Holocaust theology
Encyclopedia
Holocaust theology refers to a body of theological
and philosophical
debate and reflection, and related literature
, primarily within Judaism
, that attempts to come to grips with various conflicting views about the role of God
in the universe and the human
world in light of the Holocaust
of the late 1930s and 1940s when approximately 11 million people, including 6 million Jews, were subjected to genocide
by the Nazi
regime and its allies. "Holocaust theology" is also referred to as "Theologie nach Auschwitz" (German: "Theology after Auschwitz" or "Post-Auschwitz Theology"), due to the common practice of using Auschwitz to represent
the Holocaust as a whole.
Judaism
, Christianity
, and Islam
traditionally have taught that God is omnipotent
(all powerful), omniscient
(all knowing) and omnibenevolent
(all good). These claims seem to be in jarring contrast with the fact that there is much evil
in the world. Perhaps the most difficult question that monotheists have confronted is how can we reconcile the existence of this view of God with the existence of evil? This is the problem of evil as described in the Book of Job
.
Within all the monotheistic faiths many answers (theodicies
) have been proposed. However, in light of the magnitude of evil seen in the Holocaust, many people have re-examined classical views on this subject. A common question is, "How can people still have any kind of faith after the Holocaust?"
The classic tradition of Jewish scholarship and spirituality, embodied in its historic texts, comprises many interpretations of Biblical and Rabbinic
Judaism
. They vary from legal, imaginative and philosophical endeavours, to esoteric mystical theologies. Together they form a scholarly culture that the Jews carried and evolved, through their historic journeys. This tradition of thought developed from its own sources, and also sometimes through intellectual encounters with other traditions, giving and receiving ideas in turn. The revealed theology of Judaism, affected Western thought through its adapted forms in Christianity. Meanwhile, the other source of Western culture, arose from humanistic philosophy
of Ancient Greece, based on independent thought from first principles. When the Jewish community was granted social rights after the Enlightenment
, they developed their own religious and philosophical responses to Modern thought. These varied from re-commitment and reinterpretation of traditional observance, through synthesising embraces of the best of both worlds, to radical or revisionist reassessments of historical Judaism. In each of these approaches, new creativity emerged, with new theological and philosophical interpretations. Hasidic Philosophy
developed Jewish mysticism in new ways. Litvish Orthodoxy formed new approaches to Talmudic scholarship and Mussar (Ethical introspection). Both of these Eastern European civilizations continued the theoretical interpretation of Lurianic Kabbalah, which underpins Haredi Jewish belief until today. Modern Orthodox Judaism
thinkers reinterpreted Judaism in the language of modern secular philosophy and scholarship. The Haskalah
gave birth to critical, academic approaches to Judaism, beginning with the 19th Century German "Wissenschaft des Judentums
" ("Science of Judaism") movement. Theologians from non-Orthodox Jewish denominations
expressed a range of revisionist views of Jewish spirituality and scholarship. New schools, such as Jewish existentialism
, could find new meaning in Revelation
, outside of Orthodox Judaism
.
Historical developments of Jewish thought could rediscover new meaning in earlier traditions. The early scholars of the Haskalah
(Jewish Enlightenment movement) rejected the mystical in Judaism, in common with the secular Western thought of their time, and their personal wish to leave behind the Shtetl
. This tendency was shared with the prevalent values of the Western secular Enlightenment of their time, that sought to rationalise Revelation
. The philosophical father of Haskalah, Moses Mendelssohn
, could seek therefore to remove the mystical dimensions of Jewish spirituality. The birth of academic scholarship of Kabbalah
under Gershom Scholem
, and the search for deeper Jewish spirituality, in the 20th Century, rediscovered Jewish mysticism for Jews of all denominations today. New movements of Jewish Renewal
and Neo-Hasidism
, could find spiritual and philosophical insights from Jewish mysticism, outside of Orthodoxy. This likewise reflects wider currents of thought in Western society, from the non-mechanistic and neo-mystical aspects of 20th Century Science and Mathematics, to philosophical and artistic interest in the values of cultural identity.
The developments in 19th and 20th century Jewish life, encompass the greatest changes and upheavals in a short space of time, to take place in Jewish history
. Similar changes characterise wider history, but the individuality of the Jewish experience, makes their encounter with the events and ideas of modernity, especially turbulent. In one century, they experienced the tragedy of the Holocaust, with the end of the great centres of Jewish life, followed by the historical return to their Biblical homeland, with the parallel reestablishment of Jewish study and spirituality in Israel and America. The two watershed events of the Holocaust
and the birth of Israel
, affect the religious and philosophical interpretations of Jews today. The diversity of Jewish theological responses to the Holocaust, are shaped by the history of previous Jewish thought. The great texts, ideas and creative developments in Jewish thought, give the background to more recent interpretations. Both traditional and revisionist theological responses to the Holocaust, can adapt or reinterpret previous Jewish ideas, so they are best understood in the context of their wider background. Among the different theological responses, and their wider contexts, Jews have had to the Holocaust are:
called mi-penei hataeinu, "because of our sin
s we were punished". During Biblical times when calamities befell the Jewish people, the Jewish prophet
s stressed that suffering is a natural result of not following God's law, and prosperity, peace and health are the natural results of following God's law. In particular, the central text of Judaism, the Torah
, contains two passages called the "Tochachah" (Warnings) in Leviticus
and Deuteronomy
, that have been seen as fulfilled by future events of Jewish history.
In traditional Jewish thought, the fundamental belief in reward and punishment (included among Maimonides
` "Jewish Principles of Faith
") is given wider context, and various interpretations, that bring out its different aspects. For instance, the Biblical Prophets repeatedly chastised the people, and described how God was repulsed by their actions, and silent to their cries. When the warned calamities arrived, the Prophets shared in the persecution, and were sometimes rejected by their brethren. Nonetheless, throughout, the Prophets also poetically described God's deeper, unbreakable love of them. In traditional Jewish thought, Divine punishment is the unfolding of the processes of God's attribute of strict justice, usually mitigated or delayed by God's attribute of benevolent mercy. The purposes are many faceted, and can be explained on lower and higher levels.
Ethically, justice of God, like human justice, is a righteous ideal. Just as one "Mitzvah
" (Commandment) forbids man's vengeance, so God's punishments involve no vengeance. Spiritually, Midrashic and mystical commentaries describe how God suffers in man's pain, and is exiled alongside man's exile. The fate of the "Shechina" (Divine Presence) is bound up to man's fate and redemption. Philosophically, the many levels of traditional Jewish explanation for the Purpose of Creation, each require sin to be resolved and atoned for, through suffering or repentance. The most esoteric of these, in Kabbalah, describes metaphysical systems that give immense cosmic significance to man's actions.
Throughout the different levels of explanation for punishment, the ultimate purpose is always the eschatological aim and promise of God's love and complete Messianic
redemption. From the perspective of its ultimate purpose, suffering is seen as a Divine gift of love, though also a Divine and human tragedy. God's and man's urgent prayer is for the hidden "blessings" of pain to be "sweetened" to revealed blessings of bounty, through repentance and good deeds. This view of suffering as stemming from Divine love, is articulated in different language by the different levels of traditional Jewish thought, from the "Revealed" dimensions of Torah, to its mystical "Hidden" dimensions.
However, the alternative paths in Jewish spirituality, emphasize different dimensions of this. The path of Mussar
, brings God's justice and man's soul-searching to the fore. Divine awe and judgment is emphasised. The path of Mysticism(Kabbalah and Hasidism), reframes Judaism around the inner Divine soul, where pain is seen as love, and God's presence is seen in all events and creations. Drawing from the context of all these different and competing strands in traditional Jewish theology, some figures in Orthodox Judaism
have given diverse and opposite theological responses to the Holocaust.
Historically, the Biblical and Rabbinic response to national tragedy has been to look for theological causes in the shortcomings and sins of the people of Israel. In this tradition, some Orthodox figures have taught that the Jewish people in Europe were sinful, or their guilt had accumulated. In this view, the Holocaust is a just retribution from God. Other Orthodox theologians reject this approach, seeing the Holocaust as a unique tragedy, that could not be based on normal processes of reward and punishment.
for a reserved elite, known as Lithuanian Orthodoxy, saw itself as continuing and protecting the traditional forms of Jewish worship through advanced study. Secondly, the populist, mystical Jewish revival of Hasidism, that began in 18th century Ukraine, and later spread across other areas, celebrated sincerity above learning as a path to God, and embraced the common folk. As Hasidism developed, its leaders synthesised it with traditional learning, while the Lithuanian world came to be called Mitnagdim(Opponents), for their pious opposition to the Hasidic restructuring of Jewish thought and society. As both traditions encountered the secularising forces of Haskalah
(Enlightenment), and political Socialism and Zionism
, they reacted with a diversity of views, that today influence their different forms of Jewish thought and life.
This influential range of historical traditions, in forming the diversity of Haredi Judaism today, has given rise to a range of theological responses to the Holocaust. At heart lies the issue of whether the tragedy of the Holocaust, is different in nature to the preceding millennia of Jewish persecution. Traditional Biblical, Rabbinic and Kabbalistic thought has offered theological explanations for previous tragedies, from the reaction of the Prophets to Nebuchadnezzar
's destruction of Jerusalem and exile of the nation, to the Medieval Pogroms of Christendom. Because Haredi Judaism accords unique status to traditional Jewish thought, while downplaying the need to look to secular disciplines, it seeks theological answers from faithful reinterpretations of Judaism alone. In general, most views in the Haredi world tends to see the Holocaust in line with previous Rabbinic approaches, though there are notable and important exceptions. For those who take the traditional approach, they suggest theological explanations that might give a reason for the calamity, or a contributory reason, in accordance with the traditional Jewish worldview. In an age without open prophecy, it is questionable whether speculative interpretations like this are valid, if not obscene in view of the enormity of the Holocaust, though their proponents have sometimes been great figures in traditional Judaism. In traditional thought, the sufferings of the people of Israel, have deeper ethical and mystical causes, and require collective soul searching and return to God. It should be emphasised, to contextualise this idea, that in traditional thought, even the harsh decrees of God are hidden blessings, rather than merely punishments, a theme especially emphasised in Jewish mysticism. Those who see traditional types of explanation, would point to previous tragedies in Jewish history, that in their time had enormous destruction and hardship, such as the massive loss of life in Judea
under Titus
and Hadrian
. They would also refer to the dire warnings in Leviticus
and Deuteronomy
, called the sections of "Tochecha" (Warnings) for rebelliousness, alongside blessings for faithfulness, that are only chanted in an undertone, when read aloud in the annual cycle of reading.
