A story related by Rabbi Jacob J.
Schacter, of Yeshiva University, at an annual Tisha B’Av event that was
transmitted over a webcast. As a young man, J. J. Schacter visited Israel
for the first time, just after the Six Day War. He met an elderly man, a
Holocaust survivor, who related his story to him. What follows is a retelling
of that story in my words.
The survivor’s wife and children, save one, had been
martyred in Europe. As soon as the State of Israel was declared, he and his son
were able to arrive. The son immediately joined the IDF and fought bravely. He
fell at the bloody Battle of Latrun, a terrible defeat for the Israelis that
was not reversed until 1967.
J. J. stood silent, humbled by the man’s suffering and
sacrifice. Then the man continued:
“You know, after my son died, people expressed their
condolences with the traditional – Hamakom yinakhem otkha b’tokh shar
avelei tsiyon v’yerushalayim – May God comfort you among the mourners
of Zion and Jerusalem. I thought deeply about those words and saw special
significance in the word that is used for God. Of all the 70 Hebrew names for
the Deity, the tradition ordained the use of Makom. As you know
that word ordinarily connotes “place” but in rare contexts it is also a divine
name.
“ For nearly two millennia
our people died al kiddush hashem, for the
sanctity of The [Ineffable] Name of God, in all manner of persecutions,
Crusades, pogroms and now the Holocaust that claimed my family. What benefit
accrued to the Jewish people? What gain was achieved by their slaughter? What
meaning was there in their deaths? But my son died for this makom
kodesh, this holy place, so that Jews could live free and unafraid. That is
my nekhamah, my comfort. My son did not die in vain. Hamakom comforts
me.” -Rabbi Moses Birnbaum
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