A Confluence of Sorrow

Tonight is Tisha B'Av and I was in shul tonight sitting on the floor listening to the horrors described in Eicha, Lamentations. As I said last year, fasting and praying in commemoration of the Destruction of the Temples and the loss of Jerusalem really brings home the historic link that we Jews have with Israel and Jerusalem. It is a tragedy that many Jews just don't know what Tisha B'Av is and, by corollary, do not understand this link. The fact is that the Jewish People are the Children of Israel in every sense of the phrase, and we are the indigenous people of the land. You do not mourn the loss of something for 2,000 years as a form of, what, propaganda or marketing. It is deep and true and real, and if all Jews in the diaspora AND in Israel knew this, well, Moshiach would have come by now. 

Anyway. After the reading, there were two speakers, both Holocaust survivors, both in their 80's. One was my father-in-law Nathan Werdiger. 

The first speaker, originally from Romania, told his story of being rounded up and sent to forced labour camps, escape, recapture, Auschwitz and survival. He recounted how his sister refused to flee until the Vishnitzer Rebbe told them to; and then the Rebbe himself fled with a 'select group of Hasidim' and tens of thousands of his followers were abandoned, most perishing at the hands of the Nazi murderers. 

After the war, he fled Judaism and lived in Kalgoorlie, a gold mining town, for 30 years. He pledged never to marry and have children as he could not countenance the thought of bringing children into such a world. On a recent visit to Melbourne he saw a Shul and entered it for whatever reason, was warmly welcomed by the Chabad rabbi and now has returned to Judaism. 

My father-in-law told his story; forced labour in Auschwitz, working as a slave for IG Farben, witnessing hangings of fellow Jewish slaves for trivial offences, starvation, disease; participating in a Kol Nidrei service after dark in the bunkroom, weeping for the beauty of remembered Yom Kippur services, fasting -fasting! In Auschwitz!- for what turned into 2 days due to collective punishment by the Nazi kommandant ; Death march to Buchenwald; being liberated close to death, pulled off a pile of corpses by his one surviving brother hours before the Americans arrived,  being nursed back to health, learning how to walk again, 4 years in a Davos sanatorium; failing the medical to go to the US to be with his brother but being sponsored by a cousin to come to Australia. It is impossible, he said, to convey the absolute hell of the camps; and he is right. There are no words in any language to convey the depths and extremes of these experiences, not to a listener who hasn't been there himself. 

But my father-in-law took a different turn from the other speaker. Despite all that he experienced, he held on to his Judaism. He married and created a family which now numbers over 100 souls. He dragged himself out of the ashes of the Holocaust and he chose Life. 

I never ever presume to judge a survivor; nobody can. I don't know how anyone could ever function in any way after such experiences. But I know that I am grateful that Nathan Werdiger chose to live. 

It's Tisha B'Av. We Jews have experienced unspeakable tragedies throughout history, many linked with this day and many only because of our Judaism. We are still here. We are the descendants of the survivors who chose Life. 

Moshiach hasn't come yet and I don't know what it will take; but we wait to be redeemed and returned to our home in Eretz Yisrael. We will be redeemed. We will return. 

Am Yisrael Chai.