Asara B'Tevet & the Shoa (Holocaust)

(1) In the ninth year, on the tenth day of the tenth month, the word of the LORD came to me: (2) O mortal, record this date, this exact day; for this very day the king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem.

(1) Job said in reply to the LORD: (2) I know that You can do everything,That nothing You propose is impossible for You. (3) Who is this who obscures counsel without knowledge?Indeed, I spoke without understandingOf things beyond me, which I did not know. (4) Hear now, and I will speak;I will ask, and You will inform me. (5) I had heard You with my ears,But now I see You with my eyes; (6) Therefore, I recant and relent,Being but dust and ashes. (7) After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am incensed at you and your two friends, for you have not spoken the truth about Me as did My servant Job. (8) Now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to My servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. And let Job, My servant, pray for you; for to him I will show favor and not treat you vilely, since you have not spoken the truth about Me as did My servant Job.”

(12) Just as there is a law against defrauding in buying and selling, so there is a law against wronging a person by means of words, as it is written: "You shall not wrong each other, but you shall fear your God; I am the Lord" (Leviticus 25:17). This refers to wounding the feelings of another by words.

(13) If, for instance, someone is a repentant sinner, one must not say to him: "Remember your former deeds." If a proselyte comes to study Torah, one must not say to him: "Shall the mouth that ate unclean and forbidden food study Torah which has been given by the Lord?" If a person has been afflicted with disease and suffering, or if he has buried his children, one must not say to him in the words used by Job's companions in addressing Job: "Let your piety reassure you… Think now, what guiltless man has ever perished?" (Job 4:6-7).

(1) In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, when the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah was fulfilled, the LORD roused the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia to issue a proclamation throughout his realm by word of mouth and in writing as follows: (2) “Thus said King Cyrus of Persia: The LORD God of Heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has charged me with building Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. (3) Anyone of you of all His people—may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem that is in Judah and build the House of the LORD God of Israel, the God that is in Jerusalem; (4) and all who stay behind, wherever he may be living, let the people of his place assist him with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, besides the freewill offering to the House of God that is in Jerusalem.”

(17) Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt— (18) how, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear.

(11) Our Sages have said that the sins of anyone who dwells in Eretz Yisroel are forgiven, as it says, “And the inhabitant shall not say, ‘I am sick’, the people who dwell therein shall be forgiven for their iniquity” (Isaiah 33:24). Even if one were to walk but four cubits in the Land, he merits The World To Come. The sins of anyone buried in the Land are forgiven. It is as if his grave becomes an altar for atonement, as it says, “and makes expiation for the land of His people ” (Deut. 32:43). And when discussing the calamities it says, “on defiled ground shall you die” (Amos 7:17). Nevertheless, being “admitted” (into the Land) during one’s life and being “admitted” after death (i.e. buried) are not the same. Even so, the greatest of the Sages would escort their dead to there. Learn from Jacob our father and Joseph the Righteous.

(27) Thus Israel settled in the country of Egypt, in the region of Goshen; they acquired holdings in it, and were fertile and increased greatly. (28) Jacob lived seventeen years in the land of Egypt, so that the span of Jacob’s life came to one hundred and forty-seven years. (29) And when the time approached for Israel to die, he summoned his son Joseph and said to him, “Do me this favor, place your hand under my thigh as a pledge of your steadfast loyalty: please do not bury me in Egypt. (30) When I lie down with my fathers, take me up from Egypt and bury me in their burial-place.” He replied, “I will do as you have spoken.” (31) And he said, “Swear to me.” And he swore to him. Then Israel bowed at the head of the bed.

(24) At length, Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. God will surely take notice of you and bring you up from this land to the land that He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” (25) So Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “When God has taken notice of you, you shall carry up my bones from here.” (26) Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years; and he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.

(1) AND YE SHALL DRIVE OUT THE INHABITANTS OF THE LAND, AND DWELL THEREIN; FOR UNTO YOU HAVE I GIVEN THE LAND TO POSSESS IT. In my opinion this is a positive commandment, in which He is commanding them to dwell in the Land and inherit it, because He has given it to them and they should not reject the inheritance of the Eternal. Thus if the thought occurs to them to go and conquer the land of Shinar or the land of Assyria or any other country and to settle therein, they are [thereby] transgressing the commandment of G-d. And that which our Rabbis have emphasized, the significance of the commandment of settling in the Land of Israel, and that it is forbidden to leave it [except for certain specified reasons], and [the fact] that they consider a woman who does not want to emigrate with her husband to live in the Land of Israel as a “rebellious [wife],” and likewise the man — the source of all these statements is here [in this verse] where we have been given this commandment, for this verse constitutes a positive commandment. This commandment He repeats in many places, such as Go in and possess the Land. Rashi, however, explained: “And ye shall drive out the inhabitants of the Land — [if] you dispossess it of its inhabitants, then ye will be able to dwell therein, and to remain there, but if not, you will not be able to remain in it.” But our interpretation [of the verse] is the principal one.

(44) Yet, even then, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or spurn them so as to destroy them, annulling My covenant with them: for I the LORD am their God.