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# 372 (s5765-15/ 10 Tevet
5765)
Switching the View
When Simon Wiesenthal he was in Mauthausen after
liberation and was visited there by Rabbi Eliezer Silver.
Switching the
View
Yosef Ben-Shlomo HaKohein
A couple of years ago, Simon Wiesenthal,
the famed Nazi-hunter, spoke at a conference of European Rabbis in
Bratislava, Slovakia. The Rabbis presented the 91 year old Simon Wiesenthal
with an award, and Mr.Wiesenthal, visibly moved, told the Rabbis the
following story:
He related how he was in Mauthausen after liberation and was visited
there by Rabbi Eliezer Silver, the head of the Agudat Harabanim
in the United States, who had come to help and comfort the survivors.
Rabbi Silver also organized a special service, and he invited Wiesenthal
to join the other survivors in praying. Mr. Wiesenthal declined, and
explained why.
"When I was in camp, I saw many different types of people do
things. There was one religious man of whom I was in awe when I saw
that he smuggled a siddur (prayer book) into the camp. I was
amazed that he took the risk of his life in order to bring the siddur
in. But then, the next day, to my horror, I realized that he was taking
this siddur and renting it out to people in exchange for giving
him their last piece of bread. This man was so thin, that when he
started eating so much from the people renting out his siddur,
he died before everyone."
Mr. Wiesenthal continued: "I was so angry with this Jew -- how
could he take a holy siddur and use it to take a person's last
piece of bread away? So I am not going to pray, if this is how Jews
behave, if this is what they do with something that is supposed to
be a prayer book."
As Wiesenthal turned to walk away, Rabbi Silver tapped him on the
shoulder and gently said in Yiddish, "Oy na'ar, na'ar
(silly boy). Why do you look at the Jew who rented out his siddur
to take away people's last meals? Why do you look at that bad Jew?
Why don't you look at the dozens of Jews who gave up their last piece
of bread in order to be able to use a siddur? That's faith.
That's the true power of the siddur."
Rabbi Silver then embraced him.
"When he said that," said Wiesenthal, "I walked together
with him to pray."
May we learn how to see the good in our family, community, and
people. May we learn how to see the good in all of God's creation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Adapted by Yrachmiel Tilles from shemayisrael.co.il/publicat/hazon,
the website of the writer of this week's piece.]
Yrachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed,
and editor of Ascent Quarterly and the AscentOfSafed.com and KabbalaOnline.org
websites. He has hundreds of published stories to his credit.
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