And Aaron was Silent

By Moshe Feiglin

And Moses said to Aaron: 'This is what G-d spoke, saying, with those close to Me I will be sanctified and before all the nation I will be glorified,' and Aaron was silent. (From this week's Torah portion, Shemini, Leviticus 10:3)

Aaron's silence in the face of his tragedy is a chilling prelude to Holocaust Day, which will be observed this year on Sunday night and Monday, 28 Nissan / April 12. His silence is as close as we can get to an answer to the "Why?" that plagues us.

And Aaron was silent.
Silence.
The words stop here.
Even thoughts stop.
Every attempt to explain falls short of the plane on which the question was evoked.
All that is left is emunah, faith in G-d, without which life is meaningless.
Emunah and acceptance of G-d's decrees.
And silence.

***

There may not be an answer to the "Why?" But the answer to the "How?" is crystal clear.
The physical destruction of the Jews in the Holocaust was preceded by the destruction of their honor and their right to exist. Der Sturmer preceded Auschwitz. Before people or an entire nation can be destroyed, they must first be stripped of their basic human image. They must be made illegitimate. A long and fundamental process in which the Jews of Europe were transformed into objects of derision was the necessary prelude to their physical destruction.

Today, the State of Israel is in the throes of the same process. Achmadinijad - the modern-day Amalek - was the first to publicly talk of Israel's destruction and to make the actual preparations to carry out his evil scheme. This type of rhetoric should have been brought to a rapid end by his elimination. The fact that Achmadinijad was not assassinated has delegitimized Israel and transformed Iran into America's new ally.

While Israel's senior ministers face international arrest warrants, Achmadinijad and his ministers freely travel the world. Western academia entertains the question of how the world will look without Israel (you can guess the answer) and Biden gets insulted when we dare build in our capital.

Once again, the Jews are an international pariah and once again we face the threat of destruction.

If you honestly answer the "How" question, it is easy to understand that although the year is 2010, what we are really experiencing is a re-run of the 1930's.

Netanyahu's mortifying conduct has encouraged the wolves of the world to sink their teeth into Israel. If Israel does not prove that it is capable of defending itself and exacting a steep price from those who seek to destroy it, the sand in its hourglass will quickly run out, G-d forbid.

Shabbat Shalom