For those within Haredi Judaism
, who favour ascribing causes, some blame the Holocaust on the abandonment of many European Jews of traditional Judaism, and their embrace of other ideologies such as Socialism
, Zionism
, or various non-Orthodox Jewish movements. Others suggest that God allowed the Nazis to persecute the Jews because Orthodox European Jews did not do enough to fight these trends, or did not support Zionism. In this Haredi theodicy
, the Jews of Europe were no longer protected by the Torah and faith, and the actions of God which allowed this were righteous and just. Those who propose views like this, would see their suggested causes as contributory triggers, while in a time of judgement all the community suffers, whether innocent or guilty. Ideas such as this, that can seem alien to non-Orthodox thought, have a context that softens their harshness. The Talmud
has a legal discussion of the nature of innocence and guilt. The rare "Apikorus" (Heretic), is contrasted with the "Tinnuk Shenishba" (Innocent captive brought up without knowledge of Judaism). Many Halachic authorities have decided that secular Jews today are figuratively in the second category, and should be encouraged with love to discover Judaism. If indeed, earlier generations were guilty of rejecting Jewish observance, this argument would apply to generations from the 19th century onwards. Those who see the Holocaust as the unfolding of God's attribute of Judgement, might say that the guilt accumulated for a few generations. More hidden Kabbalistic doctrines, involved in the "Mysteries of Creation", such as "Gilgulim" (Reincarnation), would also contribute processes. For Haredi proponents of causes, nonetheless, it should be emphasised that such views usually fit within an appreciation of the fundamental and essential processes of Divine love.
, who described it as blasphemous to depict God in this way. The roots of this view lie in the Hasidic, mystical love of every Jew, even potentially unworthy people. Basing himself on many sources in classic texts of Judaism, from the "Revealed" to the "Mystical", the Rebbe articulated the view that the Holocaust was a decree from God that is beyond human understanding in this world. He stated:
To those who argued that the Holocaust disproves the existence of God or His providence over our lives, Schneerson wrote:
He rejected the suggestion that the Holocaust was a punishment for the sins of that generation saying:
. When Rav Kook
passed away in 1935, Risikoff—with "a presentiment of the catastrophe" yet to come -- published a eulogy in which he put forth his belief that Kook might have been taken early to spare him from even worse times to come. His writings reveal his struggle to accept the idea that the Holocaust was punishment for sin, and a call to repentance—and early on considered that Hitler might be part of a divine plan. But he ultimately wrote that it was not possible to accept this idea, because such extreme suffering could never come from God, for God acted according to Torah
Risikoff may have been unique in terms of Holocaust theology regarding the role of the levitical tribe
. In his writings, especially in his book, HaKohanim vHaLeviim, The Priests and the Levites (New York:1940), he stressed that members of these groups exist in the realm between history (below) and redemption (above), and were called upon to take leading roles in a call to prayer, repentance, and action that would help bring an end to suffering. His writings reflected a combination of what has been called meta-history (ultimate redemption) and history, including the idea that part of the problem on earth was dishonesty not only among individuals, but also among nations. For example, he wrote that governments of a number of nations had promised Austria and Czechoslovakia that they would come to their defense if the need arose, but they ultimately broke their promises. He "distilled metahistory into history with his program for priestly action to mediate redemption."
Jews reject the idea that the Holocaust was God's fault. Modern Orthodox rabbis such as Joseph Soloveitchik
, Norman Lamm
, Randalf Stolzman, Abraham Besdin, Emanuel Rackman
, Eliezer Berkovits
and others have written on this issue; many of their works have been collected in a volume published by the Rabbinical Council of America
: Theological and Halakhic Reflections on the Holocaust (edited by Bernhard H. Rosenberg and Fred Heuman, Ktav/RCA, 1992).
Since that time Rubinstein has begun to move away from this view; his later works affirm a form of deism in which one may believe that God may exist as the basis for reality and some also include Kabbalistic
notions of the nature of God.
, William E. Kaufman, Milton Steinberg
believe that God is not omnipotent, and thus is not to blame for mankind's abuse of free will. Thus, there is no contradiction between the existence of a good God and the existence of massive evil by part of mankind. It is claimed that this is also the view expressed by some classical Jewish authorities, such as Abraham ibn Daud, Abraham ibn Ezra, and Gersonides.
is himself a Holocaust survivor from Hungary. He says that the effort to associate the Shoah and sin is morally outrageous. He holds that it is unwarranted on a strict reading of the Tanakh. He claims that it reinforces an alarming tendency among ultra-Orthodox leaders to exploit such arguments on behalf of their own authority. In "Prayer in the Shoah" he gives his response to the idea that the Holocaust was a punishment from God:
is a Modern Orthodox rabbi who has written extensively on how the Holocaust should affect Jewish theology. Greenberg has an Orthodox understanding of God. Like many other Orthodox Jews, he does not believe that God forces people to follow Jewish law; rather he believes that Jewish law is God's will for the Jewish people, and that Jews should follow Jewish law as normative.
Greenberg's break with Orthodox theology comes with his analysis of the implications of the Holocaust. He writes that the worst thing that God could do to the Jewish people for failing to follow the law is Holocaust-level devastation, yet this has already occurred. Greenberg is not claiming that God did use the Holocaust to punish Jews; he is just saying that if God chose to do so, that would be the worst possible thing. There really is not anything worse that one could do. Therefore, since God cannot punish us any worse than what actually has happened, and since God does not force Jews to follow Jewish law, then we cannot claim that these laws are enforceable on us. Therefore he argues that the covenant between God and the Jewish people is effectively broken and unenforceable.
Greenberg notes that there have been several terrible destructions of the Jewish community, each with the effect of distancing the Jewish people further from God. According to rabbinic literature, after the destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem and the mass-killing of Jerusalem's Jews, the Jews received no more direct prophecy. After the destruction of the second Temple in Jerusalem and the mass-killing of Jerusalem's Jews, the Jews no longer could present sacrifices at the Temple. This way of reaching God was at an end. After the Holocaust, Greenberg concludes that God does not respond to the prayers of Jews anymore.
Thus, God has unilaterally broken his covenant with the Jewish people. In this view, God no longer has the moral authority to command people to follow his will. Greenberg does not conclude that Jews and God should part ways; rather he holds that we should heal the covenant between Jews and God, and that the Jewish people should accept Jewish law on a voluntary basis.
His views on this subject have made him the subject of much criticism within the Orthodox community.
is about a trial in which God is the defendant, and is reportedly based on events that Wiesel himself witnessed as a teenager in Auschwitz.
Over the course of the trial, a number of arguments are made, both for and against God's guilt.
and has proposed "worship of God through protest" as a legitimate response of survivors of both the Holocaust and child abuse.
Another writer addressing survivors of the Holocaust and child abuse is John K. Roth, whose essay "A Theodicy of Protest" is included in Encountering Evil: Live Options in Theodicy (1982).
speaks of how in a “theology after Auschwitz” the traditional notion of God needed to be completely revised.
The traditional notion of an impassible “unmoved mover” had died in those camps and was no longer tenable. Moltmann proposes instead a “crucified God” who is both a “suffering” and “protesting” God. That is, God is not detached from suffering but willingly enters into human suffering in compassion.
This is in contrast both with the move of theism to justify God's actions and the move of atheism to accuse God. Moltmann's “Trinitarian theology of the cross” instead says that God is a protesting God who opposes the 'Gods of this world' of power and domination by entering into human pain and suffering on the cross and on the gallows of Auschwitz. Moltmann's “theology of the cross” was later developed into "Liberation Theologies"
from suffering people under Stalin
ism in Eastern Europe and military dictatorships in South America and South Korea.
suggested a reading of the events of the Holocaust as motivated by a hatred of God Himself. The address begins by acknowledging the impossibility of an adequate theological response:
Nonetheless, he proposes that the actions of the Nazis can be seen as having been motivated by a hatred of God and a desire to exalt human power, with the Holocaust serving as a means by which to erase witness to God and His Law:
Most coverage of the address was positive, with praise from Italian and Polish rabbis. The Simon Wiesenthal Center
called the visit "historic", and the address and prayers "a repudiation of antisemitism and a repudiation of those... who refer to the Holocaust as a myth".
Edith Stein
's (a German nun who converted from Judaism in 1922 and was killed in Auschwitz) status as a martyr
has been somewhat controversial due to the question of whether she was killed for her faith or ethnicity. Many Jews view the claim of conferring of martyrdom on Stein as an act of appropriation of the Holocaust, holding that Stein was targeted by the Nazis for her Jewish ethnicity, not for her conversion to Catholicism. This concern of "appropriation" is not unique, with similar criticisms having been raised about Catholic narratives regarding other convert victims of the Holocaust—"making it seem that the Church, not the Jewish people, was the primary victim of Nazi genocide".
The conflict over the Auschwitz cross
near Auschwitz I typifies these controversies, as Auschwitz is also the site of the martyrdom (according to the Catholic Church) of saints such as Maximilian Kolbe
.
For instance, during the Williamson affair, Monsignor Robert Wister publicly declared that the negationist comments made by the controversial SSPX
bishop might be "offensive and erroneous" but "not a heresy
" and "not an excommunicable offense", calling Williamson "not a heretic, but ... a liar".
This view notably appears in the CDF's Dominus Iesus
, which stresses the “fullness and definitiveness of the revelation of Jesus Christ”, as opposed to alternative notions on progressive revelation
.
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
and philosophical
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
debate and reflection, and related literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
, primarily within Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, that attempts to come to grips with various conflicting views about the role of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
in the universe and the human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
world in light of the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
of the late 1930s and 1940s when approximately 11 million people, including 6 million Jews, were subjected to genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
by the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
regime and its allies. "Holocaust theology" is also referred to as "Theologie nach Auschwitz" (German: "Theology after Auschwitz" or "Post-Auschwitz Theology"), due to the common practice of using Auschwitz to represent
Synecdoche
Synecdoche , meaning "simultaneous understanding") is a figure of speech in which a term is used in one of the following ways:* Part of something is used to refer to the whole thing , or...
the Holocaust as a whole.
Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, and Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
traditionally have taught that God is omnipotent
Omnipotence
Omnipotence is unlimited power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence to only the deity of whichever faith is being addressed...
