We Are Accountable

A man sat down next to someone on a train and was very rude to him over the course of the first part of the trip.  At one point, a third person boarded the train and addressed the second man as rabbi.  The man who had been rude to him apologized.  “I’m so sorry, rabbi,” he said.  “I had no idea.” The rabbi said, “you don’t owe me an apology at all. However, you do owe an apology to the person you thought I was.”

We come from a tradition that insists that we are to be held accountable for our behavior.  The Torah, in Parashat Mishpatim, emphasizes at least three areas of accountability.

75 Years Later: Protecting Ourselves and Others

My friend posted a video of Holocaust survivors living in Israel. The video features the survivors speaking briefly of their experiences and then, for each one, the camera pans out and you see them standing next to a grandchild, or great-grandchild, wearing an IDF uniform.  

It’s a powerful video.  It’s powerful to see Jewish people whose families and lives were destroyed because they were powerless now living in a place where Jews have the power to protect themselves and, to a large degree, determine their own fate.

This past Monday marked the 75th commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz.   Many moving tributes were offered, many profound words were shared.

75 years later, what do we want to learn from Auschwitz?  From the Shoah overall?