Chavarah- Jewish Community Learning

A blog of Jewish study and traditions. Notes from classes: Torah Study with Rabbi Marder, Toledot and Shabbaton as well as other details found of interest.

IF you want to be part of our Chavarah email group let me know at carol@traditionsrenewed.com

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Book: Our Holocaust & Continuing Names

A suggested book is always a value:

Our Holocaust
by Amir Gutfreund, Jessica Cohen
Translated from the Hebrew, and written by the child of Holocaust survivors, this haunting novel brings the history very close. Why the panic when someone knocks at the door? Why does crazy Uncle Hirsch ask obsessively, "Only saints were gassed?" Always there is the dark humor of the old folks' grudges, miserliness, and daily lunacy. The kids are forbidden to ask about past secrets, but when they are "Old Enough," they hear the horrific memories in graphic detail. The narrator wonders about the people on the street today: Who could be collaborator, informer, loyal soldier, killer, rescuer? With the arbitrariness of the survival stories, there is the inescapable truth that ordinary people made it happen. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


And as we know from the monuments to those whose names were lost in this tragedy, this is relevant to the Torah Study topic in Deuteronomy 25:5-10.

As R. Marder noted there is an entire tractate of Talmud on the topic of keeping the name alive.

Those of us who traveled on the Beth Am Israel trip learned about Yad Va Shem. Why it is called that also relates to the importance of the names:

Yad v' Shem - Monument to the Name


Learning with Prof. Israel Knohl at Hartman Institute:
Why is the place to remember those lost to the holocaust calle Yad VaShem

Deut 25:5 the widdow is taken in by the family so the "name is not blotted out in Israel".
To assure the name of a person is not lost.

Thus there is a monument to remember: Yad VaShem - Hand/Monument of the Name

Also mentioned in Torah Study was the film: I Love You Rosa that relates to this Torah portion.

Results: IT IS astounding that so many names have stayed alive for thousands of years. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, Rachel and all the other names from our past are still among the popular names today.

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