How to Maintain Faith After Catastrophe: Rabbi Lau's Powerful 4-Minute Insight

(Credit: Orot Channel)

"Have doubts never crossed your mind?" the interviewer asked, urging: "Tell me about the questions and uncertainties." Rabbi Lau responded from the depths of his heart: "King David says: 'How great are Your works, Hashem, Your thoughts are very deep.' 'Your works' are the visible elements: night, morning, sun, moon, stars, ocean depths. King David says: 'Your works' are vast, and how much more so 'Your thoughts' which are beyond my understanding."

"The answer to 'why.' Why do the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper?, 'Why does the way of the wicked succeed?', 'Why do You remain silent when the wicked devour one more righteous?', 'What did these innocent children do?' There is an explanation for everything. Many things could be said about this. Entire books have been written on this, including the Book of Job.

"But I will give you a practical answer. A practical response regarding the Holocaust. What is the alternative? To grant victory to the murderers or to the victims? If you turn away from the God of Israel because you're angry, no Shabbat, no holidays, no tallit, no tefillin, anger and no, no, no. Just like you, your wife and children will be alike—and you've handed the key to victory to those who wished to annihilate the Jews, and not just the Jews as a people, but Judaism itself. 'They said, come let us destroy them as a nation, so the name of Israel will no longer be remembered.' I decided that the murderers of my father, mother, and my 13-year-old brother do not deserve the victory. The victory belongs to my parents, in knowing that their grandchildren live in the Land of Israel. All my grandchildren, their great-grandchildren, live in Israel, and the people of Israel live, and the lineage continues, and there are sons ordained in the rabbinate, generation 39, numerically equivalent to the Hebrew word 'tal,' which is the 'dew of revival.'"

"You are incredibly optimistic as a Jew," the interviewer exclaimed in amazement, to which Rabbi Lau replied with a smile: "I have good reasons. I live against all laws of nature. Six years without a doctor, without vaccination, in subhuman conditions, extreme cold, relentless hunger. You dream of a potato. Beatings for nothing. Humiliation, and loneliness. No father, no mother, no siblings. With all this, at such an age, to come out alive. Isn't that a reason to be optimistic?! Is there anyone else in the world more entitled to be optimistic than me?! After such a childhood, to start a family, if it's possible to come out alive and build another home—no reason for depression."

10 Remarkable Quotes from Rabbi Lau on the Holocaust and Faith