Jewish emotional response to the Holocaust

I just finished watching a video on youtube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=SVYanQ5r6rw

To me, it illustrated two main themes that resonate within me about the Holocaust:
How can I possibly believe in Judaism after all the suffering, and how I have to believe or else all has been lost.

I think that there are quite a few fundamental aspects of the Holocaust that the Gentile world doesn't quite understand in terms of their meanings for the Jews. Yes, the singular fact of the depravity of which we were treated is indeed the most important aspect, but there are so many more emotions that come to mind.

A cursory reading of Jewish history shows that though the Holocaust was unique in scale, it was not unique in function. Jews have been led like sheep to the slaughter for quite some time. This pain of at least two thousand years of suffering leads many to believe in the necessary role of Zionism that, as Subliminal said, at least we wont die without honor. Zionism, in part, is a reclamation of the physicality of the Jew, and aspect that Zionist accused Diaspora Judaism of neglecting.

However, such a reading of Jewish history is only from a very limited view. True, since the exile from Israel, we have suffered myriads of persecutions and subjugation, however, such a view forgets the many years before that. If Zionism is the ideal of self-determination for the Jewish people, as a return to our historical home, we need to look back very far to find that 'freedom.' At least by 700 B.C.E. Israel and Judah were under the strong arm of the Assyrian empire, the world power of the day. It is likely that even as early as 900 B.C.E. Judah was paying tribute to Egypt. Quite a few scholars date the Jewish conquest of Israel to around 1200 B.C.E. If so, then Jewish autonomy lasted only 300 years. Even then, most of those 300 years various parts of Israel were subject to the Canaanites, the Phillistines, and the Sidionites. It seems that there was never an extended time in which Israel had complete autonomy except for the possible United Monarchy of Saul, David and Solomon.

But back to my original point, even while Israel still has some control of its land, it still could not prevent the slaughter of its people. Those massacred by Rome in the war of 66-70, and those massacred in the Bar Kochba revolt of the 130's were due to Israel trying to be autonomous and self-determined. Even now that there is a state of Israel to protect the Jews, Iran threatens to destroy it, and the 5 millions Jews within, in one feel swoop.

There are two points then to be made as a religious Jew. How can you believe in a Divine destiny of a people in a land, that hasnt actually happened? Further, doesnt the fact of the mulitudes of persecutions show that indeed G-d is not with us?

Zionism, at least in the short term, cannot save the Jewish people. The message of history to the Jews seems to be clear- sit back and do nothing, you die. Be proactive in your protection, you die. Assimilate, you die. Seclude your community, you die.

Is it possible as a Jew to conclude that G-d loves us, if He even cares at all about us?

Non-Jew after non-Jew has complained that Jews view themselves as G-d's chosen people. However, almost every people has viewed themselves as chosen, either by G-d or something else. Particularly poignant is when Christians criticize Jews for this belief, when they believe themselves to be the new community of Israel, in other words- chosen. I think that the criticism isnt simply that Jews are particularly arrogant, rather that there seems to be very little to justify this belief that we are chosen.

This is a fundamental function of the Holocaust to the Jewish physche- how can we believe in
G-d at all, let alone that he loves us? If he cared, couldnt he have sent the Messiah to redeem us? It is a destruction of hope, and any faith in the future.


But, another aspect of the tradgedy is what has become for many the 614th commandment- not to give Hitler a posthomous victory. We have to go on, we have to continue to be Jewish- whatever that means. Its by this impetus that Israel takes on a new spiritual meaning. It doesnt matter if we will ever be sucessful in protecting ourselves, we must carry on. But further, Israel was seen by many as a 'gift' from G-d after the tradgedy of the Holocaust. Whether or not, Israel in many ways symbolizing the idea of Israeli Azbani the stuborn Jew. It is with a sense of extreme pride that many of us say- knock me down, and I will only rise again. Perhaps that is the correlary to the history of persecution- the history of survival and persistece.

There are so many more layers to the Holocaust than the fundamental one known to most people, but these are two more.....