nation [the Roman Empire] has been empowered by Heaven, allowed to destroy His House, burn his Sanctuary, kill His pious ones.\u00a0 They will burn you and the sifrei Torah together\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, the Roman Empire wreaked destruction upon the Jewish Community, sparing no one.\u00a0 Certainly not Rabbi Chananya ben Tradyon.\u00a0 True to Rabbi Kisma\u2019s vision, Rabbi Chananya was burned at the stake, wrapped in the blessed Torah scroll.\u00a0 The Romans had placed moist cotton over his heart to prolong the process of his death, increasing his pain and agony.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the tzadik was burning with the sefer Torah, the Romans mocked him by deriding him with the obvious.\u00a0 \u201cOh, teacher.\u00a0 Do you see the flames consuming you?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

His disciples came close, feeling the heat from the fire as they drew closer still.\u00a0 \u201cRabbi, what do you see?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Incredibly, a smile flickered across the rabbi\u2019s lips.\u00a0 \u201cI see the parchment being consumed by the flames,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cBut the letters\u2026 the letters I see flying off.\u00a0 They remain.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The evil guard at Auschwitz saw only the smoke coming from the smokestacks of the crematoria.\u00a0 He saw the flesh being consumed.<\/span><\/p>\n

He did not have eyes to see the children flying heavenward, forever to remain.<\/span><\/p>\n

* * *<\/span><\/p>\n

I held Clary\u2019s hand that day as we looked across Keren Hayesod at the stained glass windows and I said, \u201cWe will write a sefer Torah to be placed in that shul!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She looked at me, the tears continuing to well up in her eyes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our home,\u201d I said to her.\u00a0 \u201cThis is ours.\u00a0 We are here to stay.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"photo2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

* * *<\/span><\/p>\n

Each letter, precious.\u00a0 Each letter, holy.\u00a0 Within each, the entirety of Torah.\u00a0 Within the entirety of Torah, each letter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each child, precious.\u00a0 Each child, holy.\u00a0 Within each, the entirety of creation.\u00a0 Within the entirety of creation, each child.<\/span><\/p>\n

* * *<\/span><\/p>\n

The final mitzvah of the Torah rings with hope and joy, Veata<\/em> kisvu<\/em> lachem es ha\u2019shira hazos<\/em><\/span>, \u201cSo now write this song for yourselves.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

What an awesome command!\u00a0 To write a sefer Torah; to commit to the scroll each and every letter.\u00a0 We know that there are six hundred thousand letters in the Torah. This number is, of course, significant in and of itself.\u00a0 For it not only alludes to the name of our people and nation, but also to the number of Jewish souls counted in the first census in the desert after we had been freed from our slavery.\u00a0 Six hundred thousand, the number representative of all klal Yisrael<\/span>.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

The Pnei Yehoshua explains, based on the Shloh, that every Jew has within his soul one particular mitzva that is attached to one particular letter in the Torah<\/span>. All the souls of klal Yisrael <\/span>are inherent in the letters of Torah, letters each and every Jew claims rights to!\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

The Ari z\u2019l <\/span>taught that the soul of each and every Jew is rooted in a letter in the Torah, that each letter has a spiritual power to them because each originates at the Heavenly throne, the same place where all souls originate; and thus each is linked to a letter.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is because of this truth that hachnossas sefer torah<\/span> is such an incredible and astonishing simcha<\/span>.\u00a0 Not simply because another sefer Torah is added to the aron hakodesh <\/span>in Ohel Yitzchak, the shul that received our Torah, and not simply because another sefer Torah was added to the thousands all over Eretz Yisrael.\u00a0 No, this incredible simcha <\/span>is not the consequence of an accrual <\/span>but quite the opposite.\u00a0 It is astonishing in the uniqueness and singularity of the mitzvah.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