(all powerful), omniscient
Omniscience
Omniscience omniscient point-of-view in writing) is the capacity to know everything infinitely, or at least everything that can be known about a character including thoughts, feelings, life and the universe, etc. In Latin, omnis means "all" and sciens means "knowing"...
(all knowing) and omnibenevolent
Omnibenevolence
Omnibenevolence is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "unlimited or infinite benevolence". It is often held to be impossible, or at least improbable, for a deity to exhibit such property along side omniscience and omnipotence as a result of the problem of evil...
(all good). These claims seem to be in jarring contrast with the fact that there is much evil
Evil
Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
in the world. Perhaps the most difficult question that monotheists have confronted is how can we reconcile the existence of this view of God with the existence of evil? This is the problem of evil as described in the Book of Job
Book of Job
The Book of Job , commonly referred to simply as Job, is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. It relates the story of Job, his trials at the hands of Satan, his discussions with friends on the origins and nature of his suffering, his challenge to God, and finally a response from God. The book is a...
.
Within all the monotheistic faiths many answers (theodicies
Theodicy
Theodicy is a theological and philosophical study which attempts to prove God's intrinsic or foundational nature of omnibenevolence , omniscience , and omnipotence . Theodicy is usually concerned with the God of the Abrahamic religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, due to the relevant...
) have been proposed. However, in light of the magnitude of evil seen in the Holocaust, many people have re-examined classical views on this subject. A common question is, "How can people still have any kind of faith after the Holocaust?"
Jewish theological responses: Background to the diversity of views
The variety of theological responses that Jews have articulated about the Holocaust, can be related to wider traditions of thought. In order to understand their views in context, it is helpful to see the breadth and scope of traditional Jewish theodicies of evil, as well as to describe the roots of Modern and Post-Modern revisionist Jewish philosophical views.The classic tradition of Jewish scholarship and spirituality, embodied in its historic texts, comprises many interpretations of Biblical and Rabbinic
Rabbinic Judaism
Rabbinic Judaism or Rabbinism has been the mainstream form of Judaism since the 6th century CE, after the codification of the Talmud...
Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
. They vary from legal, imaginative and philosophical endeavours, to esoteric mystical theologies. Together they form a scholarly culture that the Jews carried and evolved, through their historic journeys. This tradition of thought developed from its own sources, and also sometimes through intellectual encounters with other traditions, giving and receiving ideas in turn. The revealed theology of Judaism, affected Western thought through its adapted forms in Christianity. Meanwhile, the other source of Western culture, arose from humanistic philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
of Ancient Greece, based on independent thought from first principles. When the Jewish community was granted social rights after the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
, they developed their own religious and philosophical responses to Modern thought. These varied from re-commitment and reinterpretation of traditional observance, through synthesising embraces of the best of both worlds, to radical or revisionist reassessments of historical Judaism. In each of these approaches, new creativity emerged, with new theological and philosophical interpretations. Hasidic Philosophy
Hasidic philosophy
Hasidic philosophy or Hasidus , alternatively transliterated as Hassidism, Chassidism, Chassidut etc. is the teachings, interpretations of Judaism, and mysticism articulated by the modern Hasidic movement...
developed Jewish mysticism in new ways. Litvish Orthodoxy formed new approaches to Talmudic scholarship and Mussar (Ethical introspection). Both of these Eastern European civilizations continued the theoretical interpretation of Lurianic Kabbalah, which underpins Haredi Jewish belief until today. Modern Orthodox Judaism
Modern Orthodox Judaism
Modern Orthodox Judaism is a movement within Orthodox Judaism that attempts to synthesize Jewish values and the observance of Jewish law, with the secular, modern world....
thinkers reinterpreted Judaism in the language of modern secular philosophy and scholarship. The Haskalah
Haskalah
Haskalah , the Jewish Enlightenment, was a movement among European Jews in the 18th–19th centuries that advocated adopting enlightenment values, pressing for better integration into European society, and increasing education in secular studies, Hebrew language, and Jewish history...
gave birth to critical, academic approaches to Judaism, beginning with the 19th Century German "Wissenschaft des Judentums
Wissenschaft des Judentums
Wissenschaft des Judentums , refers to a nineteenth-century movement premised on the critical investigation of Jewish literature and culture, including rabbinic literature, using scientific methods to analyze the origins of Jewish traditions.-The Verein für Cultur und Wissenschaft der Juden:The ...
" ("Science of Judaism") movement. Theologians from non-Orthodox Jewish denominations
Jewish denominations
Jewish religious movements , sometimes called "denominations" or "branches", include different groups which have developed among Jews from ancient times and especially in the modern era among Ashkenazi Jews living in anglophone countries...
expressed a range of revisionist views of Jewish spirituality and scholarship. New schools, such as Jewish existentialism
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
, could find new meaning in Revelation
Revelation
In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity...
, outside of Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
.
Historical developments of Jewish thought could rediscover new meaning in earlier traditions. The early scholars of the Haskalah
Haskalah
Haskalah , the Jewish Enlightenment, was a movement among European Jews in the 18th–19th centuries that advocated adopting enlightenment values, pressing for better integration into European society, and increasing education in secular studies, Hebrew language, and Jewish history...
(Jewish Enlightenment movement) rejected the mystical in Judaism, in common with the secular Western thought of their time, and their personal wish to leave behind the Shtetl
Shtetl
A shtetl was typically a small town with a large Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe until The Holocaust. Shtetls were mainly found in the areas which constituted the 19th century Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire, the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Galicia and Romania...
. This tendency was shared with the prevalent values of the Western secular Enlightenment of their time, that sought to rationalise Revelation
Revelation
In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity...
. The philosophical father of Haskalah, Moses Mendelssohn
Moses Mendelssohn
Moses Mendelssohn was a German Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the renaissance of European Jews, Haskalah is indebted...
, could seek therefore to remove the mystical dimensions of Jewish spirituality. The birth of academic scholarship of Kabbalah
Kabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
under Gershom Scholem
Gershom Scholem
Gerhard Scholem who, after his immigration from Germany to Palestine, changed his name to Gershom Scholem , was a German-born Israeli Jewish philosopher and historian, born and raised in Germany...
, and the search for deeper Jewish spirituality, in the 20th Century, rediscovered Jewish mysticism for Jews of all denominations today. New movements of Jewish Renewal
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Renewal , is a recent movement in Judaism which endeavors to reinvigorate modern Judaism with mystical, Hasidic, musical and meditative practices...
and Neo-Hasidism
Neo-Hasidism
Neo-Hasidism is a name frequently given to the significant revival of interest in Hasidic Judaism on the part of non-Orthodox Jews in different decades due to the writings of non-Orthodox teachers of Hasidic Judaism like Martin Buber, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Lawrence Kushner, Zalman...
, could find spiritual and philosophical insights from Jewish mysticism, outside of Orthodoxy. This likewise reflects wider currents of thought in Western society, from the non-mechanistic and neo-mystical aspects of 20th Century Science and Mathematics, to philosophical and artistic interest in the values of cultural identity.
The developments in 19th and 20th century Jewish life, encompass the greatest changes and upheavals in a short space of time, to take place in Jewish history
Jewish history
Jewish history is the history of the Jews, their religion and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions and cultures. Since Jewish history is over 4000 years long and includes hundreds of different populations, any treatment can only be provided in broad strokes...
. Similar changes characterise wider history, but the individuality of the Jewish experience, makes their encounter with the events and ideas of modernity, especially turbulent. In one century, they experienced the tragedy of the Holocaust, with the end of the great centres of Jewish life, followed by the historical return to their Biblical homeland, with the parallel reestablishment of Jewish study and spirituality in Israel and America. The two watershed events of the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
and the birth of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, affect the religious and philosophical interpretations of Jews today. The diversity of Jewish theological responses to the Holocaust, are shaped by the history of previous Jewish thought. The great texts, ideas and creative developments in Jewish thought, give the background to more recent interpretations. Both traditional and revisionist theological responses to the Holocaust, can adapt or reinterpret previous Jewish ideas, so they are best understood in the context of their wider background. Among the different theological responses, and their wider contexts, Jews have had to the Holocaust are:
The Holocaust in historical context
- No new response is needed. The Holocaust may be larger than other tragedies, or its form and intent may be unique. However, theologically it may not ultimately be different from other terrible events. Connected with this view are comparative discussions of the uniqueness of the Holocaust. Does it stand apart from other historical and international genocides? Should its Jewish victims be commemorated separately from its many non-Jewish victims? In Jewish thought it is usually seen fundamentally as a Jewish event. This is justified by the unique nature of the Nazi attack on the Jews, in its essential aim, and metaphysical intent in Nazi philosophy. From the perspective of Jewish spiritualitySpiritualitySpirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
, it can be seen as a war against the spiritual message of Israel to humanity, a fight against the Biblical "God of Israel" and Monotheistic morality. This understanding can also incorporate its non-Jewish victims, as it sees the Jewish message and role, as a universal representation of all peoples. In the history of understanding antisemitism, some have seen the fate of the Jews as giving the first warning of wider social problems. In this view, their vulnerability and difference, can make them the first scapegoat for intolerance, a "canary in a mine" whose fate warns of danger. In Jewish history, should the Holocaust be seen as uniquely different from earlier events? One response sees it as a continuation of the long history of Antisemitism. Jewish history has known many calamitous events, some that destroyed large populations, some accompanied by great suffering. Among frequent episodes of persecution, perhaps two previous events stand out as different, and may be called national "Churban" (destruction). The destruction of JudahKingdom of JudahThe Kingdom of Judah was a Jewish state established in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. It is often referred to as the "Southern Kingdom" to distinguish it from the northern Kingdom of Israel....
and Jerusalem by NebuchadnezzarNebuchadnezzarNebuchadnezzar was the name of several kings of Babylonia.* Nebuchadnezzar I, who ruled the Babylonian Empire in the 12th century BC* Nebuchadnezzar II , the Babylonian ruler mentioned in the biblical Book of Daniel...
, seemed to end the Biblical plan for Israel, destroyed the First Temple, killed many people, and exiled the survivors. The later destruction of JudeaJudeaJudea or Judæa was the name of the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel from the 8th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, when Roman Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina following the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt.-Etymology:The...
and Jerusalem under TitusTitusTitus , was Roman Emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death, thus becoming the first Roman Emperor to come to the throne after his own father....
