Holocaust of Jews in biblical times
I saw this article and thought it was worth posting.
My disclaimer:
· Who said that Rashi’s commentary on the plague of darkness, is right or true?
· Is this necessarily the only conclusion? There are other cases in the Bible where people died from the people of Israel.
It seems that the overall and simple reason was that they did not listen to the word of God, and did not put their faith in it.
The uniqueness of the Holocaust of European Jewry is in the mass extermination of innocent people and in a short period of time. Does the same destruction as the holocaust of European Jews appear in the biblical period? And if so, what is the punishment for?
Below are two holocausts that are similar to the Holocaust of European Jews:
Holocaust of Egyptian Jews
in the three days of the plague of darkness, about ten million Jews perished because they did not want to immigrate to the Land of Israel, as Rashi writes
”
And why did he bring darkness upon them [=on the Egyptians a plague] darkness, who were in Israel in that generation wicked, and did not want to leave, and died in the three days of darkness, so that the Egyptians would not see their downfall and say they too are like us
In the calculation of those who perished we use the Bible and the words of the Sages. In the Torah it is written that sixty thousand came out of Egypt, 600 thousand men, from the age of 20-60.
[1]
Adding to them a similar number the rest of the Jews up to the age of 20 and over the age of 60, we reached at least one million two hundred thousand. If we add the women to them as the number of men, we have reached at least 2.5 million. A fifth of the people of Israel immigrated to the Land of Israel and four parts died during the three days of darkness in Egypt, according to the tradition of the Sages:
One in five left [Egypt], and four parts - died in the three days of darkness
[2]
It was found that at least ten million people perished in Egypt in three days!
2.
The holocaust of the desert generation
The commentator Ibn Ezra explains the death of each generation of the Egyptians in the desert, because God wanted a new generation of fierce and heroic Jews who would be able to conquer the land. The Egyptians were unable to fight, conquer and rule, but their sons who did not taste slavery and were brought up in the desert They have the right skills. And this is the language of Ibn Ezra
(Exodus 13)
One has to wonder how a large camp of six hundred thousand people [Jews] will look [before] the [Egyptians] who pursue them [before the miracle of the splitting of the Red Sea]. The answer is that the Egyptians were masters of Israel and it is the generation coming out of Egypt that learned from their youth to endure the burden of Egypt
and his soul is vile, and how can he now fight with his master?! And there were the Israelites Weak and uneducated for war
. Don’t you see that Amalek came with a small nation [to fight Israel] and had it not been for Moses’ prayer - [Amalek] would have weakened [=defeated] Israel. And God is the only one who does great things [=miracles] and if there were conspiracies - a round in which all the people coming out of Egypt, the males, died
Because they do not have the strength to fight the Canaanites until generation after generation of the desert rises up who have not seen exile and have a high spirit
When you mentioned the words of Moses in the parashat ‘And these are names’
The Holocaust of the Jews in Egypt and the Holocaust of the Desert generation corresponds to the Holocaust of the European Jews in their destruction and their cause. The following is P. Perkser’s description in the newspaper of the Agudath Israel Youth movement (Zai), about the heartbreak and low spirit of European Jews during the Holocaust:
The humiliating resignation that the masses of Jews showed towards their executioners and the innocent willingness to march straight to the places of killing
. No justification and correct assessment can be found for this shameful “defection” of the self-destructed,
who were ready to help and facilitate the execution of the methods of extermination by total obedience to the Nazi murderer and robber
…
The phenomena that have no example in any nation and language
To willingly give vile murderers the ability to destroy an entire people
And don’t even worry about the barbarians paying for the experience
It’s murderous with lots of blood and the best of their soldiers and equipment.”
[3]
The main reason for the holocausts that took place in biblical times was the reluctance to immigrate to the Land of Israel and settle there, and from this we learn about the last holocaust…
[1]
Exodus 12:17
[2]
Rashi of Shemot 13 18, in the name of the name of the name.
[3]
Dagalno booklet, Chesvan 5555. See the article ‘Why did God do this? The ultra-Orthodox’s dealings with the Holocaust’, Menachem Friedman, in the book ‘The Holocaust in Jewish History’, page 594.