Schechter News | In the Media

By David Golinkin

When David Ben-Gurion appeared before a UN Commission in 1947, he emphasized the fact that Americans and Englishmen know that the Mayflower set sail, but they have no idea exactly when that ship set sail or how many people were on that ship or what type bread they ate on the ship:

And yet, more than 3,300 years ago.the Jews left Egypt. And every Jew in the world. knows exactly on which day they left: on the 15th of Nissan. And everyone knows exactly what kind of bread the Jews ate: matzot . And until today Jews all over the world eat this matzah on the 15th of Nissan. and recount the Exodus... This is the nature of the Jews.

The same applies to the Destruction of the Temple. We break a glass under the wedding canopy in order to commemorate the Destruction at our happiest moments.

In other words, we remembered the victory of the Exodus through religious acts ; and the failure of the Destruction through religious acts .

Indeed, Jewish tragedies were remembered in three ways:

First of all, we decreed public fast-days. In addition to Tisha B'Av and the other fast days connected to the Destruction, we decreed public fast-days to commemorate other disasters. The 23rd of Shevat commemorated a terrible earthquake which struck the Land of Israel on January 18, 749, killing thousands, while the 20th day of Sivan, 4931 (May 26, 1171), memorialized 32 Jews who were burned at the stake in Blois, France, as a result of a blood libel.

Exactly 477 years later, on the 20th of Sivan, 5408 (June 10, 1648), Chmielnicki began the pogroms which massacred 50,000 innocent Jews and destroyed many Jewish communities. In 1650, the rabbis decreed a public fast day on the 20th of Sivan for the entire kingdom of Poland for generations.

Indeed, this is the reason that a group of teachers and students at the Schechter Institute hold a public fast day every year on Yom Hashoah.

Secondly, we have designated periods of mourning on the Hebrew calendar, such as the Three Weeks between the 17 th of Tammuz and Tisha B'av and the Sefirah Season between Pesah and Shavuot.

Thirdly, we have composed megillot (scrolls) and kinot (elegies). Megillat Eikhah (the Scroll of Lamentations) commemorates the Destruction of the First Temple. The earthquake of 749 and the blood libel of 1171 were commemorated by liturgical poems and chronicles. Rabbi Shabetai Hacohen composed a scroll named Megillat Afa as well as elegies about the massacres of 1648-1649, which were recited on the 20th of Sivan until the Holocaust.

Indeed, some writers suggested writing a megillah in order to commemorate the Shoah. In 1970, Binyamin West wrote: "I wish to suggest to the Yad Vashem directorate that it announce a prize for a scroll of the Holocaust. We need an Eikhah of the Holocaust, something short and strong that will have an effect on believers and non-believers alike" .

In 1992, Alex Eisen, a Holocaust survivor, asked the Chief Rabbi of Israel and, later, Bar Ilan University to write a Megillat Hashoah, a Shoah Scroll. When they refused, he turned to The Schechter Institute in Jerusalem and the international Rabbinical Assembly in New York; they readily agreed. Written in a beautiful Hebrew by Prof. Avigdor Shinan and translated by Rabbi Jules Harlow, the Scroll will be read this year at synagogues throughout the world. The six chapters - one for each of the Six Million - include a historical introduction, a description of the Warsaw Ghetto, a labor camp, and a death camp, an elegy for the martyrs, and a chapter about the survivors and the birth of the State of Israel.

But, you may ask, why do we need to compose a Shoah Scroll right now ? There are three answers to this question:

Megillat HaShoah - The Shoah Scroll
By Annette Young, Ha'aretz