, destroyed the Second TempleSecond TempleThe Jewish Second Temple was an important shrine which stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem between 516 BCE and 70 CE. It replaced the First Temple which was destroyed in 586 BCE, when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon...
, and brutally put down the Jewish revolt. This suppression was completed later under HadrianHadrianHadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...
, in response to a second revolt, with further massive loss of life, and a second exile of the nation. In this view, the Holocaust is another Churban, and may not require a new theological response. It prompts us again to investigate the issue of why bad things sometimes happen to good people. The aim of theodicyTheodicyTheodicy is a theological and philosophical study which attempts to prove God's intrinsic or foundational nature of omnibenevolence , omniscience , and omnipotence . Theodicy is usually concerned with the God of the Abrahamic religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, due to the relevant...
is to seek to reconcile theological belief with the existence of suffering. The great religious traditions of the World, including JudaismJudaismJudaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, have formulated many different responses to this question. However, from the perspective of man, articulating this endeavour can be problematic: To offer comprehensive answers can be insensitive to the pain, to refrain from attempting to answer can be unhelpful. In the view that sees a continuity between the Holocaust and previous tragedies, the Holocaust therefore shouldn't change our theology.
The many aspects of suffering as punishment, atonement and spiritual resolution
Rabbinic Judaism has a doctrine from the books of the prophetsTanakh
The Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
called mi-penei hataeinu, "because of our sin
Sin
In religion, sin is the violation or deviation of an eternal divine law or standard. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Christians believe the moral code of conduct is decreed by God In religion, sin (also called peccancy) is the violation or deviation...
s we were punished". During Biblical times when calamities befell the Jewish people, the Jewish prophet
Prophet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
s stressed that suffering is a natural result of not following God's law, and prosperity, peace and health are the natural results of following God's law. In particular, the central text of Judaism, the Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
, contains two passages called the "Tochachah" (Warnings) in Leviticus
Leviticus
The Book of Leviticus is the third book of the Hebrew Bible, and the third of five books of the Torah ....
and Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy
The Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, and of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch...
, that have been seen as fulfilled by future events of Jewish history.
In traditional Jewish thought, the fundamental belief in reward and punishment (included among Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
` "Jewish Principles of Faith
Jewish principles of faith
The concept of an explicit, paramount definition of faith does not exist in Judaism as it does in other monotheistic religions such as Christianity. Although Jews and religious leaders share a core of monotheistic principles, and there are many fundamental principles quoted in the Talmud to define...
") is given wider context, and various interpretations, that bring out its different aspects. For instance, the Biblical Prophets repeatedly chastised the people, and described how God was repulsed by their actions, and silent to their cries. When the warned calamities arrived, the Prophets shared in the persecution, and were sometimes rejected by their brethren. Nonetheless, throughout, the Prophets also poetically described God's deeper, unbreakable love of them. In traditional Jewish thought, Divine punishment is the unfolding of the processes of God's attribute of strict justice, usually mitigated or delayed by God's attribute of benevolent mercy. The purposes are many faceted, and can be explained on lower and higher levels.
Ethically, justice of God, like human justice, is a righteous ideal. Just as one "Mitzvah
Mitzvah
The primary meaning of the Hebrew word refers to precepts and commandments as commanded by God...
" (Commandment) forbids man's vengeance, so God's punishments involve no vengeance. Spiritually, Midrashic and mystical commentaries describe how God suffers in man's pain, and is exiled alongside man's exile. The fate of the "Shechina" (Divine Presence) is bound up to man's fate and redemption. Philosophically, the many levels of traditional Jewish explanation for the Purpose of Creation, each require sin to be resolved and atoned for, through suffering or repentance. The most esoteric of these, in Kabbalah, describes metaphysical systems that give immense cosmic significance to man's actions.
Throughout the different levels of explanation for punishment, the ultimate purpose is always the eschatological aim and promise of God's love and complete Messianic
Messiah
A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
redemption. From the perspective of its ultimate purpose, suffering is seen as a Divine gift of love, though also a Divine and human tragedy. God's and man's urgent prayer is for the hidden "blessings" of pain to be "sweetened" to revealed blessings of bounty, through repentance and good deeds. This view of suffering as stemming from Divine love, is articulated in different language by the different levels of traditional Jewish thought, from the "Revealed" dimensions of Torah, to its mystical "Hidden" dimensions.
However, the alternative paths in Jewish spirituality, emphasize different dimensions of this. The path of Mussar
Mussar movement
The Musar movement is a Jewish ethical, educational and cultural movement that developed in 19th century Eastern Europe, particularly among Orthodox Lithuanian Jews. The Hebrew term Musar , is from the book of Proverbs 1:2 meaning instruction, discipline, or conduct...
, brings God's justice and man's soul-searching to the fore. Divine awe and judgment is emphasised. The path of Mysticism(Kabbalah and Hasidism), reframes Judaism around the inner Divine soul, where pain is seen as love, and God's presence is seen in all events and creations. Drawing from the context of all these different and competing strands in traditional Jewish theology, some figures in Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
have given diverse and opposite theological responses to the Holocaust.
Historically, the Biblical and Rabbinic response to national tragedy has been to look for theological causes in the shortcomings and sins of the people of Israel. In this tradition, some Orthodox figures have taught that the Jewish people in Europe were sinful, or their guilt had accumulated. In this view, the Holocaust is a just retribution from God. Other Orthodox theologians reject this approach, seeing the Holocaust as a unique tragedy, that could not be based on normal processes of reward and punishment.
The immortality of the soul
- The traditional view of reward and punishment also takes in the connected Jewish belief in an afterlifeAfterlifeThe afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
and the immortality of the soul. This other idea can give a framework to many different theological responses to the Holocaust, by allowing it to be reconciled with Divine love. Belief in the resolution and compensation of good and evil in this world, by the eternal elevation of the soul in the next world, can resolve apparent injustices in the full metaphysical equation. This does not itself offer a direct explanation for the tragedy of the Holocaust, if direct explanations are possible, but it can resolve the bigger picture, and can sit alongside other theological responses.
The hiding of God's countenance
- The Holocaust is an instance of the temporary "Eclipse of God". There are times when God is inexplicably absent from history. There is a Biblical source for this idea in DeuteronomyDeuteronomyThe Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, and of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch...
(31:18), where God says that "I will surely hide My face on that day" ("Hester Panim" in Hebrew). This warning is given in response to the rebelliousness of the people, where man abandons God, so God abandons man. However, here the outcome is different from other Divine responses. Instead of punishment that comes openly, the hiding of the Divine countenance abandons the people to natural laws and historical processes. The ways of God become hidden, and the cries of the people unanswered. There have been times in Jewish history when the suffering has not appeared to have a direct connection to spiritual failure of the people. The concept of Hester Panim has a history in traditional Jewish thought to refer to suffering that has no regular explanation. In such cases, the possible connection of the suffering to sin is itself concealed, a double concealment of the Divine. Non-traditional theological views that question the equations of reward and punishment may seek other reasons for the Eclipse of the Divine Presence and providential protection. Revisionist theologies may limit the overall character and interaction of God with man. The ultimate view of a non-interventionist God is depicted in DeismDeismDeism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...
, where God is a philosophical abstraction, far removed from the traditional Hebrew "God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob". Both traditional Jewish thought and revisionist views may look to different conceptions of the Eclipse of God, from temporary removal of the Divine countenanceDivine countenanceThe divine countenance is the face of God.-Pagan:In pagan religions, the face of God might be viewed in a literal sense - the face of an idol in a temple. In prayers and blessings, the concept was more metaphorical, indicating the favourable attention of the deity...
to inherent limitations to God. Nonetheless, even traditional theologians can give theological prominence to the failure of man in the Holocaust. In this view, the Holocaust can show that the Nazi rejection of God and Monotheistic ethics led to their constructing an evil philosophy of morality. In this man-centred theology, God was present in Aushwitz in the Divine command "Thou shalt not murder".
Jewish views of reincarnation
- The doctrine of "GilgulGilgulGilgul/Gilgul neshamot/Gilgulei Ha Neshamot describes a Kabbalistic concept of reincarnation. In Hebrew, the word gilgul means "cycle" and neshamot is the plural for "souls." Souls are seen to "cycle" through "lives" or "incarnations", being attached to different human bodies over time...
" (Reincarnation) has a history in traditional Jewish thought, of debate and explanation. The Rabbinic World of TalmudTalmudThe Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
ic times saw the many faceted layers of Scriptural interpretation, from the literal to the imaginative, and the providential events of Jewish history, as verification of Jewish belief. The Rabbinic Sages of the Talmud, for instance, saw no need to philosophically prove the existence of God through independent logic from first principles, like philosophers stemming from the Greek tradition did. In the Middle Ages, when Jewish thought met Greek thought, "Hakira" (Jewish PhilosophyJewish philosophyJewish philosophy , includes all philosophy carried out by Jews, or, in relation to the religion of Judaism. Jewish philosophy, until modern Enlightenment and Emancipation, was pre-occupied with attempts to reconcile coherent new ideas into the tradition of Rabbinic Judaism; thus organizing...
) developed to reconcile the two systems, as well as formulate creeds of belief, inherent within traditional Jewish thought. Some Jewish Philosophers, like Sadia Gaon rejected reincarnation as a Pagan doctrine. After the dominance of Hakira in Jewish theology, Kabbalah replaced it as the mainstream theology. In the 16th Century Isaac LuriaIsaac LuriaIsaac Luria , also called Yitzhak Ben Shlomo Ashkenazi acronym "The Ari" "Ari-Hakadosh", or "Arizal", meaning "The Lion", was a foremost rabbi and Jewish mystic in the community of Safed in the Galilee region of Ottoman Palestine...
taught the new doctrines of Lurianic Kabbalah, that became almost universally accepted in traditional Jewish thought. They still underpin Haredi and some Modern Orthodox Jewish theology. The main dimensions of Lurianic Kabbalah deal with the relationship between the Infinite God, who is the only true existence, and the perceived Creation, that takes place within, and emanated from, the Divine unity. New explanations of universal esoteric redemption by man, fix the inherent flaws within the original source of Creation. Among the other teachings, Luria explained a Jewish system of reincarnation, that differs from some Eastern Religion versions, in that it is not fatalistic, or about punishment. Rather, reincarnation, in Jewish thought, is a personal form of the cosmic Lurianic doctrine of "TikunTikkun olamTikkun olam is a Hebrew phrase that means "repairing the world." In Judaism, the concept of tikkun olam originated in the early rabbinic period...
