At the beginning of January my yeshiva went on a trip to Poland to visit ghettos and death camps to learn about the Holocaust first-hand. Leading up to the trip, I studied the book (in hebrew sefer), “אש קודש” holy fire, written by Rav Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, also known as the Piaseczna Rebbe. The Piaseczna Rebbe was imprisoned in the Warsaw ghetto and gave weekly sermons on the parsha there. I learned the sermons he gave on the book of Genesis, and below are my reflections that I gave to the yeshiva while we were at the Majdanek death camp, which is where Rav Shapira was murdered
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“It is indeed a wonder how the world exists after so much screaming… yet now, innocent children, pure angels, even the greatest, holiest, Jews are murdered and butchered just because they are Jews… and the world does not turn back into water? It remains standing steadfast”
These are the words of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, a polish Hasidic rebbe also known as the piaseczna rebbe, gave to his students in the Warsaw ghetto on parashar chukat. In the suffering and pain of the ghetto, Rabbi Shapira gave weekly parsha shiurim about salvation, spiritual resistance, suffering, and divine intervention.
These shiurim were written down and saved in the Oneg Shabbat archives underground and were found after the war, later republished as a book called “Esh Kodesh” - Holy Fire.
After the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Rabbi Shapira was taken to the Trawniki slave labor camp, only a couple miles from here in Majdanek. He was shot in operation harvest festival, a massacre of 18,000 Jews in Majdanek and surrounding subcamps
As I was studying Esh Kodesh on the parshiyot of Bereshit, one specific piece I found meaningful was Parashat Vayigash 1940.
When Yaakov and Yosef meet after so many years apart, Yosef falls on the neck of Yaakov and cries -״ויפול על צואריו ויבך על צואריו
However, Yaakov does not cry along with him. Rashi writes that instead he said Kriyat Shema.
The Esh Kodesh asks why was Yaakov saying Kriyat Shema while Yosef was crying ,and why did Yosef not say as well if it was the time for it?
He answers that Yosef is crying about the future suffering the Israelites will endure in מצרים, and the words “צואריו”- “his neck” hint that Yosef is asking how will they be able to keep the yoke of mitzvot? Yaakov answers - by saying Kriyat Shema as a form of מסירת נפש, dedication of the soul.
During the times of death , starvation, disease, and hopelessness in the Ghetto - the Piaseczna Rebbe gave the Jews of the Ghetto hope. In the face of the nazis trying to physically and mentally destroy the Jewish people , he is giving them SPIRITUAL RESISTANCE- to recite Kriyat Shema. In their suffering and pain the shema could maybe provide light amidst the darkness.
The cry of Yosef is the same cry of the fathers mothers brothers and sisters in the ghetto, the cries of Jews of majdanek going to the gas chambers.
Yaakov saying Kriyat shema is the response to those cries: we are still proud Jews with our heads up high and answering “שמע ישראל ד אלקינו ד אחד”.
I’m dedicating this siyum to all the members of my family who perished in the Holocaust, specifically Chanoch Sender, my grandfather’s cousin.
Chanoch Sender was born in Pozna, Poland, on may 15th 1937, to rabbi Dovid Shia and Esther Sender. Here is a copy of his birth certificate.
Rav Dovid Sender studied in Yeshivat Chachmei Lublin and was the chief the rabbi of Pozna from 1935-1939 until the Nazis took over the city. This Polish city is remarkable because it had continuous Jewish presence since the 1300s, and every generation was led by great rabbis, including rabbi Akiva Eger. As the chief rabbi of Pozna, he gave public Gemara shiurim, and gave special shiurim for students and academics who wanted to combine Jewish and general studies topics.
Rav Sender, Esther and Chanoch were sent to the Warsaw ghetto. Rav Sender was then imprisoned by the gestapo and tortured totutred by commandant Haas, known as the “hunter”’ for his sadistic torture. We don’t know exactly what happened to Rabbi Sender and his family, but it is likely that they were sent to Treblinka and killed in the gas chambers, Chanoch being only 4-5 at the time of his death.
Chanoch, along with the children murdered here in majdanek, and 1.3 million total Jewish children murdered, never got to grow up. They never had the opportunity to laugh, cry, and love. To have a bar or bar mitzvah. To learn Torah for a year. To get married and raise a family.
We must ensure that the legacy of the children who perished must go on. Their lives must not be lost in vain. How could we try to do this?
First, because they were not able to live out their lives, we must live ours to the fullest.
Second, as Elie Wiesel said, “Action is the only remedy to indifference: the most insidious danger of all.” We cannot be bystanders to injustice, as so many were during the Holocaust. We must speak up against antisemitism, and all other forms of hatred.
This Sefer was called name holy fire אש קודש because it came out from fire that killed Jews Al kiddush hashem-for being Jewish. But today , standing here at a place of death, we are not a holy fire of destruction, rather a holy fire that can bring light to the world. A fire that learns, cares, speaks up, and loves.
As a testament that the Torah of the Piasezna Rebbe lives on, lets finish with the words of spiritual resistance he gave to his students:
שמע ישראל ד אלקינו ד אחד
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