[Avodah] Heroes, Victims and Kedoshim

[Yitzhak Grossman]

[Some quotes are from Areivim, with permission.]

On Sun, 4 May 2008 19:53:30 -0400
Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:

...

> The Belzer Rebbe concluded that one of the things produced by the
> Holocaust is that it was then possible for a Jew to die al qiddush
> Hashem simply for being a Jew, his existential essence despite his
> personal unobservance. And thus the provided a metaphysical mechanism by
> which we could be brought one step closer to ge'ulah. A new definition
> of Klal Yisrael.

On Tue, 6 May 2008 13:00:15 -0400 (EDT)
"Micha Berger" <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:

...

> My problem is more philosophical (surprise!). Who are we to dedicate
> learning in their memory? It's like a poor shoemaker donating a dollar
> to help the Rockefellers. The notion that someone who died al qiddush
> Hashem (and we're not even talking of people who lived as tinoqos
> shenishb'u) would need my help in olam haba is a bit of hubris. No?

> -micha

On Wed, 7 May 2008 10:25:04 -0400 (EDT)
"Micha Berger" <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:

...

> But think about it. We're talking about people shemasru nafsham al
> qidushas Hashem. They died with kaparah, in a state of taharah and
> qedushah. Do you really think any of our zechuyos matter? Do you think
> any of them didn't get the maximum hana'as ziv hashechinah that their
> neshamos are capable of from the moment they died -- or something
> within 11 months later?

On Fri, 9 May 2008 11:45:16 -0400
Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:

...

> I had a problem with the notion of doing things lezeikher those who died
> in the Shoah. Presumably dying al qiddush Hashem means entering shamayim
> (to avoid the words "OhB" in the same post as discussing the machloqes
> on how to translate them) in a state of kaparah, biqedushah uvetaharah,
> and the person's soul is at a level of getting all the ziv hasheniah it
> is capable of getting hana'ah from. Certainly more than 11 months later.



I have wondered for many years whether there is *any* classic source
for the notion that one who is killed for being a Jew, as opposed to
one who *voluntarily* gives up his life for God, His Torah, His Mizvos,
or His people, can be said to have died Al Kiddush Hashem.

My friend Yisroel shows me that R. Moshe Bleich raises this
question in an article in Or HaMizrach ("The Hebrew Torah Journal of
the Religious Zionists of America"): it is a commonplace to
automatically call all Jewish victims of the Holocaust "Kedoshim", but
what is the source for this [0]?  R. Shepansky, the editor, is firmly
convinced that the appellation is correct, and he attempts in an
editor's note to provide some sources for this, but I did not find his
arguments convincing.  Neither, apparently, did R. Moshe Bleich, since
he reiterates his dissatisfaction with the convention in a subsequent
issue of the journal, in a note to which R. Shepansky, too, reminds the
reader of his position [1].

And so I throw down the gauntlet; I challenge anyone to provide a
classic, or at the very least pre-twentieth century, source for the
doctrine that being murdered for being a Jew is a sufficient condition
for being considered to have died Al Kiddush HaShem.

[0] 130-131 Nissan-Tammuz 5748 p. 302
[1] 138-139 Nissan-Tammuz 5750 p. 232

> -Micha

Yitzhak
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