This is, in truth, personal.\u00a0 Each and every Jew rejoices\u00a0with the hachnasas sefer Torah<\/span> because each and every Jew can truly and deeply know that he has a letter in it<\/span>.\u00a0 Each can correctly claim, \u201cIt is mine!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Who would ever ask a yid at his son\u2019s or grandson\u2019s bar mitzvah or wedding, \u201cWhy are you so happy?\u00a0 Why do you dance with such a lightness and joy?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Why?\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Because this is a celebration of what is mine!\u00a0 It is besori<\/span>! This is my <\/span>flesh and blood! So it is that each and every yid is so mesameiach<\/span> at a hachnasas sefer\u00a0Torah<\/span>.\u00a0 This is mine!\u00a0 This is my letter!<\/span><\/p>\n

Each and every Jew commands a place at this table.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

* * *\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The source of the mitzvah to write a sefer Torah is in Vayelech, veata<\/em> kisvu lachem es ha\u2019shira hazos<\/em><\/span>.\u00a0 These words conjure up the fullness of the simcha <\/span>associated with the mitzvah.\u00a0 But, on either side of this mighty and joyful pasuk <\/span>are words that fill us not with joy but with fear and trembling.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this same parasha<\/span>, we find Moshe Rabeinu nearing the end of his life.\u00a0 He tells the Levi\u2019im whose task it was to carry the Aron, to take this sefer torah \u201cve samtam oso mitzad aron bris Hashem Elokeichem, vehoyo sham lecha l\u2019eid<\/em>.<\/span>\u201d Take this <\/span>sefer Torah \u2013 exactly which sefer Torah remains to be revealed \u2013 and\u00a0place it next to the tablets and, \u201cit shall serve on to you forever as a witness.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

The Da\u2019as Zekeinim, citing a Midrash, teaches that Moshe Rabeinu was instructed to place a copy of the sefer Torah with each tribe \u2013 twelve copies.\u00a0 It was the thirteenth copy that was to be placed next to the Luchos in the Aron. But when exactly did God instruct Moshe to place that thirteenth sefer Torah into the Aron? <\/span><\/p>\n

On zayin Adar! On the seventh of Adar. <\/span><\/p>\n

Thousands of years ago, Moshe Rabeinu was born on zayin Adar.\u00a0 It is also the date of his yahrzeit.\u00a0\u00a0 It is also the yahrzeit of the sainted Kalever rebbe. Clary has often told me of how her father, Reb Shiya z\u2019l<\/span>, would\u00a0wait all year to go to the\u00a0Kalever\u2019s yahrzeit.\u00a0 \u201cMen furt kein kaliv<\/span><\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 We\u2019re going to Kalev.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zayin Adar.\u00a0 A day filled with awe and kedusha<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

* * *<\/span><\/p>\n

Zayin Adar.\u00a0 A day profound and holy.\u00a0 The day Clary and I dedicated our Torah.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zayin Adar.\u00a0 We placed a Torah in the \u201cAron next to the luchos<\/span>.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The Midrash and Dass Zekeinim say that, \u201con that day, zayin Adar yorad gavriel<\/span><\/em>\u2026\u201d \u2013 the Angel Gabriel descended and took the sefer Torah of Moshe Rabeinu and brought\u00a0it up on high to the Heavenly Court\u00a0so that the malochim <\/span>(angels) would know how great a tzadik Moshe Rabeinu was! <\/span><\/p>\n

Moshe Rabeinu was soon to leave this world.\u00a0 He joyfully placed the sefer Torah in the Aron. Velo od <\/span>\u2013 but that is not all!\u00a0 The Tzadikim up in the heaven took that sefer Torah and read in it, every single sheini v\u2019chamishi<\/span>, (Monday and Thursday) every Shabbos, and on roshei chodoshim<\/span> and yomim tovim<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Just imagine!\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My beloved parents.\u00a0 Clary\u2019s beloved parents.\u00a0 My brother-in-law, Yaakov Nussbaum, the kinderlach, Clary\u2019s five siblings\u00a0who perished oh so terribly young in Auschwitz\u2019s fiery hell. And Esther\u2019ke. Each of them, all of them, gathered together in shomayim<\/span> and, standing before the Heavenly gathering, they proclaim,\u00a0\u201cunsere kinderlech oben gebracht a neie sefer torah<\/span><\/em>\u201d \u2013 our children have sent up a new sefer Torah!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

