BECAUSE OF OUR SINS?
July, 1941
ACCORDING to Jewish custom the three weeks from Tammuz 17th to Av 9th are regarded as days of mourning. Twice in our ancient history a double national catastrophe occurred in this period: the piercing of the walls of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple. Remembering these tragedies, the Jewish nation customarily observes certain signs of mourning during the so-called “Drei Wochen”.
Although even the second of those events happened almost two thousand years ago, they are not only remembered, they are remembered because they are still felt by us.
The Jewish Question is certainly no mere dream of the past; it is the nightmare of the present. It is part of our daily life. Yet the Jewish Question was created 2,000 years ago. Then, when the walls of Jerusalem were broken through and the Temple went up in flames.
True, this is an old story, it happened very very long ago. And yet, millions of Jews feel it as if it had happened yesterday. For the wound is still aching; it could not heal. It has been kept open by the consequences of that one great national tragedy: the fall of the Jewish State. All the subsequent sufferings of the Jews, up to the present destruction of European Jewries which we have witnessed, all our miseries in the various countries of the world, can be traced back in a straight line to that one important event of 2,000 years ago.
People often think Jews have too good memories. All our Jewish life to-day is built up of mere reminiscences. For us there is always something to remember that happened so long ago that no other nation on earth would ever care to remember it. The destruction of the Temple, the Fall of Jerusalem…. Why not forget it? What good can there be in nursing the memories of an unhappy past?
The answer is: that we Jews have no exceptionally good memories. It is not true that we do not try to forget. On the contrary, whenever a Jew has a chance to forget, he is only too eager to do so. Jews, usually, wish to get rid of all the nightmares of their past, even more than is good for them. Whenever they are left in peace, they will forget. Yes, whenever they have a chance….
But, when are they granted the chance of forgetting? Whenever we are about to forget, something happens to remind us that we are only Jews, homeless and powerless, guests in the world and at the mercy of others; that once upon a time the life of the Jew was different, for there was the Temple, there was Jerusalem, there was a Home for a Jew, a place where he belonged to, there was—there is no more.
We cannot forget because they in the world around us do not allow us to forget.
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There is, of course, the old question which is so often asked by Jews in these days. Why must there always be some kind of Jewish tragedy in order to remind us of the tragedies of the past? Why must there always be some new destruction of Jewish existence to remind us of the “Churban” of the past? Why should Jewish history be a continuous story of **Cf. the Hebrew name of a weekly portion of the Law, “Matot-u-Massey”.“sticks and wanderings”, of persecution and homelessness?
The traditional reply to such questions is: All this has come upon us “because of our sins”. The story of suffering that commenced with the destruction of the Temple is due to the sins of our people.
No longer is this a satisfactory explanation. No longer is it true to say that we have deserved it. We have not, and God Himself is our witness that we have not deserved it.
I have seen Jewish sins, and I have seen Jewish sufferings. What I have not seen is the just relationship between punishment and sin. We still remember the sufferings of Russian Jewry under the Tsarist state, and later the pogroms in the Ukraine at the close of the last war. Let us speak the truth, however contrary it may be to the conception of “Because-of-our-sins”: Russian Jewry did not deserve it.
We know of the Jewish persecutions in the “gallant” anti-Semitic Poland between the two wars, and we know equally well that Polish Jewry did not deserve it.
With my own eyes I have seen the systematic and ruthless destruction of German Jewry and I do not hesitate to declare that, in spite of its sins, German Jewry did not deserve it.
We know of the mass-slaughtering of Jews in Rumania, of the untold sufferings of millions of our brethren in the whole of that tremendous battle-area in Eastern Europe to-day. Who would dare say that they are passing through such hell because of their sins?
No, I do not believe in “because-of-our-sins”.
What I believe is that we have been suffering for two thousand years not because of our sins but because of the sins of the world, because of the sins of the nations in whose midst we have had to live.
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To illustrate the point I have made, let me give one important historic example.
In Talmud and Midrash we find a number of reasons for the fall of Jerusalem. They all follow the line of “because-of-our-sins”. I will offer an explanation that is much more in keeping with the teaching of history.
The Jewish State fell because in moral development it was far in advance of the rest of the world, too near to becoming a true Kingdom of God on earth. It fell because the Jewish nation did not sin as much as was needed at that time in order to maintain the existence of an independent State.
