A Time to Laugh, a Time to Weep
Last week I had the tremendous privilege of dancing at the wedding of my wife’s baby sister (no, she is no longer a baby. She is 21). My wife comes from a very large family and this is the last child to get married.
At the wedding, my father-in-law spoke and thanked G-d for the incredible blessing of being able to walk all of his children down the aisle to the chupah. In fact, several times over the weeklong celebration (known in Hebrew as the “Sheva Brachot”), it was brought up by many participants how blessed my in-laws are that they have been granted this amazing opportunity.
Indeed, this is reason alone to be jubilant. However, when viewed through the prism of history, both of the family and the world, the blessing is nothing short of miraculous.
You see, my father-in-law’s parents were both survivors of Auschwitz. Before my grandfather passed away a decade ago, at each family occasion he would get up to speak and begin with the timeless “shehecheyanu” blessing that Jews have made for centuries: “Blessed are you G-d, who has kept us alive and preserved us and allowed us to arrive at this particular moment.”
Back in 1944, the mere thought of surviving the night and waking up the next morning was almost too much to hope for. The farthest thing from my grandparents’ minds was to begin fantasizing about the weddings of their grandchildren and the births of great-grandchildren! If someone would have told them while they were witnessing the daily carnage of their families and friends - thousands of victims every single day - that they would not only survive but would rebuild large and beautiful families from the ashes, they would have looked at that person as if he was out of his mind.
One can well appreciate, then, the feelings of emotion coursing through my father-in-law’s veins as he witnessed an event that only a few decades before was unfathomable.
Concurrent with the family celebration, the Jewish nation was struck once again by the ancient scourge of anti-semitism in the form of the Pittsburgh massacre. While my family was celebrating the Shabbos pre-wedding festivities in Cleveland and Toronto, a sadistic and evil person walked into a synagogue in Pittsburgh and killed 11 congregants in cold blood, telling everyone that “All Jews must die.”
The contrast between these two events, a joyous occasion on one hand and a tragic nightmare on the other, was not lost on me.
When Hitler rose to power, he had visions of a Thousand Year Reich. He was off by 988 years, as his power only lasted from 1933 until 1945. Despite the tremendous damage that he inflicted on the world in general and on the Jewish nation in particular, he was a mere blip on the timeline of the world, vanishing like a puff of smoke and relegated to the dustbins of history.
Our nation, although suffering a tremendous blow, was blessed by G-d to survive and given the ability to move on. Yes, G-d has delivered us a crippling blow but He has also promised us that while we may get knocked down, we will never be knocked out.
So to the Hitler protégé in Pittsburgh and to all of his ilk, know this: as much as you hate us and as hard as you may try to destroy us, you will never succeed! For we are the Chosen People; we have survived your ancestors of hate and we will survive you as well. This is G-d’s promise and we have seen its fulfillment time and time again.
May we all merit celebrating everlasting peace and joy for the entire nation in a rebuilt Jerusalem with the coming of the Messiah speedily in our days!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yosef Koval
