The Religions Book

198

See also: God’s covenant with Israel 168–75 ■ Mysticism and the kabbalah

186–87 ■ The origins of modern political Zionism 196–97

E

ver since their expulsion

from Israel by the Romans

in 70 CE, the Jews have

endured exile and persecution.

However, the Holocaust, or Sho’ah

(catastrophe)—the systematic

genocide of around 6 million Jews,

or two-thirds of the European

Jewish population—was an event

of unprecedented horror that tested

the faith of the Jewish people in

their covenant with God. This

challenge raised an important

question: was the Holocaust God’s

doing, or did he stand aside and

allow it to happen? Jewish theology

struggled to provide answers, and a

number of Jews lost faith, believing

God had abandoned his people.

The greatest test

Different groups of Jews offered a

range of other interpretations of the

Holocaust. Some saw it as being no

different from the persecutions they

had already suffered, except in

scale. They defined it as an extreme

example of suffering in the world,

a test of faith, and a revelation

calling for an affirmation of survival;

others saw it as punishment for

the sin of abandoning God and his

laws, which God had responded to

with his own temporary absence.

A further group saw the Sho’ah as

separate from God, an example of

human free will and its fallibility,

perhaps explained in kabbalistic

terms as a stage of God’s tzimtzum,

or contraction, from the world.

A whole new field of Holocaust

theology has since emerged,

examining these various responses,

and reappraising the covenant in

the light of the Sho’ah. ■

WHERE WAS GOD

DURING THE

HOLOCAUST?

A CHALLENGE TO THE COVENANT

IN CONTEXT

KEY MOVEMENT

Holocaust theology

WHEN AND WHERE

Mid-20th century, Europe

BEFORE

1516 The Republic of Venice

establishes the ghetto, which

becomes the model for ghettos

created across Europe to

isolate Jewish communities.

1850s Anti-Semitism in

Europe takes on a more

secular, racist stance.

1880s Beginning of a series of

pogroms—violent anti-Jewish

mob attacks—in Russia.

1930s Hitler becomes German

Chancellor, and begins a

campaign of harassment and

genocide against Jews.

AFTER

1945 Jews are liberated from

concentration camps at the end

of World War II and resettled,

many in the US and later in

the newly formed State of Israel.

Never shall I forget those

moments that murdered

my God and my soul.

Elie Wiesel