The commemoration of Yom HaShoah in Israel is an incredibly powerful thing. At 10:00 AM, sirens go off across the entire country, and everything comes to a standstill. Teachers stop teaching, people stop working. Cars on roads and expressways stop, and drivers get out of their cars.
These sirens blast for a two full minutes. Those two minutes become a country-wide moment of silence, to honor the memory of the six million Jews that were killed during the Holocaust.
But one man spent those two minutes in a remarkable way.
Nosson Weinberg is a 90 year old Holocaust survivor. Following WWII, he mored to the United States and rebuilt his life. He made aliyah to Israel several years ago.
Mr. Weinberg has 49 great-grandchildren.
And during those two minutes of silence commemorating the horrors of death and destruction, he celebrated the bris of his 49th grandchild, Eitan Asher. The bris was intentionally scheduled to take place as the sirens began to sound.
After making aliyah, he was quoted as saying this: When asked what my answer is to the Nazis, I always answer that I have four daughters - three here in Efrat and one still in the United States.
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I came across this story as I am also reading a book by Sara Hurwitz, Here All Along, which documents the author’s journey away from Judaism, and then back to it. I want to read a small section:
I think the answer to the ‘Why be Jewish’ question is different - and more challenging - for those of us born Jewish. Answers to this question from previous generations often went something like: You should be Jewish because of the Holocaust and Israel. And because if you don’t practice Judaism and marry someone Jewish, Judaism will die out … I understand where these arguments are coming from … but I worry that they boil down to little more than ‘you should be Jewish so that Judaism can survive,’ rather than a substantive case for the meaning, joy, and connection that Judaism and membership in the Jewish people can provide.
Nosson Weinberg’s answer to the Holocaust was life. Literally. I mean, 49 great-grandchildren?! And even if he decided to live a full life of joy and hope without Judaism, after the horrors that he experienced, dayenu. But no, he continued to embrace the meaning, joy and connection of Judaism. And I imagine that he passed a good deal of that onto his family.
In Israel, those two minutes of silence are for grief and anger and prayer. But then, drivers get back into their cars. Teachers continue their lessons. The routine of life continues.
In one week, Israel will celebrate it’s 74th anniversary.
74 years after the Holocaust, Am Yisrael Chai, the people of Israel live. We don’t survive; we thrive. We engage in Torah, we practice Tikkun Olam, we gather in celebration and in mourning. This is how we best honor the memory of those we lost. And it is also how we ensure the holy vow; never again.