They will read from it!\u00a0 Our joy is overwhelming, almost incomprehensible.\u00a0 In the moment we make this gift, the moment we fulfill this mitzvah, we hold hands with our parents and our loved ones; they, to\u00a0welcome the sefer Torah up in the Heaven, we, to welcome it here.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our emotions are beyond words.<\/span><\/p>\n

* * *<\/span><\/p>\n

V\u2019ata kisvu lachem es ha\u2019shira hazos<\/span>!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The preceding psukim communicate such utter despair!\u00a0 We hear in them both God\u2019s wrath and the concealment of His countenance.\u00a0 Hide Himself from us!\u00a0 Rashi suggests that this is the harshest of all prophecies, softened only somewhat because, \u201c\u2026no matter what, the Torah will not be forgotten by Israel.\u201d\u00a0 There will always be Jews yearning to write another sefer Torah.\u00a0 Yes, even we, the children of those who have suffered in the worst days of God\u2019s concealment!<\/span><\/p>\n

Can you hear these words of wrath and anger? \u201cMy anger will flare against it on that day and I will forsake them; and I will conceal My face\u2026\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

And yet the Torah tells us to go forward and write a sefer Torah.\u00a0 Write, \u201ces ha\u2019shira ha\u2019zos<\/span><\/em>\u201d \u2013 write this song<\/span> \u2013 a song<\/span>, something that connotes feeling, sensitivity, emotion, joy\u00a0\u2013 all that is conjured up when we hear a great chazzan, baal tefila<\/span>, menagen<\/span> who sings from his heart.<\/span><\/p>\n

We write the Torah with a song that springs from the depth of our souls.\u00a0 And this song, \u201cshall be for Me a witness against the Children of Israel.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0This Torah will go as witness wherever you go.\u00a0 Even if we stray from God and, \u201cturn to gods of others and serve them.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Should we do that, God will have no choice but punish us.\u00a0 \u201cIt will provoke Me and annul My covenant.\u201d\u00a0 And cause us to suffer more \u201cwhen many evils and distresses come upon it.\u201d A gevald! Oy vey !<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

This is so painful to hear.\u00a0 However, \u201cthen this song shall speak up before it as a witness, for it shall not be forgotten from the mouth of its offspring.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Such a dichotomy!\u00a0 Two opposed thoughts and emotions framing our song!\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

The smoke rises.\u00a0 The parchment burns.\u00a0 But the letters, the letters rise up for eternity.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We cried out to the Eternal from the harsh sting of Pharaoh\u2019s whip.\u00a0 We wept by the waters of Babylon, bereft that our glorious Temple had been destroyed and we were driven to exile.\u00a0 We were lost and vulnerable when we were cast out to the four corners of the globe when the Romans destroyed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":296,"featured_media":37667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[359],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-three-weeks"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Parchment Burned\u2026The Letters Ascended<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In each generation a Haman arises to plague us. what lesson are we to learn from our experience; what transcendence can be realized from our suffering?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/the-parchment-burnedthe-letters-ascended\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Parchment Burned\u2026The Letters Ascended\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In each generation a Haman arises to plague us. what lesson are we to learn from our experience; what transcendence can be realized from our suffering?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/the-parchment-burnedthe-letters-ascended\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jewish Holidays\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OrthodoxUnion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-07-08T12:40:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-09-21T13:18:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/photo4-e1474463842105.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2592\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1730\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rabbi Eliyahu Safran\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rabbi Eliyahu Safran\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"11 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/the-parchment-burnedthe-letters-ascended\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/the-parchment-burnedthe-letters-ascended\/\",\"name\":\"The Parchment Burned\u2026The Letters Ascended\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/the-parchment-burnedthe-letters-ascended\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/the-parchment-burnedthe-letters-ascended\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/photo4-e1474463842105.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-08T12:40:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-21T13:18:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#\/schema\/person\/af580ccfedbee71f895aab709f82f98f\"},\"description\":\"In each generation a Haman arises to plague us. what lesson are we to learn from our experience; 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