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Jul 27, 2023Liked by Rabbi Matt Schneeweiss

As I was reading it I was like oh boy he's gonna catch a lot of grief for this. I too was thoroughly beaten up on once in shul for merely wondering why we refer to the six million as "kedoshim" as one would think that as they didnt have any way out by recanting their Judaism etc they dont nec qualify for that particular designation. In any event theres a difference between saying someone else's suffering is due to their sins, a la chavrei iyov, vs taking ones own suffering to heart. When it is national in nature, with all equally affected, then hilchos taanis controls. The tricky thing with the holocaust is that altho it was national in nature, ostensibly allowing for articles such as your own, however at the same time noone wants insult added to injury with folks insinuating that they, their ancestors and relatives had it coming. Even tho it is true that it was due to sin (per Rambam, as it ostensibly is for someone else's individual suffering), nevertheless unless one is personally suffering along with the tzibur one may need to exercise more sensitivity. Dont know if this fully makes sense and it is a fine line to draw but I'm hitting post!

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As I was reading it I was like oh boy he's gonna catch a lot of grief for this. I too was thoroughly beaten up on once in shul for merely wondering why we refer to the six million as "kedoshim" as one would think that as they didnt have any way out by recanting their Judaism etc they dont nec qualify for that particular designation. In any event theres a difference between saying someone else's suffering is due to their sins, a la chavrei iyov, vs taking ones own suffering to heart. When it is national in nature, with all equally affected, then hilchos taanis controls. The tricky thing with the holocaust is that altho it was national in nature, ostensibly allowing for articles such as your own, however at the same time noone wants insult added to injury with folks insinuating that they, their ancestors and relatives had it coming. Even tho it is true that it was due to sin (per Rambam, as it ostensibly is for someone else's individual suffering), nevertheless unless one is personally suffering along with the tzibur one may need to exercise more sensitivity. Dont know if this fully makes sense and it is a fine line to draw but I'm hitting post!

Expand full comment