Why we go from mourning to celebration

By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal

Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal
Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal

SAN DIEGO — As I reviewed Parashat Sh’mini, images from the Shoah (the Holocaust) flashed in my mind. Parashat Sh’mini begins with instructions about the sacrifices Israelites made in the Mishkan in the desert and later the Temple in Jerusalem: “Fire came forth from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat parts on the altar.” (Lev. 9:17) As I read this passage I thought about the millions of Jews whose bodies were burned in the crematoria of the death camps.

These images were not far from my mind because the bulk of my teaching this week has been about the Holocaust. On Thursday, April 16, Jews the world over commemorated Yom Hashoa, a day of remembrance and mourning. Following services this Shabbat, April 18, Holocaust survivors and Tifereth Israel Synagogue members, Rose and Max Schindler, will share their recent experience returning to Poland.

Our older Ratner Torah School classes will hold a commemoration this Sunday, April 19 at 11:30 a.m. to which the congregation is invited, and that afternoon at 1:30 p.m., the San Diego community will gather for a communal commemoration at the Lawrence Family JCC.

I am no stranger to films and books about the Shoah. I took a formal class during my junior year of college at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Yet, I was unprepared for the thoughts and emotions that welled up inside me this week when I showed a group of adults and a group of teens the 1982 Academy Award winning documentary, Genocide, that was produced by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Even though I had seen the film before, facts registered that I had not noticed before, such as the United States having 400,000 unfilled immigration slots which could have saved Jews during the years of the war). Other facts I was well aware of, yet continued to be astounded by, such as the brutality of the Nazis and their accomplices, conducting unethical medical experiments, murdering infants, raping women, forcing Jews to dig their own graves, and of course, the gas chambers, crematoria, and the refusal of the Allies to bomb and destroy them.

Remembering the Shoah is sad and depressing, not only as a Jew, but as a human being. It’s impossible to understand the cruelties that human beings continue to perpetuate upon one another and continued genocide today.

However, our faith demands that we not dwell on death but rather choose life. In the book of Esther after the Jews of Persia vanquished their enemies, Mordecai instructed the Jews to celebrate the days, “on which the Jews enjoyed relief from their foes” and “been transformed for them from days of grief and mourning to ones of festive joy.” (Esther 9:20-22)

It is with this message in mind that we must turn from the mourning of Yom Hashoah this week to the celebration of Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel Independence Day, in the coming week, on Thursday, April 23. The State of Israel affirms that despite the evil we have faced, am Yisrael chai, the people of Israel continue to live and thrive within the borders of their own country and throughout the world. In the face of continued threats from Iran and other purveyors of radical Islam, we affirm our right to life and to self-defense. We affirm that, despite past and present anti-Semitism, we celebrate being members of a people that brought monotheism and ethical and moral values to the world.

Our Torah School will celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut during class on April 26. The entire community is invited to celebrate that day at Israel Fest San Diego from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Nobel Athletic Field.

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Rabbi Rosenthal is spiritual leader of Tifereth Israel Synagogue.  You may comment to him at leonard.rosenthal@sdjewishworld.com, or post your comment on this website provided that the rules below are observed.

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