Deuteronomy (“Devarim”) is the fifth and last book of the Torah, Judaism’s foundational text, and it consists primarily of Moses’ final speeches ahead of his death.
How was the date chosen for Yom Hashoah?
Elon Gilad is an Israeli writer and editor at the Haaretz newspaper. The following article was originally published in Haaretz, April 27, 2014
The History of Holocaust Remembrance Day, by Elon Gilad
In 1947, the Chief Rabbinate of Mandatory Palestine set up a committee to think of possible dates for an annual memorial. This committee thought the date should be related to the annihilation of Warsaw’s Jewish community, which before the war was 500,000 persons strong and the second-largest Jewish community in the world (after New York).
One proposed date was the 8th of Av, because on that date in 1942, the Nazis began sending Warsaw’s Jews to death camps. Another was the date of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, which began on the eve of Passover in 1943...
In December 1949, the Rabbinate decreed that Holocaust Remembrance Day would be the 10th of Tevet, a day of mourning and fasting commemorating the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylonia in the 6th century BCE...
But in March 1951, the Knesset decided to take an active role, and set about choosing a new date for Holocaust Remembrance Day. Three were proposed: again 10 Tevet; Passover; and September 1, the date the war broke out on...
Peninei Halakhah (“Pearls of Jewish Law”) is a 21st-century presentation of practical halakhah (law), written in modern Hebrew by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, Rosh Yeshiva and rabbi of the community of Har Bracha. The work is popular in Israel, where it is often used as the standard halakhah textbook in religious Zionist schools, and in Jewish communities throughout the world.
הרבנות הראשית קבעה את צום עשרה בטבת ליום הקדיש הכללי לנשמות הקדושים שנרצחו בשואה ולא נודע יום פטירתם.
The Chief Rabbinate established the fast of Asara Be-Tevet as a day of general mourning (Yom Ha-Kaddish Ha-klali) over the souls of the holy martyrs who were killed in the Holocaust, whose date of death is unknown.
Halachic restrictions on the date
Megillat Ta'anit (“The Scroll of Fasting”) is a chronicle listing 35 days on which public fasting was prohibited in recognition of joyful events. The work is discussed several times throughout the Talmud, which records that observance of the scroll’s holidays began to fade after the destruction of the Second Temple. Purim and Chanukah are the only two holidays recorded in the work that are still observed today.
(א) אִילֵין יוֹמַיָא דִלָא לְהִתְעַנָאָה בְּהוֹן. וּמִקְצַתְהוֹן דִלָא לְמִסְפָּד בְּהוֹן:
(ב) מִן רֵישׁ יַרְחָא דְנִיסָן וְעַד תְּמַנְיָא בֵיהּ אִיתּוֹקָם תְּמִידָא דִלָא לְמִסְפָּד:
(ד) וּמִתְּמַנְיָא בֵיהּ וְעַד סוֹף מוֹעֲדָא אִיתּוֹתָב חַגָא דִשְׁבֻעַייָא דִי לָא לְמִסְפָּד:
(1) These are the days on which one is not allowed to fast, and on some of them it is not permitted to mourn.
(2) From [on] the 1st [until the 8th] of Nisan was established the Daily offering,- mourning is forbidden.
(4) From the 8th thereof until the close of the festival (of Passover) a holiday (of a week) was declared during which it is forbidden to mourn.
The Talmud is the textual record of generations of rabbinic debate about law, philosophy, and biblical interpretation, compiled between the 3rd and 8th centuries and structured as commentary on the Mishnah. Tractate Taanit (“Fast”) is part of the Talmud and discusses laws and stories relating to fast days and other public prayers.
Tractate Rosh Hashanah is part of the Talmud and discusses the laws concerning the holiday of Rosh Hashanah.
The Shulchan Arukh (“Set Table”), compiled in the 16th century by Rabbi Yosef Karo, is the most widely accepted code of Jewish law ever written. Karo’s rulings are in accordance with Sephardic traditions; glosses by Rabbi Moshe Isserles, also known as Rema, cite French and German sources to apply the legal work to Ashkenazi communities.
(ב) אין נופלים על פניהם בכל חדש ניסן ואין אומרים צדקתך בשבת במנחה ואין מספידין בו ואין מתענין בו להזכיר בצבור והבכורות מתענים בו בערב פסח: הגה גם אין אומרים צדוק הדין בכל חדש ניסן ונהגו שאין מתענין בו תענית כלל אפי' יום שמת בו אביו או אמו:
(2) 2. We do not say Tachanun through the entire month of Nissan, and we do not say "Your righteousness" on Shabbat at Minchah, and we do not deliver eulogies, and we do not fast for communal needs, and the first born fast on the eve of Passover. RAMA: And we do not say [the funeral prayer of] Tziduk HaDin during the whole month of Nisan. And the custom is that there is no fasts at all, even on the day that a person's parent has died.
(ג) אולם שלא כיום הזיכרון לחיילי צה"ל, שהרבנות הראשית הסכימה לקיומו, יום השואה בכ"ז בניסן נקבע שלא על דעת חכמים. וזאת מפני שחודש ניסן הוא חודש של שמחה, וכפי שנקבע להלכה (שו"ע או"ח תכט, ב) שבכל חודש ניסן אין אומרים תחנונים ונפילת אפיים, ואין קובעים בו תענית ציבור. ובהלוויה שבחודש ניסן אין אומרים הספדים. ואין אומרים בכל חודש ניסן הזכרת נשמות (משנה ברורה תכט, ח). ורבים נוהגים שלא ללכת לבית הקברות בחודש ניסן, ומי שיש יורצייט לקרובו בחודש ניסן, עולה לקברו בערב ראש חודש.
The month of Nisan is a time of joy, as evidenced by the halakha that one does not recite Taḥanun or establish a public fast day during the entire month of Nisan (SA 429:2). In addition, we refrain from delivering eulogies and saying memorial prayers throughout the month (MB 429:8). Many even have a custom not to visit cemeteries in Nisan, and one whose relative’s yahrzeit is in Nisan is instructed to visit the grave the day before the month begins. Therefore, it is clearly inappropriate to institute, in the month of Nisan, a memorial day for the souls of the martyrs who were murdered in the Holocaust.
Development of commemorations
Established in 1953 by an act of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament), Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, is entrusted with the task of commemorating, documenting, researching and educating about the Holocaust: remembering the six million Jews murdered by the German Nazis and their collaborators, the destroyed Jewish communities, and the ghetto and resistance fighters; and honoring the Righteous Among the Nations who risked their lives to rescue Jews during the Holocaust.
Isaiah (“Yeshayahu”) is the fifth book of the Prophets and is known for its visions of universal peace and renewal.
(ה) וְנָתַתִּ֨י לָהֶ֜ם בְּבֵיתִ֤י וּבְחֽוֹמֹתַי֙ יָ֣ד וָשֵׁ֔ם ט֖וֹב מִבָּנִ֣ים וּמִבָּנ֑וֹת שֵׁ֤ם עוֹלָם֙ אֶתֶּן־ל֔וֹ אֲשֶׁ֖ר לֹ֥א יִכָּרֵֽת׃ {ס}
(5) I will give them, in My House
And within My walls,
A monument and a name
Better than sons or daughters.
I will give them an everlasting name
That shall not perish.
Kinnot for Tisha B'Av, composed in the mid-17th century, are elegies recited on the Ninth of Av according to the Ashkenazi rite to mourn the destruction of the Temple.
כִּי שְׁקוּלָה הֲרִיגָתָם לְהִתְאַבֵּל וּלְהִתְעַפְרָה, כִּשְׂרֵפַת בֵּית אֱלֹהֵינוּ האולם וְהַבִּירָה, וְכִי אֵין לְהוֹסִיף מוֹעֵד שֶׁבֶר וְתַבְעֵרָה, וְאֵין לְהַקְדִּים זוּלָתִי לְאַחֲרָהּ, תַּחַת כֵּן הַיּוֹם לִוְיָתִי אֲעוֹרְרָה, וְאֶסְפְּדָה וְאֵילִילָה וְאֶבְכֶּה בְּנֶפֶשׁ מָרָה, וְאַנְחָתִי כָּבְדָה מִבֹּקֶר עַד עָרֶב.
Their murder [during the Crusades] is worthy of mourning and placing ash, / equal to the burning of the House of our God, the porch and the Palace, / because it is improper to add a day of breach and conflagration, / and wrong to advance the date; rather, to postpone it. / Therefore, today [Tisha B'Av], I will arouse my grief / and lament, and wail, and cry with bitter soul, / with sighs weighing heavily from dawn to dusk,
Igrot Moshe is a responsa by Moshe Feinstein, the leading decisor of Jewish law of the 20th century and Rosh Yeshiva of Mesivta Tiferet Jerusalem in New York.
אגרות משה יורה דעה ד:נז:יא
יא. בטעם שלא תיקנו יום קבוע לתענית ותפילה לזכר הרוגי השואה
ובדבר הגזירות שבעוה״ר נהרגו ערך עשר הפעמים ששים ריבוא ע״י הרשעים היטלער וחבריו ימ״ש, שמהראוי הרי היה צורך איזה יום קבוע לתענית ולתפילה שתמה מע״ב על שעדיין לא נעשה כלום. הנה בקינות שכל ישראל אומרים בתשעה באב, מפורש שמה שלא תיקנו יום מיוחד לתענית ולבכיה על גזירות מסעות הצלב, שהיו חגזירות בכל מדינות יוראפ שגרו שם רוב היהודים, ונחרבו כמה עיירות וכרכים, ונקרא על שם שנת תתנ״ו, וגם בא״י הרגו שם הרבה יהודים, משום דאין לקבוע עוד יום לתענית ולבכי, שלכן צריך להזכירם בקינות דאומרים בתשעה באב על חורבן המקדש. ומאותו טעם עצמו אין לקבוע יום אחד מיוחד גם לגזירות שהיו בזמננו, והוא בכלל כל הגזירות שהיו במשך כל הגלות הארוך הזה. ולא דמי לגדרות דשנה ה׳ אלפים ת״ח ות״ט ע״י חמעלניצקי ראש הקאזאקן, שנהרגו באוקריינא וחלק מפולין, שקבעו שם יום תענית ואמירת סליחות לעשרים סיון. משום שלא היתה זו גזרה כללית כגזירת הגלות והחורבן, אלא היו רק בחלק מדינה אחת, שהיתה גזירה נוספת על אותן המקומות. וגם גזירה זו דשנת ת״ח ותי׳ ט לא היתה ע״י המלכויות וממילא לא נמשכה מעצם הגלות והחורבן, אלא היתה ע״י המורדים בהמלכות, שלא שייך זה כל כך למה שהיה זה בגלות, מאחר שגם המלכות דאוה״ע הא הגינה על ישראל במה שהיה אפשר בידן . והשייכות להגלות היה רק משום דמאותן החטאים שנתחייבנו גלות נענשנו גם בזה. שלכן היה שייך לתקן
תענית ואמירת סליחות ־ ולאותן המקומות לבד. אבל גזירות דהיטלער דהיו על כלל ישראל, דהא היה הולך וכובש מקומות דעיקר ישוב ישראל, ובכל מקום שבא הרג את כל ישראל שהיו שם, והיה בדעתו לכבוש את כל העולם, ולא יכלו לעמוד נגדו עד שריחם השי׳׳ת, הוא גזירת כל ישראל ושייך להחורבן שנמצאנו בגלות, שאין קובעין עוד יום תענית ובכיה כדאיתא בקינות.
והנני ידידו מוקירו מאד,
משה פיינשטיין
Igrot Moshe, Yoreh Deah 4:57:11
With regard to the evil decrees which, because of our many sins, brought death to around six million [Jews] at the hands of the wicked Hitler and his cohorts, may their names be eradicated, it would have seemed appropriate to have established some designated day for fasting and prayer (“eizeh yom kavu’a le-ta’anit u-leTefila”). You wonder why nothing has yet been done [in this regard]. Behold, in the kinot which all Jews recite on Tish’a be-Av it is clearly stated why they did not establish a special day for fasting and mourning (“yom meyuhad le-ta’anit u-leBekhiya”) for the tragedies of the Crusades. These massacres occurred in all European countries, where the majority of the Jews lived and where many cities and villages were destroyed. This [tragedy] is known by the name, “The Year 1096.” In Palestine, as well, they killed many Jews. [The reason given for not establishing such a day was] because it is no longer permitted to establish an additional day for fasting and mourning (“le-ta’anit uleBekhi”). It is therefore necessary to mention these tragedies in the elegies that are recited on Tish’a be-Av over the destruction of the Holy Temple. Jacob J. Schacter 169 For that very same reason one should also not establish a single special day for the tragedies that occurred in our time. These are included among all the tragedies that occurred during the course of this entire long galut.
B'Mareh HaBazak is a collection of responsa by the members of Kollel Eretz Chemda about our developing modern world. It was edited and published in Jerusalem in 1992.
ואכן, כאשר עלתה שאלה זו לדיון פומבי במדינת ישראל, לפני מספר שנים, הוחלט לעשות ימי איזכור כדוגמת יום השואה והגבורה, ויום הזיכרון לחללי צה"ל בלי תענית. וגם את יום הקדיש הכללי, הצמידו לי' בטבת שהוא יום תענית קבוע.
And indeed, when this questions came up for public discussion in the State of Israel a number of years ago, it was decided to make days of remembrance in the style of Yom HaShoah and Yom HaZikaron (the memorial day for fallen soldiers of the IDF) without fasting. And they even attached the day of the general Kaddish (for those who died in the Holocaust without a known day of death) to the Tenth of Tevet, which is a fixed fast day.
Yizkor is the part of Jewish communal liturgy that is said in memory of deceased relatives and community martyrs. The word "Yizkor" (May God remember) comes from the first word of the prayer.
(ב) קבעה הכנסת בחוק, כי בכ"ז בניסן יתקיים "יום זיכרון לשואה ולגבורה", "להתייחדות עם זכר השואה שהמיטו הנאצים ועוזריהם על העם היהודי ועם זכר מעשי הגבורה ומעשי המרד בימים ההם". "תהא בכל רחבי המדינה דומיה של שתי דקות בהן תשבות כל עבודה ותיפסק כל תנועה בדרכים; יקויימו אזכרות, עצרות עם, וטכסי התייחדות במחנות הצבא ובמוסדות החינוך; הדגלים על הבנינים הציבוריים יורדו לחצי התורן; תכניות השידורים ברדיו יביעו את יחודו של היום". שתי דקות הדומיה מתקיימות בשעה עשר בבוקר, וסביבן נערכים הטכסים.
(2) In 1959, the Knesset legislated that the 27th of Nisan shall be Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day:
to meditate on the memory of the Holocaust, which the Nazis and their collaborators perpetrated against the Jewish people and of the acts of heroism and revolt performed in those days.… Throughout the state shall be a two-minute silence, during which all work and all road traffic shall be suspended; there shall be memorial gatherings, popular rallies, and commemorative functions in army camps and educational institutions; flags on public buildings shall be flown at half-mast; broadcasts shall express the special character of the day.
The two minutes of silence take place at 11:00 a.m., after which the official ceremonies begin.
Stan Greenspan was a 2010 international vice-president of Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs. The following article was originally published in the “CJ — Voices of Conservative/Masorti Judaism” magazine, Spring 2010
The Candle That Made a Difference by Stan Greenspan
In the aftermath of the Six Day War, while living conditions in Syria seriously deteriorated there was a dramatic increase in persecution and hostility against Syria’s Jewish population....
[In 1973,] Jules [Surdin] and Morton [Pullan] modified the traditional yahrtzeit candle and connected it to Yom HaShoah. They inspired members of the Beth Tzedec’s men’s club to hand-deliver the candles to 2,700 households while at the same time requesting help in saving Syrian Jewry. This effort quickly spread throughout synagogues in Canada. The Yom HaShoah Yahrtzeit Candle program received international recognition at the 1981 FJMC [Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs] convention.
A young man named Joe Winokur, a member of Temple Ner Tamid in Peabody, Massachusetts, was at that convention. Joe’s father, a Holocaust survivor, had died not long before. Joe modified the Yom HaShoah Yahrzeit Candle in his memory by dyeing it yellow, and he introduced an appropriate box and bag to make mailing and delivery easier.
Ner Tamid’s brotherhood used the newly designed candle and supporting materials, distributing candles to all the synagogue’s members. The following year yellow candles were distributed in a similar fashion by men’s clubs and brotherhoods throughout New England. Ner Tamid’s brotherhood was honored with an FJMC Torch award in 1983. Dr. Jerome Agrest, then FJMC international president, expanded this effort from a regional program to an international one.
In 2009, through the efforts of FJMC’s dedicated volunteers, nearly 200,000 candles were distributed in North America. The program reached Israel in 2006, and in 2008 the Jewish community of Mumbai held its first Holocaust commemoration and distributed 5,000 yellow candles. In 2010, the program moved to Latin America through the efforts of Michael Abadi and the FJMC Dor Habah program.
