Kinah 21: The Ten Martyrs

On October 28, 1941, Ruchele Jager was herded with more than a thousand other Jews into the Dom Katolicki (The Catholic Center) in Bolechow, Ukraine. The 16 year old girl was forced to watch as the Rabbi she had known since she was a small child had his eyes cut out, a cross cut into his chest, and then forced to dance naked with another terrified young woman. (The Lost: A Search For Six of Six Million, by Daniel Mendelsohn, Page 206) Why the rabbi? A few months earlier, July 1941, Rabbi Yitzchak Weiss of Werbau was asked, “Since Tisha B’Av falls this year on Saturday night, and since there is a decree that Jews are not allowed on the streets after 8:00 pm, how will we recite the Ma’ariv service and the Book of Lamentations? Was it permissible to advance the time of ma’ariv until just after pelag ha-mincha (about one and one-quarter hours before sunset), at which time the Jews would still be allowed to be outside? Is it permissible because we are in a time of emergency? Should we be concerned with the Talmudic dictum (Megillah 5a), “We do not hasten the approach of trouble?” (Mekadeshei Hashem, Volume I, pp. 150-151) As long as the Rabbis survived, people requested Halachic rulings on how to deal with the realities of life under the Germans. There was no irony for them when they asked about “not hastening tragedy!” As long as we ask such questions, we will survive and outlast our enemies. The Germans knew it. The Romans knew it. Do we? Author Info: Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.