The Question of Questions: Where Was God During the Holocaust?

Every week we tackle a different sensitive topic, but this week we're taking off the gloves and addressing the most sensitive and explosive topic of all: the Holocaust. Everyone is familiar with the common question "Where was God during the Holocaust," and even though countless articles and books have been written on the subject, we will try to condense it here in our column.

Before we begin, it's worth recalling the poignant speech "Where Was God? During the Holocaust," delivered by Sivan Rahav Meir at the alternative Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony about two and a half years ago. "Where is God when Maccabi wins, do you understand that? When there is a goal He exists and when there is a Holocaust He doesn't exist? One might ask: where is He when someone is killed in a car accident, He dies with him, and after ten years of waiting a couple is blessed with the birth of a child, then suddenly God exists, He is born with him? And where is He now? (...) Whoever is angry with God when life is bad and loves Him when life is good - doesn't serve God, but serves themselves."

For Rabbi Yitzchak Fanger, the question "Where was God during the Holocaust" should be asked about every sorrow or disorder in creation. "A child suffering from a toothache is also supposedly a 'flaw' of God," he illustrates. "The question is why there is suffering at all, on a macro or micro level. Since Hashem is perfect, and there should seemingly be no deviation in His creation. If I see a deviation - I want to understand why. So a charged issue, like the Holocaust, I have to analyze logically and not emotionally. Not say 'my grandfather was killed in the Holocaust, why did God take my grandfather?' That's not the right question because it doesn't stem from a desire to know the truth, but from some emotional pain."

"If I ask God why He allowed the Holocaust to happen, I could equally ask why He brought the flood that actually destroyed the entire world, or why there was the destruction of the First Temple or the Second Temple, where there were also many casualties. The answer is partly found in what is written in the Talmud - there is no suffering without sin. Meaning, there is no reality in the world where suffering exists for no reason - both the smallest suffering and the greatest suffering. Surely everything has a purpose. Only, we don’t live in a time where we have prophets or spiritual leaders of such a level to tell us exactly why each thing happens. But since I know who God is to some extent, and know He is perfect and that from His perspective no evil could exist - I can understand that there is a Creator in the world, and accept that I cannot always understand Him. Even in human morality, a child does not always understand their parents. When my father took me to the dentist at age four, I didn't quite understand why he took me there, why I had to suffer, why a father who loves me would do such things. But when I grew up I understood he didn’t do it to the neighbor's kid, because he loved me."

"So too with the Holocaust, which was full of the most unbearable suffering - we cannot understand why exactly He allowed it to occur. We can only believe that everything is for the good. And where exactly was God? You can ask many survivors, who experienced miraculous events - and they will tell you about the amazing rescues they experienced."

Watch Rabbi Yosef Ben Porat's lecture, Where Was God During the Holocaust:

What about the famous statement that the Holocaust occurred because of assimilation, the distancing from religion, and everything else?

"Unfortunately, the Holocaust topic is very charged in our generation, so many people have a hard time accepting it. But if I look objectively, like a historian examining history, I see that throughout the years a repetitive history exists: every time Jews broke their covenant with God, to some extent - call it assimilation, blurring boundaries, etc. - the gentile among whom the Jew lived turned against him in anti-Semitism. The beginning of emancipation in 1832 began in Germany. Immediately after began the Enlightenment period in Germany. Then the Reform movement arose in Germany, followed by assimilation. It all started in Germany. The great Jewish leaders constantly warned about these things."

But to such an extent, such a great punishment? Suppose people made mistakes in their commitment to God - yet what they received seems disproportionate.

"We need to understand that we do not understand and do not see the full picture. Let me tell you an incident: When I was in the army our APC was hit by a mine during a patrol in Lebanon, and a soldier got shrapnel in his leg. The main artery in his leg was torn, the medic treated him with a tourniquet, and the soldier was quickly brought to the hospital while gangrene developed in his leg. The doctors, with no choice, summoned the parents and had them sign a document authorizing the amputation of their son's leg to save the rest of his body. Now, if you take someone from Zimbabwe and drop him in the operating room without explaining what happened, he would think this is the most brutal thing in the world. 'What did this person do?', he would ask in amazement, 'Why amputate his leg? What a cruel thing!' But he doesn't understand that this is actually the most merciful thing that can be done to a person. Therefore also in the matter of the Holocaust - these are God's calculations, and I accept this with love as part of my tests of faith." Even Rabbi Yiftach Sofer prefers to see the Holocaust as part of the chain of tragedies that have afflicted the Jewish people throughout thousands of years of existence. "Of course, understanding the Holocaust is something that no human mind comprehends," he clarifies, "but that’s okay. With all our limitations, we cannot expect to fully understand the Creator. So we have no choice but to accept it."