Am Yisroel Chai
6283. The number is seared into my brain much the same as it was permanently etched into his forearm. I know very little about 6283 other than that his Hebrew name is Yechiel, the son of Abba and that he was born in 1926.
I am a member of the “Chevra Kadisha” or, in English, The Hebrew Burial Society. This volunteer organization has branches in thousands of Jewish communities throughout the world. The function of this society is to tend to the needs of a fellow Jew who has passed away and prepare them for burial.
A couple weeks ago I was called to work on someone and one of the first things I noticed about this person was the number on his forearm, a gift from the Nazis, may their memories be erased. 6283. I went about the rest of my task but my mind was transported 70 years back to a place and a time when the world went insane.
I tried to imagine what this poor fellow went through during those times when he lost his identity as a human being and instead became just another number, like a cow being taken to slaughter. In my mind I pictured a teenager, perhaps around 18 years of age - just about the same age as my son. I pictured a frightened young man exiting a cattle car where he had been crammed in for days without fresh air, food or even a place to relieve himself. Not everyone was that fortunate as many died in route.
Now he is shoved out and taken to the processing facility. He is actually among the lucky ones. His parents and siblings were sent to the left by a polite looking man, immaculately dressed in a pressed uniform complete with shiny polished shoes and a pair of white silk gloves on his hands. Those sent to the left are taken immediately to the gas chambers. He is sent to the right meaning he would live, at least for the time being. Practically no one lives long term in this hell on earth, eventually everyone is sent to the gas chambers to die and then to be burned in the crematoria where 12,000 of his Jewish brothers and sisters are killed on a daily basis.
Amidst the wailing that is coming from every corner of this accursed place and the barking of the ferocious German shepherds this young man heads to the building where he gets undressed and has his head shaved. He is given his threadbare prisoner uniform and looks identical to everyone else in the camp. The only differencing mark is his number that is tattooed on his forearm. 6283. That is his unique identity.
Coming back to 2016 I paused from my daydreaming to reflect on how privileged I felt to be able to help this person. There are fewer and fewer of these heroes left. Growing up I encountered survivors on a daily basis. Now they are almost all gone. What a special opportunity to help prepare this fellow for his trip to the heavenly court. I can’t say with certainty but I suspect that when he reached the heavenly court he was admitted immediately to the Garden of Eden, having already gone through his share of purgatory.
A week later I was in Lakewood, NJ for a wedding. Lakewood is home to the largest yeshiva in the world outside of Israel and grows at a rate of several hundred Jewish families each year.
I was in shul that morning and there were two people davening who had both just become parents of newborn baby girls. Each of them was called up to the Torah and gave their new babies their Jewish names. I could not help but marvel at the two experiences I just had in a few days span.
One day I was tending to a survivor of the Holocaust – a time when Hitler wanted to destroy the Jewish people completely and, to a large degree, he succeeded. 6 million of us – men, women and children – were killed and an entire continent of thriving Judaism was effectively decimated. Although he lost the war, he must have felt he at least dealt us a mortal blow, one from which we would never recover.
And yet, here I was some 70 years later witnessing two more precious members being welcomed into our nation. In a city that has 10,000 rabbinic families and has a yeshiva with several thousand students.
And on a smaller scale there are communities like that throughout the country and world. We have Jewish schools, synagogues, yeshivas, kosher food and everything else that Hitler tried to destroy. And there are dozens of such cities just in the United States alone.
So Yechiel ben Abba, 6283, as you meet up with your parents who were sacrificed on the altar of sanctifying G-d’s name, tell them that they were the ultimate victors. Hitler, like thousands before him, thought he would destroy the Jewish people but we have been assured by our Creator that it will never happen. Am yisrael chai l’olam! The Jewish nation will endure forever!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yosef Koval