This is our argument: For many a century the record of the Jewish State was as bad as that of most of its neighbours. But it never was as good as at the time of its destruction. It was the time at which the religious reforms of Ezra were the everyday law of Jewish life. It was the period in which the greatest teachers of Israel lived and brought up numberless pupils; the epoch in which Sh’mayah and Abtalyon, the great Hillel and Shammai were the recognised national authorities; the time of Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai, who in spite of all his greatness was only the least among his colleagues and friends. If there ever lived a generation worthy of the land, it was this one. But yet, the Temple was destroyed and Jerusalem lost. Why?—Because of the sins of the nations around Jerusalem. Because in a world in which barbarous Rome was mistress, in the midst of states ruled by force and crime and intrigue, no state could exist that was striving to become the Kingdom of God on earth, to be governed by the rule of the Torah.
In the midst of a world dominated by the madness of Cæsars, there was no place for a state in which men like Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai were the great national authorities. Such a state could not exist. It had to disappear, not so much because of its own sins but mainly because the world was not yet ripe for it.
The same thread runs through the whole course of Jewish history since then. The nations have not yet been able to cede equality to the Jew, who is claiming nothing but his right to live. Just as in the past the world was morally not ripe for a Jewish State, so in the present the nations have not yet grown up so far as to recognise and to accept the existence of the Jewish nation. The endless suffering of our people is the measure of the immaturity of the world.
Only one thing could change the plight of the Jew: the betterment of mankind. For this we have been waiting these two thousand years. Unfortunately, the process is a very slow one.
People often ask: Why does God not intervene with some miracle to help us? A miracle would mean changing all the laws of nature. It would mean that the sword should not hurt, the bullet not kill; that a concentration camp should overnight turn into a sort of earthly paradise. Dare we ask for as much as all that? Dare we pray for such a miracle that would change the whole course of world history, only because we are suffering? Are we worthy of such a miracle? Here, I do refer to our sins. One of the reasons why the miracle cannot happen is “because-of-our-sins”.
We suffer because of the sins of the world; we are not redeemed by some miracle because of our own sins. This is the key to Jewish history since the fall of Jerusalem.
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Speaking of redemption we would add a few words on the new Eretz-Israel.
For many a month now, we have felt deep anxiety for the Land.**In the summer of 1941 victorious Axis armies were advancing towards the Near East. Eretz-Israel is in danger. But this is no surprise. It is the most natural thing on earth that at a critical moment when all the hopes of humanity are in jeopardy, Eretz-Israel—this great symbol of Justice and Truth—should also be menaced. There would be reason for anxiety if Eretz-Israel could be exempted from a peril that threatens to engulf all the moral purposes of man. Eretz-Israel cannot flourish in a corrupt world. It is too holy, too noble for that.
There is a saying in the Talmud which may help us. **Cf. Talmud Megillah, 6A.Referring to Cæsarea—which was the headquarters of Rome in Judea—and Jerusalem, it runs: “Do not believe people who tell you that they are happily settled together. Believe those who tell you that Cæsarea is destroyed and Jerusalem peacefully established, or that Jerusalem is destroyed and Cæsarea established…. ”
In other words: Jerusalem and the symbol of evil and wickedness cannot exist side by side. Jerusalem cannot grow in a world in which wickedness is triumphant, as wickedness cannot flourish in a world in which Jerusalem is happy.
The living-space of our nation is freedom, truth, justice, and peace. This is the explanation of the Jewish tragedy. The Jewish State was destroyed, we went into exile because there was no living-space for us; no living-space for justice and reason and humanity. This, however, is also the very root of our hope. For we know that one day the power of evil will be wiped out, and living-space on earth will mean—decency on earth. This is all we need for Jewish happiness.
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Of course, people might say: All this is very well, but not more than a hope for a distant future. What about tomorrow? What about the immediate danger to Eretz-Israel?
There is a reply to this question in terms of what we have called the Strategy of Faith. It was given many centuries ago in the Midrash: ††Midrash Rabbah, Genesis 42 and Numbers 13.“On the day of the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem the Jewish nation received a perfect guarantee for the future. For it is said in the Bible: ‘The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O Daughter of Zion; He will no more carry thee away into captivity’.”
This is the faith upon which we shall build the Jewish future. Whatever the dangers and threats, there will be no new exile from the Land. We are living in the period of the re-building of the Land; once it has started it will not end before the redemption has been completed. Whatever may happen, the New Eretz-Israel will remain, thanks to that great Strategy of Faith by which we Jews lived in the past and by which we shall live to see a better day.