Tomorrow the Jewish world commemorates the tenth day of Tevet, one of the many sad dates that form the Jewish calendar. The date commemorates the beginning of the siege and eventual destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. It is one of the four biblical fast days that were ordered by the rabbis and prophets of Israel, and is accepted by all of the Jewish people, having been observed for many centuries.
After the terrible tragedy of the Holocaust the Jewish
people and the State of Israel searched for a proper date and method to give
expression to their grief in remembering the innocent victims of that terrible
unprecedented slaughter. The State of Israel set a date at the end of the month
of Nisan as Yom HaShoah. This observance includes the sounding of a siren, a minute’s
silence, special memorial programs, together with somber music and serious
programming on the radio and television.
The Holocaust has also been memorialized in films, museums,
books, lectures and almost every other means. However, the rabbinate of Israel
sought to commemorate the tragedy in a different, more traditional manner. They
set aside the tenth day of Tevet as the day of memorial and of universal
recitation of Kaddish in memory of the six million victims of the Holocaust.
Whenever possible, the commemorations such as that for the
expulsion of the Jews from Spain were attached to the ninth of Av or other fast
days. That was always the pattern in Jewish life. But one of the great
difficulties of modern Jewry is how to commemorate the enormous events that
have occurred to us in the last century. How is the establishment of the State
of Israel to be commemorated? How is the memory of the victims of the Holocaust
to be sanctified?
In Jewish tradition all great events have been commemorated
within a religious context. However, in our time, when a great section of the
Jewish people and its substantial leadership no longer saw themselves bound by
traditional religious norms, the questions of commemoration mentioned above
have produced very controversial results. Religious Jewry attempted to install
a religious tone into these otherwise secular commemorations. The success of
doing so has been only partial and therefore a great deal of ambivalence
regarding these commemorations remains.
The universal Kaddish recital on the tenth of Tevet is the
religious attempt to have a unified memorial service in a manner that is
dignified, traditional and acceptable to all Jews. My personal impression is
that this commemoration has gained some momentum over the past few years.
Whether it will ever be able to gain the universal acceptance that the
rabbinate hoped that it would achieve remains yet to be seen.
As the generation of the Holocaust falls to the attrition of
time, the difficulty of commemorating the Holocaust in a meaningful fashion to
new generations of Jews increases. The efficacy of a universal Kaddish day,
such as on the tenth day of Tevet, depends on some sort of Jewish feeling and
emotion. To create such a feeling or emotion without recourse to Jewish
tradition, faith and ritual becomes a very difficult task. Thus the tenth of
Tevet and its universal Kaddish day message reveals the deep problem of Jewish
identity and the place of tradition and some sort of religious ritual in our
society and lives.
The Jewish world, in its historical memory, forgets little
if anything. That is why the commemoration of events in Jewish history, both
tragic and triumphant, remains embedded in Jewish life. Though the form that
remembrance of the events of Jewish history takes may vary from time to time
and generation to generation, we can be certain that Jewish memory and eternity
will prevail. Therefore the universal Kaddish day on the tenth of Tevet takes
on greater importance than just being a day of fasting and commemoration. It is
a day of national rededication to the values, history and mission of the Jewish
people.
Shabbat shalom, Rabbi Berel Wein