" (Fixing). In Lurianic mysticism, which explains cosmic metaphysical processes in all actions of man, reincarnation takes place to achieve a metaphysical elevation. What may appear as punishments are only incidentally so. For instance, Luria said that the Medieval Jewish victims of the centuries of Pogroms in the Christian World, were reincarnations of souls from the time of the Biblical first Temple, who had also followed idolatry. Their Medieval martyrdom rectified and perfected their souls, and he said this process was now all completed in his time. While the time of open prophecyProphecyProphecy is a process in which one or more messages that have been communicated to a prophet are then communicated to others. Such messages typically involve divine inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of conditioned events to come as well as testimonies or repeated revelations that the...
, as in the Hebrew Bible, is now over, traditional Jewish thought believes that a minor form of prophecy called "Ruach HaKodeshRuach HaKodeshThe Hebrew language phrase ruach ha-kodesh is a term used in the Hebrew Bible and Jewish writings to refer to the Spirit of YHVH. The Hebrew term ruakh kodeshka , without the definite article, also occurs...
" (Holy Spirit), as well as some other forms of mystical instruction of the soul, are still accessible to unique, saintly individuals. Isaac Luria's teachings became accepted in his time, as a fulfillment of this. While Ruach Hakodesh, and any possible interpretation of the Holocaust involving reincarnation, may be concealed from every saintly figure today, nonetheless, the general belief in such processes can leave room to reconcile the suffering of the Holocaust with traditional Jewish belief. Any explanation would be unknown, but believers could hold that God had His own hidden reasons. This type of process need not be detrimental to the high moral regard in which the Holocaust victims are seen, as the Jewish view of reincarnation is essentially about Tikkun, rather than punishment, and their martyrdom raises them to a high spiritual level.
The mystical celebration of negativity as ultimate elevation
- Another, connected idea from Kabbalah, provides further support for its positive view of reincarnation, as well as a further demonstration of the mystical scheme of finding the inner Divine love, within apparently negative phenomena. This gives the Jewish belief in punishment for sin, or the harsh events of history in general, new spirituality. Kabbalistic texts say that every sin (a spiritual descent), is for the ultimate purpose of raising the person to a new, even higher level (a greater spiritual ascent). This is achieved through the deeper process of Teshuvah ("Return", imprecisely translated as "repentance"). This parallels the rabbinic teaching from the TalmudTalmudThe Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
, that Teshuva from fear erases the sin, while Teshuva from love transforms sin into virtue. The Lurianic scheme of cosmic Tikkun, involves the separation and elevation of "Sparks of Holiness" by man, that are trapped in, and give life to, mundane or negative phenomena. This metaphysicalMetaphysicsMetaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
process elucidates the Kabbalistic view that every descent is for the purpose of higher ascent. Where the sin of man exiled a spark of the Divine into the forces of impurity, its rectification redeems the spark, and withdraws the existence of wider impurity. The Hasidic Masters, who sought to relate the esoteric ideas of Kabbalah to the emotional fervour of the common man, give a new interpretation of particular Divine ProvidenceDivine ProvidenceIn Christian theology, divine providence, or simply providence, is God's activity in the world. " Providence" is also used as a title of God exercising His providence, and then the word are usually capitalized...
, that sees every event as spiritually significant. The conduct of each individual is arranged to achieve their esoteric life tasks. Man's freewill can accelerate or delay the process, but its fulfillment is guaranteed. In this way, they say, while a sin is against the Will of God, its inner purpose is the higher Will of the ultimate elevation. In a concealed way, the sin becomes the beginning of the ascent. Through the abstract Kabbalistic notion of reincarnation, while not dwelled on in Hasidism, if the individual did not yet complete the process, then it would be perfected in the long run. Many Holocaust theologians understandably reject applying traditional Jewish explanations for suffering, that look for sins of the people, to explain or contribute to explaining the events. For those who seek some contribution in explanations of atonement for sin, or for those who look to other hidden meanings from reincarnation, then the positive reinterpretations by Jewish mysticism of negativity can help reconcile the Holocaust with a loving God. This approach is also found in the "Revealed" dimensions of Jewish thought, such as the statement in the TalmudTalmudThe Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
that one should bless God for the good as well as the bad. In more emotional and vivid forms, the MidrashMidrashThe Hebrew term Midrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible....
imaginatively anthropomorphises the relationship between God and man. During the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians, for example, the Midrash describes the two angelic carvings atop the Ark of the CovenantArk of the CovenantThe Ark of the Covenant , also known as the Ark of the Testimony, is a chest described in Book of Exodus as solely containing the Tablets of Stone on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed...
as embraced together in love, representing God's love at that time of Israel. The highly developed systems of the Kabbalists give such ideas metaphysical systems of explanation. The later Hasidic PhilosophyHasidic philosophyHasidic philosophy or Hasidus , alternatively transliterated as Hassidism, Chassidism, Chassidut etc. is the teachings, interpretations of Judaism, and mysticism articulated by the modern Hasidic movement...
brings this abstraction into psychological feeling. The power of mystical interpretation to sweeten traditional Jewish notions of Divine judgement was vividly demonstrated by Hasidim in the concentration camps, who often retained their faith and fervour. In another archetypical example, related by Habad Hasidim, their founder Schneur Zalman of Liadi would read out the weekly Torah portion in the Sabbath synagogue. One week, he was away, and this role was replaced by a regular congregant. The portion that week was the section of "Tochachah" (Warnings) in DeuteronomyDeuteronomyThe Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, and of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch...
that foretell calamity for Divine disobedience. The son and future second Rebbe Dovber SchneuriDovber SchneuriDovber Schneuri was the second Rebbe of the Chabad Lubavitch Chasidic movement. Rabbi Dovber was the first Chabad rebbe to live in the town of Lyubavichi , the town for which this Hasidic dynasty is named...
, in the audience, became so distressed and ill to hear the dire warnings, that a few weeks later it was unsure if he could fast on Yom KippurYom KippurYom Kippur , also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most solemn day of the year for the Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue...
. He explained that when his father read it, all he heard were blessings.
The contributions of Kabbalah to various Jewish philosophical views
- The esoteric tradition of Jewish mysticism in general, can offer new perspectives on all of Judaism, that can also contribute to a Jewish theology after the Holocaust. With the rise of Modernity, various philosophical positions emerged on the meaning of Judaism, and the traditional belief in its revealed origins. These range from the literal, through the national, to the secular. Jewish mysticism, likewise, has also spoken to these different philosophical positions today, in different ways. Traditional Kabbalists see it as the inner, metaphysical interpretations, hidden within the Divine Scripture and voice from Sinai, while non-Orthodox seekers of mysticism have seen it as a profound and insightful attempt by man, to probe the Jewish mysteries of the Divine. Their non-literal approach to the mystical tradition in Judaism, means that they can select, reject, or adapt from amongst its teachings. 20th Century academic scholarship on the Jewish tradition of mysticism, has delineated its different epochs. Early mystical schools stemmed from the worlds of the Bible and Talmudic times, offering paths of personal encounter with spirituality. With the public teaching of Kabbalah, from the Middle Ages, the Jewish mystical dimensions of Torah, took on fuller conceptual forms, that could be applied to reinterpret each verse of Scripture. This reached its complete fundamental form with the new doctrines of Isaac LuriaIsaac LuriaIsaac Luria , also called Yitzhak Ben Shlomo Ashkenazi acronym "The Ari" "Ari-Hakadosh", or "Arizal", meaning "The Lion", was a foremost rabbi and Jewish mystic in the community of Safed in the Galilee region of Ottoman Palestine...
in the 16th Century. While the concern of the Kabbalists was to describe an elaborate system of spiritual Worlds that emanated from, and connected, the unknowable Infinite Godhead, with our lowest physical existence, the concern of the later Hasidic movement was different. It left aside the abstract philosophical focus of Kabbalah on the Heavenly realms, to relate the relevance of the Kabbalistic tradition to man. This inner, interiorisation of Kabbalah, saw the Divine imminent in all Creation, and so could be expressed beyond the advanced, esoteric limitations of Kabbalah. This was the first time that the Jewish mystical dimensions could be articulated to the whole Jewish community, and its soulful teachings invigorated the masses, as well as involved the great scholars.
Other ideas
- "God is deadGod is dead"God is dead" is a widely-quoted statement by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It first appears in The Gay Science , in sections 108 , 125 , and for a third time in section 343...
". If there were a God, He would surely have prevented the Holocaust. Since God did not prevent it, then God has for some reason turned away from the world, and left us to ourselves forever more. God is therefore no longer relevant to humanity. - Terrible events such as the Holocaust are the price we have to pay for having free willFree will"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...
. In this view, God will not and cannot interfere with history, otherwise our free will would effectively cease to exist. The Holocaust only reflects poorly on humanity, not God. - Perhaps the Holocaust is in some way a revelationRevelationIn religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity...
from God: The event issues a call for Jewish affirmation for survival. - The Holocaust is a mystery beyond our comprehension. God has reason for what He does, but human understanding can't begin to understand His reason.
- The Jewish people become in fact the "suffering servant" of IsaiahIsaiahIsaiah ; Greek: ', Ēsaïās ; "Yahu is salvation") was a prophet in the 8th-century BC Kingdom of Judah.Jews and Christians consider the Book of Isaiah a part of their Biblical canon; he is the first listed of the neviim akharonim, the later prophets. Many of the New Testament teachings of Jesus...
. The Jewish people collectively suffer for the sins of the world. (Also mentioned by Reform Rabbi Ignaz MaybaumIgnaz MaybaumIgnaz Maybaum was a rabbi and 20th century liberal Jewish theologian.- Life :He was born in Vienna in 1897. He studied in Berlin at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, where he was ordained as a rabbi in 1926. He took rabbinic posts in Bingen, Frankfurt-am-der-Oder and Berlin...
proposed that the Holocaust is the ultimate form of vicarious atonement.The Face of God After Auschwitz, pages 35 and 36.) - God does exist, but God is not omnipotentOmnipotenceOmnipotence is unlimited power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence to only the deity of whichever faith is being addressed...
. This view is similar to process theologyProcess theologyProcess theology is a school of thought influenced by the metaphysical process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead and further developed by Charles Hartshorne . While there are process theologies that are similar, but unrelated to the work of Whitehead the term is generally applied to the...
