Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/04/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Thanks Jerry. I'm gaining in wisdom. Sam S Jerry Lehrer wrote: >Sam > >BD is well known for being a Sweet Old Boy. His best weapon is the >throwing of cold water. > >Jerry > >Sam wrote: > > > >>If I must explain it to you, you do not have the ability to understand. >>So I won't. >> >>Sam S >> >>B. D. Colen wrote: >> >> >> >>>Why? >>> >>>-----Original Message----- >>>From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org >>>[mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of >>>Sam >>>Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 1:11 AM >>>To: Leica Users Group >>>Subject: Re: [Leica] OT - Jeff Jacoby Article >>> >>> >>>The following is off topic, but is worth reading-- >>> >>>Sam S >>> >>> >>>*Faith in the depths of Hell* >>>Jeff Jacoby >>> >>> The order to kill every pregnant Jewish woman had been issued that >>>morning. So when a Nazi guard patrolling the Jewish ghetto in Kovno >>>noticed a pregnant Jew walking past the local hospital, he shot her at >>>point-blank range. She died on the spot. >>> >>> Hoping to save the baby, some passersby rushed the dead woman into >>>the hospital. An obstetrician determined that she had been in her last >>>weeks of pregnancy, and said that if surgery were performed immediately, >>> >>>her baby might be rescued. >>> >>> But could such surgery be squared with Jewish law, which is >>>stringent in its concern for the dignity of the dead? If the baby >>>didn't make it, the mother's body would have been mutilated for nothing. >>> >>> The question was put to Rabbi Ephraim Oshry, a young rabbinical >>>scholar. He didn't hesitate. "When saving a life is involved, we are >>>not concerned with the desecration of the dead," he ruled. Besides, if >>>the murdered mother could speak, wouldn't she welcome the "desecration" >>>of her body if it would assure her baby's survival? He ordered the >>>operation to proceed at once, and the baby was born alive. >>> >>> Then came a horrifying postscript. "The cruel murderers . . . came >>>into the hospital to write down the name of the murdered woman. . . . >>>When they found the baby alive, their savage fury was unleashed. One of >>> >>>the Germans grabbed the infant and cracked its skull against the wall of >>> >>>the hospital room. Woe unto the eyes that saw this!" >>> >>> This case from May 1942 was one of many that Rabbi Oshry was called >>>upon to decide during the Nazi occupation of Kovno, Lithuania's >>>second-largest city. He recorded the heart-rending questions that were >>>brought to him in brief notes on scraps of paper, then buried the scraps >>> >>>in tin cans. Someday, he hoped, those scraps might be found -- evidence >>> >>>that even in the midst of the Nazi inferno there were Jews who clung to >>>their God and His law, refusing to abandon Him even as they must have >>>wondered whether He had abandoned them. >>> >>> More than 90 percent of Kovno's 40,000 Jews were killed in the >>>Holocaust -- either by the Germans or by their Lithuanian >>>collaborators. Rabbi Oshry was one of those who survived. After the war >>> >>>he retrieved his notes and began writing them out as full-length >>>rabbinical rulings, or responsa. These were ultimately published in >>>five Hebrew volumes; in 1983 a book of excerpts in English -- /Responsa >>> >>> >>>from the Holocaust >> >> >>><http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1880582716/townhallcom/>/ -- was >>> >>>published by Judaica Press. >>> >>> I read /Responsa from the Holocaust/ soon after it came out, and >>>found it deeply moving. With the approach of Holocaust Remembrance Day, >>> >>>which occurs this year on April 19, I took it down from the bookshelf >>>last week -- and again found it powerful and affecting. The questions >>>laid before Rabbi Oshry can reduce you to tears, but what is really >>>extraordinary, I saw now, was that anyone would care enough to ask such >>>questions in the first place. >>> >>> In October 1941, "one of the respected members of the community" >>>asked Rabbi Oshry if he could commit suicide. His wife and children had >>> >>>been seized by the Nazis, and he knew that their murder was imminent. >>>He feared that the Nazis would force him to watch as his family was >>>killed, and the prospect of witnessing their deaths was a horror he >>>couldn't bear to face. He begged for permission to take his own life >>>and avoid seeing his loved ones die. >>> >>> Later that month, the head of another household came to Rabbi Oshry >>>"with tears of anguish on his face." His children were starving to >>>death and he was desperate to find food for them. His query was about a >>> >>>bit of property that had been left behind by the family in the next >>>apartment. The entire family had been butchered a few days earlier, and >>> >>>there were no surviving relatives. Under Jewish law, could he take what >>> >>>remained of their belongings and sell them to raise cash for food? >>> >>> Next to such questions, answers seem almost superfluous. (The rabbi >>> >>>did not permit the suicide; he allowed the neighbors' property to be >>>taken.) What is stunning is that men and women in the throes of such >>>hideous suffering and brutality were still concerned about adhering to >>>Jewish law. In the lowest depths of the Nazi hell, in a place of terror >>> >>>and savagery that most of us cannot fathom, here were human beings who >>>refused to relinquish their faith -- who refused even to violate a >>>religious precept without first asking if it was allowed. >>> >>> Violence, humiliation, and hunger will reduce some people to animals >>> >>>willing to do anything to survive. The Jews who sought out Rabbi Oshry >>>-- like Jews in so many other corners of Nazi Europe -- were not reduced >>> >>>but elevated, reinforced in their belief, determined against crushing >>>odds to walk in the ways of their fathers. >>> >>> Some Jews fought the Nazis with guns and sabotage, Rabbi Oshry would >>> >>>later say; others fought by persisting in Jewish life. In the end, >>>/Responsa from the Holocaust >>><http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1880582716/townhallcom/>/ is a >>>chronicle of courage and resistance -- and a profound inspiration to >>>believers of every faith. >>>_______________________________________________ >>>Leica Users Group. >>>See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>> >>>_______________________________________________ >>>Leica Users Group. >>>See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>_______________________________________________ >>Leica Users Group. >>See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> >> > >_______________________________________________ >Leica Users Group. >See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > >