Torah

What is true heroism? How does one make a real kiddush Hashem in this world? There are many stories of people who acted admirably during the Holocaust to rescue others and help the survivors. This is the story of the tzaddik, R’ Tzvi Yechezkel Michelson zt”l Hy”d, one of Warsaw’s oldest rabbanim, a member of its Vaad HaRabbanim, and author of Sefer Tirosh V’yitzhar, who at the age of 79 became one of the 700,000 Jews killed in the death camp of Treblinka.

The Torah and our Sages praise Aharon HaKohen after the death of his sons for his silence. The Mashgiach, Rav Shlomo Wolbe zt”l, discusses the art of silence. He wrote: “We teach a child to speak. Once we teach him to speak, this becomes his nature, to speak and to chatter without end. Do we teach this child how to be silent as well? Behold, silence is also a tool.”

The mitzvah of kiddush Shem Shamayim is one that is ingrained in the heart and mind of every Jew. But as the Rabbinic saying goes, “It is often easier to die al kiddush Hashem than to live al kiddush Hashem.”

In August 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany entered into an agreement committing that neither country would ally with or aid an enemy of the other country. In addition, the two world powers arranged a secret protocol that divided territories of Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland into Nazi and Soviet “spheres of influence.”

After the fall of the Czar in 1917 and the defeat of the Bolsheviks in 1923, the Communists conquered all opposition and were in full control of what became known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.). While the Communists were opposed to all forms of religion, especially Judaism, they were too preoccupied in the formative years of their regime to make a concerted effort at subverting religious practices.

Rav Matisyahu Salomon zt”l said that one cannot be a believer unless he is first faithful. One cannot believe in the Torah and the word of Hashem unless he himself is a person who values a word. If it means nothing when I say something, then when Hashem says something, why should I believe it? The more trustworthy a person is, and the more meticulous he is about his own words, the more he will be faithful to the word of the Almighty.