. All of the above arguments are based on the assumption that God is omnipotent and, consequently, could have interfered to stop the Holocaust. What if this is not so? In this view, the Holocaust only reflects poorly on humanity, not on God. This is a view promoted by many liberal theologians, including RabbiRabbiIn Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
Harold KushnerHarold KushnerRabbi Harold Samuel Kushner is a prominent American rabbi aligned with the progressive wing of Conservative Judaism, and a popular author.- Education :...
. - God or any other supernatural deity might not exist. Some arguments are that there is a blind spot in the Human Eye; an all powerful being would not make this mistake.
- Classical Rabbinical literature teaches that before something magnificent or great occurs, there must be a great tragedy. In this case, the Holocaust had to occur in order for the State of Israel to be founded. This theory supports the actual events, as many historians believe that without the Holocaust, Israel would never have existed.
Haredi views
The Haredi Jewish world may seem more monolithic to outsiders than its diversity and historical roots actually entail. The Haredi world today is a product of different Eastern European Jewish traditions, as they accommodated, or reacted against, their encounter with modern thought and society. Broadly, there are two different sources to traditional Eastern European Jewish civilisation: Firstly, the continuation of Talmudic centred scholarship, augmented by KabbalahKabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
for a reserved elite, known as Lithuanian Orthodoxy, saw itself as continuing and protecting the traditional forms of Jewish worship through advanced study. Secondly, the populist, mystical Jewish revival of Hasidism, that began in 18th century Ukraine, and later spread across other areas, celebrated sincerity above learning as a path to God, and embraced the common folk. As Hasidism developed, its leaders synthesised it with traditional learning, while the Lithuanian world came to be called Mitnagdim(Opponents), for their pious opposition to the Hasidic restructuring of Jewish thought and society. As both traditions encountered the secularising forces of Haskalah
Haskalah
Haskalah , the Jewish Enlightenment, was a movement among European Jews in the 18th–19th centuries that advocated adopting enlightenment values, pressing for better integration into European society, and increasing education in secular studies, Hebrew language, and Jewish history...
(Enlightenment), and political Socialism and Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
, they reacted with a diversity of views, that today influence their different forms of Jewish thought and life.
This influential range of historical traditions, in forming the diversity of Haredi Judaism today, has given rise to a range of theological responses to the Holocaust. At heart lies the issue of whether the tragedy of the Holocaust, is different in nature to the preceding millennia of Jewish persecution. Traditional Biblical, Rabbinic and Kabbalistic thought has offered theological explanations for previous tragedies, from the reaction of the Prophets to Nebuchadnezzar
Nebuchadnezzar
Nebuchadnezzar was the name of several kings of Babylonia.* Nebuchadnezzar I, who ruled the Babylonian Empire in the 12th century BC* Nebuchadnezzar II , the Babylonian ruler mentioned in the biblical Book of Daniel...
's destruction of Jerusalem and exile of the nation, to the Medieval Pogroms of Christendom. Because Haredi Judaism accords unique status to traditional Jewish thought, while downplaying the need to look to secular disciplines, it seeks theological answers from faithful reinterpretations of Judaism alone. In general, most views in the Haredi world tends to see the Holocaust in line with previous Rabbinic approaches, though there are notable and important exceptions. For those who take the traditional approach, they suggest theological explanations that might give a reason for the calamity, or a contributory reason, in accordance with the traditional Jewish worldview. In an age without open prophecy, it is questionable whether speculative interpretations like this are valid, if not obscene in view of the enormity of the Holocaust, though their proponents have sometimes been great figures in traditional Judaism. In traditional thought, the sufferings of the people of Israel, have deeper ethical and mystical causes, and require collective soul searching and return to God. It should be emphasised, to contextualise this idea, that in traditional thought, even the harsh decrees of God are hidden blessings, rather than merely punishments, a theme especially emphasised in Jewish mysticism. Those who see traditional types of explanation, would point to previous tragedies in Jewish history, that in their time had enormous destruction and hardship, such as the massive loss of life in Judea
Judea
Judea or Judæa was the name of the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel from the 8th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, when Roman Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina following the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt.-Etymology:The...
under Titus
Titus
Titus , was Roman Emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death, thus becoming the first Roman Emperor to come to the throne after his own father....
and Hadrian
Hadrian
Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...
. They would also refer to the dire warnings in Leviticus
Leviticus
The Book of Leviticus is the third book of the Hebrew Bible, and the third of five books of the Torah ....
and Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy
The Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, and of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch...
, called the sections of "Tochecha" (Warnings) for rebelliousness, alongside blessings for faithfulness, that are only chanted in an undertone, when read aloud in the annual cycle of reading.
For those within Haredi Judaism
Haredi Judaism
Haredi or Charedi/Chareidi Judaism is the most conservative form of Orthodox Judaism, often referred to as ultra-Orthodox. A follower of Haredi Judaism is called a Haredi ....
, who favour ascribing causes, some blame the Holocaust on the abandonment of many European Jews of traditional Judaism, and their embrace of other ideologies such as Socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
, or various non-Orthodox Jewish movements. Others suggest that God allowed the Nazis to persecute the Jews because Orthodox European Jews did not do enough to fight these trends, or did not support Zionism. In this Haredi theodicy
Theodicy
Theodicy is a theological and philosophical study which attempts to prove God's intrinsic or foundational nature of omnibenevolence , omniscience , and omnipotence . Theodicy is usually concerned with the God of the Abrahamic religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, due to the relevant...
, the Jews of Europe were no longer protected by the Torah and faith, and the actions of God which allowed this were righteous and just. Those who propose views like this, would see their suggested causes as contributory triggers, while in a time of judgement all the community suffers, whether innocent or guilty. Ideas such as this, that can seem alien to non-Orthodox thought, have a context that softens their harshness. The Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
has a legal discussion of the nature of innocence and guilt. The rare "Apikorus" (Heretic), is contrasted with the "Tinnuk Shenishba" (Innocent captive brought up without knowledge of Judaism). Many Halachic authorities have decided that secular Jews today are figuratively in the second category, and should be encouraged with love to discover Judaism. If indeed, earlier generations were guilty of rejecting Jewish observance, this argument would apply to generations from the 19th century onwards. Those who see the Holocaust as the unfolding of God's attribute of Judgement, might say that the guilt accumulated for a few generations. More hidden Kabbalistic doctrines, involved in the "Mysteries of Creation", such as "Gilgulim" (Reincarnation), would also contribute processes. For Haredi proponents of causes, nonetheless, it should be emphasised that such views usually fit within an appreciation of the fundamental and essential processes of Divine love.
Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Most prominent among other Haredi figures who reject explaining the Holocaust as an act of divine punishment is the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel SchneersonMenachem Mendel Schneerson
Menachem Mendel Schneerson , known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or just the Rebbe among his followers, was a prominent Hasidic rabbi who was the seventh and last Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. He was fifth in a direct paternal line to the third Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Menachem Mendel...
, who described it as blasphemous to depict God in this way. The roots of this view lie in the Hasidic, mystical love of every Jew, even potentially unworthy people. Basing himself on many sources in classic texts of Judaism, from the "Revealed" to the "Mystical", the Rebbe articulated the view that the Holocaust was a decree from God that is beyond human understanding in this world. He stated:
- "What greater conceit and what greater heartlessness, can there be than to give a 'reason' for the death and torture of millions of innocent men, women and children? Can we presume to assume that an explanation small enough to fit inside the finite bounds of human reason can explain a horror of such magnitude? We can only concede that there are things that lie beyond the finite ken of the human mind. It is not my task to justify God on this. Only God Himself can answer for what He allowed to happen. And the only answer we will accept, is the immediate and complete Redemption that will forever banish evil from the face of the earth and bring to light the intrinsic goodness and perfection of God's creation."
To those who argued that the Holocaust disproves the existence of God or His providence over our lives, Schneerson wrote:
- "On the contrary—the Holocaust has decisively disproven any possible faith in a human-based morality. In pre-war Europe, it was the German people who epitomized culture, scientific advance and philosophic morality. And these very same people perpetrated the most vile atrocities known to human history! If nothing else, the Holocaust has taught us that a moral and civilized existence is possible only through the belief in and the acceptance of the Divine authority. Our outrage, our incessant challenge to God over what has occurred—this itself is a most powerful attestation to our belief in Him and our faith in His goodness. Because if we did not, underneath it all, possess this faith, what is it that we are outraged at? The blind workings of fate? The random arrangement of quarks that make up the universe?"
He rejected the suggestion that the Holocaust was a punishment for the sins of that generation saying:
- 'The destruction of six million Jews in such a horrific manner that surpassed the cruelty of all previous generations, could not possibly be because of a punishment for sins. Even the Satan himself could not possibly find a sufficient number of sins that would warrant such genocide! There is absolutely no rationalistic explanation for the Holocaust except for the fact that it was a Divine decree... why it happened is above human comprehension – but it is definitely not because of punishment for sin. On the contrary: All those who were murdered in the Holocaust are called “Kedoshim” – holy ones – since they were murdered in sanctification of G–d’s name..."
Mnachem Risikoff
Another early voice who ultimately rejected the idea that the Holocaust was divine punishment, with Hitler as an instrument in a greater plan, was Rabbi Mnachem HaKohen RisikoffMnachem Risikoff
Mnachem HaKohen Risikoff , was an orthodox rabbi in Russia and the United States, and a prolific author of scholarly works, written in Hebrew. Risikoff used a highly stylized and symbolic pen-name, יאמהדנונחהים, made up of the Hebrew letters of his first name, the Hebrew word for Lord, and the...
. When Rav Kook
Abraham Isaac Kook
Abraham Isaac Kook was the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British Mandate for Palestine, the founder of the Religious Zionist Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav, Jewish thinker, Halachist, Kabbalist and a renowned Torah scholar...
passed away in 1935, Risikoff—with "a presentiment of the catastrophe" yet to come -- published a eulogy in which he put forth his belief that Kook might have been taken early to spare him from even worse times to come. His writings reveal his struggle to accept the idea that the Holocaust was punishment for sin, and a call to repentance—and early on considered that Hitler might be part of a divine plan. But he ultimately wrote that it was not possible to accept this idea, because such extreme suffering could never come from God, for God acted according to Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
Risikoff may have been unique in terms of Holocaust theology regarding the role of the levitical tribe
Levite
In Jewish tradition, a Levite is a member of the Hebrew tribe of Levi. When Joshua led the Israelites into the land of Canaan, the Levites were the only Israelite tribe that received cities but were not allowed to be landowners "because the Lord the God of Israel himself is their inheritance"...
