2/2/10

The Holocaust Denial of Orthodox Judaism



[Thoughts reposted from 4-15-07. Haven't changed our opinion.]

Orthodoxy claims to be the most authentic form of Judaism. All those fasts and feasts and taboos and rituals - who can surpass the Orthodox? The special clothing, the mannerisms, the cloistered study of Torah - who can deny that they are the real deal?

It's time to look again.

The Tanakh teaches us that our history matters. What happens to the Jews is real and meaningful and G-d is visible to us through our history.

It's up to us to recognize that and to be the active protagonists in the historical role that's been decreed for us.

Denying that is heresy.

And that's what the Orthodox have been doing for years...
Denying the story of the Holocaust has theological meaning and should be part of our faith and ritual.
Denying the State of Israel has theological meaning and should be part of our faith and ritual.
You will point to a few meager prayers and say that I am wrong. I will point to book after book, lecture after lecture, that refuses to acknowledge any theological meaning in the reality of our people's sadness and triumphs over the past century.

By not recognizing the sadness of the Holocaust at the center of our religious life - that is the real crime of Holocaust denial.

By not recognizing the triumphs of the State of Israel every day, three times a day, and in a glorious and central expression of our practice and preaching - that is another crime of gross denial.

And so the most pious looking can also be the most heretical.

That's my koan for today.
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7 comments:

  1. Anonymous4/15/2007 2:10 PM

    You can be really sick sometimes.

    If anything, the orthodox community were the only ones who sought to preserve and reestablish a world and a lifestyle nearly destroyed by the nazis.

    unlike the many who chose to deny their judaism save for traditionalism and jewish "culture"

    ReplyDelete
  2. Drew Kaplan4/15/2007 2:37 PM

    R' Tzvee,
    I would suggest a qualification here: it's not all of Orthodoxy, but rather right-wing Orthodoxy. Left-wing Orthodoxy seems to be making attempts at doing just what you suggest.

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  3. Anonymous4/15/2007 3:38 PM

    You know the theological meaning of the Holocaust? Please share.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tzvee Zahavy4/15/2007 3:47 PM

    Drew, I don't see the fruits of those attempts.

    Andy, See Devarim, Joshua, Judges, Samuel I and II and Kings I and II for starters. History - good and bad - matters.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous4/15/2007 3:55 PM

    Yes, but then we had prophets who could interpret the meaning of these events.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Tzvee Zahavy4/15/2007 6:43 PM

    Suffering is not new to Judaism. So I do not see the urgency to respond.

    The point is that the Holocaust and rise of the State must be subsumed into the mythic structure of the religion because (1) it is by far the most dramatic chapter of Jewish suffering and redemption and (2) the proximity of the events - the rise of the State of Israel - out of the ashes of Auschwitz - calls out as a story that must be told - in the center of the religious life of Judaism - not on its periphery - hedged and double hedged - philosophized and double philosophized. Just tell it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous4/18/2007 12:09 AM

    "By not recognizing the sadness of the Holocaust at the center of our religious life - that is the real crime of Holocaust denial."

    You don't know how many people fled Judaism because their Hebrew teachers made the Holocaust the center of their religious life.

    ReplyDelete

I welcome your comments.