. In his writings, especially in his book, HaKohanim vHaLeviim, The Priests and the Levites (New York:1940), he stressed that members of these groups exist in the realm between history (below) and redemption (above), and were called upon to take leading roles in a call to prayer, repentance, and action that would help bring an end to suffering. His writings reflected a combination of what has been called meta-history (ultimate redemption) and history, including the idea that part of the problem on earth was dishonesty not only among individuals, but also among nations. For example, he wrote that governments of a number of nations had promised Austria and Czechoslovakia that they would come to their defense if the need arose, but they ultimately broke their promises. He "distilled metahistory into history with his program for priestly action to mediate redemption."
Haredi theological "tendencies"
The various historic traditions behind the diversity of Haredi approaches, have given rise to different theological tendencies.- SatmarSatmar (Hasidic dynasty)Satmar is a Hasidic movement comprising mostly Hungarian and Romanian Hasidic Jewish Holocaust survivors and their descendants. It was founded and led by the late Hungarian-born Grand Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum , who was the rabbi of Szatmárnémeti, Hungary...
leader and Holocaust survivor Rabbi Joel TeitelbaumJoel TeitelbaumJoel Teitelbaum, known as Reb Yoelish or the Satmar Rav , was a prominent Hungarian Hasidic rebbe and Talmudic scholar. He was probably the best known Haredi opponent of all forms of modern political Zionism...
writes:
- "Because of our sinfulness we have suffered greatly, suffering as bitter as wormwoodWormwood (star)Wormwood, αψίνθιον or άψινθος in Greek, is a star, or angel, that appears in the Biblical New Testament Book of Revelation.-Wormwood in the Bible:...
, worse than any Israel has known since it became a people.... In former times, whenever troubles befell Jacob, the matter was pondered and reasons sought--which sin had brought the troubles about--so that we could make amends and return to the Lord, may He be blessed...But in our generation one need not look far for the sin responsible for our calamity.... The heretics have made all kinds of efforts to violate these oaths, to go up by force and to seize sovereignty and freedom by themselves, before the appointed time.... [They] have lured the majority of the Jewish people into awful heresy, the like of which as not been seen since the world was created.... And so it is no wonder that the Lord has lashed out in anger.... And there were also righteous people who perished because of the iniquity of the sinners and corrupters, so great was the [divine] wrath." [Aviezer Ravitzky, Messianism, Zionism and Jewish Religious Radicalism (1996 by The University of Chicago), p. 124.]- There were redemptionist ZionistsZionismZionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
, at the other end of the spectrum, who also saw the Holocaust as a collective punishment for a collective sin: ongoing Jewish unfaithfulness to the Land of IsraelLand of IsraelThe Land of Israel is the Biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant, also known as Canaan and Palestine, Promised Land and Holy Land. The belief that the area is a God-given homeland of the Jewish people is based on the narrative of the...
. Rabbi Mordecai Atiyah was a leading advocate of this idea. Rabbi Zvi Yehudah Kook and his disciples, for their part, avoided this harsh position, but they too theologically related the Holocaust to the Jewish recognition of Zion. Kook writes "When the end comes and Israel fails to recognize it, there comes a cruel divine operation that removes [the Jewish people] from its exile. [Aviezer Ravitzky, ibid.] - Rabbi Chaim Ozer GrodzinskiChaim Ozer GrodzinskiChaim Ozer Grodzinski was a pre-eminent Av beis din , posek , and Talmudic scholar in Vilnius, Lithuania in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
, in 1939, stated that the Nazi persecution of the Jews was the fault of non-Orthodox Jews (Achiezer, volume III, Vilna 1939), in the introduction. This is discussed in "Piety & Power: The World of Jewish Fundamentalism" by Orthodox author David Landau (1993, Hill & Wang). - Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer DesslerEliyahu Eliezer DesslerEliyahu Eliezer Dessler was an Orthodox rabbi, Talmudic scholar, and Jewish philosopher of the 20th century. He is known as mashgiach ruchani of the Ponevezh yeshiva in Israel and through collections of his writings published posthumously by his pupils.-Lithuania:Eliyahu Dessler Eliyahu Eliezer...
had similar views, also discussed in Landau's book. - A few Haredi rabbis today warn that failure to follow religious lawHalakhaHalakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
will cause God to send another Holocaust. Rabbi Elazar ShachElazar ShachElazar Menachem Man Shach also spelt Eliezer Schach, was a leading Lithuanian-born and educated Haredi rabbi in Bnei Brak, Israel. He also served as one of three co-deans of the Ponevezh yeshiva in Bnei Brak along with Rabbis Shmuel Rozovsky and Dovid Povarsky...
, a leader of the LithuanianLithuanian JewsLithuanian Jews or Litvaks are Jews with roots in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania:...
yeshivaYeshivaYeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
Orthodoxy in Israel until his death in 2001 made this claim on the eve of the 1991 Gulf War. He stated that there would be a new Holocaust in punishment for the abandonment of religion and "desecration" of ShabbatShabbatShabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
in Israel.
- There were redemptionist Zionists
Modern Orthodox Jewish views
Most Modern OrthodoxModern Orthodox Judaism
Modern Orthodox Judaism is a movement within Orthodox Judaism that attempts to synthesize Jewish values and the observance of Jewish law, with the secular, modern world....
Jews reject the idea that the Holocaust was God's fault. Modern Orthodox rabbis such as Joseph Soloveitchik
Joseph Soloveitchik
Joseph Ber Soloveitchik was an American Orthodox rabbi, Talmudist and modern Jewish philosopher. He was a descendant of the Lithuanian Jewish Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty....
, Norman Lamm
Norman Lamm
Norman Lamm is a major American Modern Orthodox rabbi, scholar, author and Jewish communal leader. He is presently the Chancellor of Yeshiva University....
, Randalf Stolzman, Abraham Besdin, Emanuel Rackman
Emanuel Rackman
Rabbi Emanuel Rackman was an American Modern Orthodox Rabbi, who held pulpits in major congregations and helped draw attention to the plight of Refuseniks in the then-Soviet Union and attempted to resolve the dilemma of the Agunah, a woman who cannot remarry because her husband will not grant a...
, Eliezer Berkovits
Eliezer Berkovits
Eliezer Berkovits , was a rabbi, theologian, and educator in the tradition of Orthodox Judaism.- Life:...
and others have written on this issue; many of their works have been collected in a volume published by the Rabbinical Council of America
Rabbinical Council of America
The Rabbinical Council of America is one of the world's largest organizations of Orthodox rabbis; it is affiliated with The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, more commonly known as the Orthodox Union, or OU...
: Theological and Halakhic Reflections on the Holocaust (edited by Bernhard H. Rosenberg and Fred Heuman, Ktav/RCA, 1992).
Richard Rubenstein
Prof. Richard Rubenstein's original piece on this issue, "After Auschwitz", held that the only intellectually honest response to the Holocaust is the rejection of God, and the recognition that all existence is ultimately meaninglessness. There is no divine plan or purpose, no God that reveals His will to mankind, and God does not care about the world. Man must assert and create his own value in life. This view has been rejected by Jews of all religious denominations, but his works were widely read in the Jewish community in the 1970s.Since that time Rubinstein has begun to move away from this view; his later works affirm a form of deism in which one may believe that God may exist as the basis for reality and some also include Kabbalistic
Kabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
notions of the nature of God.
Emil Fackenheim
Emil Fackenheim is known for his understanding that people must look carefully at the Holocaust, and to find within it a new revelation from God. For Fackenheim, the Holocaust was an "epoch-making event". In contrast to Richard Rubenstein's most well-known views, Fackenheim holds that people must still affirm their belief in God and God's continued role in the world. Fackenheim holds that the Holocaust reveals unto us a new Biblical commandment, "We are forbidden to hand Hitler posthumous victories". He said that rejecting God because of the Holocaust was like giving in to Hitler.Ignaz Maybaum
In a rare view that has not been adopted by any sizable element of the Jewish or Christian community, Ignaz Maybaum has proposed that the Holocaust is the ultimate form of vicarious atonement. The Jewish people become in fact the "suffering servant" of Isaiah. The Jewish people suffer for the sins of the world. In his view: "In Auschwitz Jews suffered vicarious atonement for the sins of mankind."Eliezer Berkovits
Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits (1908–1992) holds that man's free will depends on God's decision to remain hidden. If God were to reveal himself in history and hold back the hand of tyrants, man's free will would be rendered non-existent. Many of Berkovits' books will be republished by the Eliezer Berkovits Institute for Jewish Thought under the auspices of Shalem Center, Jerusalem.Harold Kushner, William Kaufman and Milton Steinberg
Rabbis Harold KushnerHarold Kushner
Rabbi Harold Samuel Kushner is a prominent American rabbi aligned with the progressive wing of Conservative Judaism, and a popular author.- Education :...
, William E. Kaufman, Milton Steinberg
Milton Steinberg
Milton Steinberg was an American rabbi, philosopher, theologian and author.-Life:Born in Rochester, New York, he was raised with the combination of his grandparents' traditional Jewish piety and his father's modernist socialism...
believe that God is not omnipotent, and thus is not to blame for mankind's abuse of free will. Thus, there is no contradiction between the existence of a good God and the existence of massive evil by part of mankind. It is claimed that this is also the view expressed by some classical Jewish authorities, such as Abraham ibn Daud, Abraham ibn Ezra, and Gersonides.
David Weiss Halivni
Rabbi David Weiss HalivniDavid Weiss Halivni
David Weiss Halivni is an American-Israeli rabbi, scholar in the domain of Jewish Sciences and professor of Talmud.-Biography:...
is himself a Holocaust survivor from Hungary. He says that the effort to associate the Shoah and sin is morally outrageous. He holds that it is unwarranted on a strict reading of the Tanakh. He claims that it reinforces an alarming tendency among ultra-Orthodox leaders to exploit such arguments on behalf of their own authority. In "Prayer in the Shoah" he gives his response to the idea that the Holocaust was a punishment from God:
"What happened in the Shoah is above and beyond measure (l'miskpat): above and beyond suffering, above and beyond any punishment. There is no transgression that merits such punishment... and it cannot be attributed to sin."
Irving Greenberg
Rabbi Irving GreenbergIrving Greenberg
Irving Greenberg, also known as Yitz Greenberg, is a Modern Orthodox rabbi, Jewish-American scholar and author. He is known as a strong supporter of Israel and a promoter of greater understanding between Judaism and Christianity....
is a Modern Orthodox rabbi who has written extensively on how the Holocaust should affect Jewish theology. Greenberg has an Orthodox understanding of God. Like many other Orthodox Jews, he does not believe that God forces people to follow Jewish law; rather he believes that Jewish law is God's will for the Jewish people, and that Jews should follow Jewish law as normative.
Greenberg's break with Orthodox theology comes with his analysis of the implications of the Holocaust. He writes that the worst thing that God could do to the Jewish people for failing to follow the law is Holocaust-level devastation, yet this has already occurred. Greenberg is not claiming that God did use the Holocaust to punish Jews; he is just saying that if God chose to do so, that would be the worst possible thing. There really is not anything worse that one could do. Therefore, since God cannot punish us any worse than what actually has happened, and since God does not force Jews to follow Jewish law, then we cannot claim that these laws are enforceable on us. Therefore he argues that the covenant between God and the Jewish people is effectively broken and unenforceable.
Greenberg notes that there have been several terrible destructions of the Jewish community, each with the effect of distancing the Jewish people further from God. According to rabbinic literature, after the destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem and the mass-killing of Jerusalem's Jews, the Jews received no more direct prophecy. After the destruction of the second Temple in Jerusalem and the mass-killing of Jerusalem's Jews, the Jews no longer could present sacrifices at the Temple. This way of reaching God was at an end. After the Holocaust, Greenberg concludes that God does not respond to the prayers of Jews anymore.
Thus, God has unilaterally broken his covenant with the Jewish people. In this view, God no longer has the moral authority to command people to follow his will. Greenberg does not conclude that Jews and God should part ways; rather he holds that we should heal the covenant between Jews and God, and that the Jewish people should accept Jewish law on a voluntary basis.
His views on this subject have made him the subject of much criticism within the Orthodox community.
Elie Wiesel
Eli Wiesel is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and Buchenwald concentration camps. Wiesel's 1979 play The Trial Of GodThe Trial of God
The Trial of God is a play by Elie Wiesel about a fictitious trial calling God as the defendant...
is about a trial in which God is the defendant, and is reportedly based on events that Wiesel himself witnessed as a teenager in Auschwitz.
Over the course of the trial, a number of arguments are made, both for and against God's guilt.
Post-Holocaust and child abuse theology
David R. Blumenthal in his book "Facing the Abusing God" (1993) has drawn on data from the field of child abuseChild abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
and has proposed "worship of God through protest" as a legitimate response of survivors of both the Holocaust and child abuse.
Another writer addressing survivors of the Holocaust and child abuse is John K. Roth, whose essay "A Theodicy of Protest" is included in Encountering Evil: Live Options in Theodicy (1982).
Jürgen Moltmann
In The Crucified God Jürgen MoltmannJürgen Moltmann
Jürgen Moltmann is a German Reformed theologian. The 2000 recipient of the Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion.-Moltmann's Youth:...
speaks of how in a “theology after Auschwitz” the traditional notion of God needed to be completely revised.
- "Shattered and broken, the survivors of my generation were then returning from camps and hospitals to the lecture room. A theology which did not speak of God in the sight of the one who was abandoned and crucified would have had nothing to say to us then."
The traditional notion of an impassible “unmoved mover” had died in those camps and was no longer tenable. Moltmann proposes instead a “crucified God” who is both a “suffering” and “protesting” God. That is, God is not detached from suffering but willingly enters into human suffering in compassion.
- “God in Auschwitz and Auschwitz in the crucified God - that is the basis for real hope that both embraces and overcomes the world”.
This is in contrast both with the move of theism to justify God's actions and the move of atheism to accuse God. Moltmann's “Trinitarian theology of the cross” instead says that God is a protesting God who opposes the 'Gods of this world' of power and domination by entering into human pain and suffering on the cross and on the gallows of Auschwitz. Moltmann's “theology of the cross” was later developed into "Liberation Theologies"
Liberation theology
Liberation theology is a Christian movement in political theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions...
from suffering people under Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
ism in Eastern Europe and military dictatorships in South America and South Korea.
Pope Benedict XVI
In the address given on the occasion of his visit to the extermination camp of Auschwitz, Pope Benedict XVIPope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
suggested a reading of the events of the Holocaust as motivated by a hatred of God Himself. The address begins by acknowledging the impossibility of an adequate theological response:
- "In a place like this, words fail; in the end, there can only be a dread silence - a silence which is itself a heartfelt cry to God: Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this? In silence, then, we bow our heads before the endless line of those who suffered and were put to death here; yet our silence becomes in turn a plea for forgiveness and reconciliation, a plea to the living God never to let this happen again."
Nonetheless, he proposes that the actions of the Nazis can be seen as having been motivated by a hatred of God and a desire to exalt human power, with the Holocaust serving as a means by which to erase witness to God and His Law:
- "The rulers of the Third Reich wanted to crush the entire Jewish people, to cancel it from the register of the peoples of the earth. Thus the words of the Psalm: “We are being killed, accounted as sheep for the slaughter” were fulfilled in a terrifying way. Deep down, those vicious criminals, by wiping out this people, wanted to kill the God who called AbrahamAbrahamAbraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
, who spoke on SinaiMount SinaiMount Sinai , also known as Mount Horeb, Mount Musa, Gabal Musa , Jabal Musa meaning "Moses' Mountain", is a mountain near Saint Catherine in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. A mountain called Mount Sinai is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus in the Torah and the Bible as well as the Quran...
and laid down principles to serve as a guide for mankind, principles that are eternally valid. If this people, by its very existence, was a witness to the God who spoke to humanity and took us to himself, then that God finally had to die and power had to belong to man alone - to those men, who thought that by force they had made themselves masters of the world. By destroying Israel, by the Shoah, they ultimately wanted to tear up the taproot of the Christian faith and to replace it with a faith of their own invention: faith in the rule of man, the rule of the powerful."
Most coverage of the address was positive, with praise from Italian and Polish rabbis. The Simon Wiesenthal Center
Simon Wiesenthal Center
The Simon Wiesenthal Center , with headquarters in Los Angeles, California, was established in 1977 and named for Simon Wiesenthal, the Nazi hunter. According to its mission statement, it is "an international Jewish human rights organization dedicated to repairing the world one step at a time...
called the visit "historic", and the address and prayers "a repudiation of antisemitism and a repudiation of those... who refer to the Holocaust as a myth".
Jewish criticisms
A few Jewish commentators have objected to what they perceived as a desire to "Christianize" the Holocaust.Edith Stein
Edith Stein
Saint Teresia Benedicta of the Cross, sometimes also known as Saint Edith Stein , was a German Roman Catholic philosopher and nun, regarded as a martyr and saint of the Roman Catholic Church...
's (a German nun who converted from Judaism in 1922 and was killed in Auschwitz) status as a martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
has been somewhat controversial due to the question of whether she was killed for her faith or ethnicity. Many Jews view the claim of conferring of martyrdom on Stein as an act of appropriation of the Holocaust, holding that Stein was targeted by the Nazis for her Jewish ethnicity, not for her conversion to Catholicism. This concern of "appropriation" is not unique, with similar criticisms having been raised about Catholic narratives regarding other convert victims of the Holocaust—"making it seem that the Church, not the Jewish people, was the primary victim of Nazi genocide".
The conflict over the Auschwitz cross
Auschwitz cross
The Auschwitz cross is a cross erected near the Auschwitz concentration camp. In 1979, the newly elected Polish Pope John Paul II said mass on the grounds of the Auschwitz II extermination camp to some 500,000 people. An 8.6 metre tall cross was erected there for the purpose, and removed after...
near Auschwitz I typifies these controversies, as Auschwitz is also the site of the martyrdom (according to the Catholic Church) of saints such as Maximilian Kolbe
Maximilian Kolbe
Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe OFM Conv was a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar, who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the Nazi German concentration camp of Auschwitz, located in German-occupied Poland during World War II.He was canonized on 10 October 1982 by Pope John Paul II, and...
.
Christian criticisms
Certain Christian theologians have also criticized a tendency to "historicize" and "dogmatize" certain political or secular events such as the Shoah which are not part of theology as traditionally understood, that is, theology as a hermeneutic of the deposit of faith and of divine revelation, and not theology as sociology, philosophy, history or politics.For instance, during the Williamson affair, Monsignor Robert Wister publicly declared that the negationist comments made by the controversial SSPX
Society of St. Pius X
The Society of Saint Pius X is an international Traditionalist Catholic organisation, founded in 1970 by the French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre...
bishop might be "offensive and erroneous" but "not a heresy
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
" and "not an excommunicable offense", calling Williamson "not a heretic, but ... a liar".
This view notably appears in the CDF's Dominus Iesus
Dominus Iesus
Dominus Iesus is a declaration by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It was approved in a Plenary meeting of the Congregation, and bears the signature of its then Prefect, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, and of its then Secretary, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, now...
, which stresses the “fullness and definitiveness of the revelation of Jesus Christ”, as opposed to alternative notions on progressive revelation
Progressive revelation (Christian)
Progressive revelation in Christianity is the concept that the sections of the Bible that were written later contain a fuller revelation of God compared to the earlier sections. For instance, the theologian Charles Hodge wrote,...
.
Individuals
- Dietrich BonhoefferDietrich BonhoefferDietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and martyr. He was a participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and a founding member of the Confessing Church. He was involved in plans by members of the Abwehr to assassinate Adolf Hitler...
- Norman FinkelsteinNorman FinkelsteinNorman Gary Finkelstein is an American political scientist, activist and author. His primary fields of research are the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the politics of the Holocaust. He is a graduate of Binghamton University and received his Ph.D in Political Science from Princeton University...
- Dorothee SölleDorothee SölleDorothee Steffensky-Sölle was a German liberation theologian and writer who coined the term Christofascism...
- Franz Mussner
- Elie WieselElie WieselSir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
External links
- Holocaust theology site, "Works of important Jewish theologians"
- Audio: Dr. Walter Ziffer, Holocaust survivor and theology professor, discusses this article Hear Dr. Walter Ziffer (the last Holocaust survivor in Asheville, North Carolina as of April 11, 2004) discuss this article.
- The theological view of the Lubavitcher Rebbe to the Holocaust, and other Jewish responses
- The Center for Theological Reflection on the Holocaust
- Holocaust Prayer at the United States Capitol Rotunda, National Civic Commemoration of the Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust