YOM HASHOAH
The name and the date are arbitrary. Shoah is a word from “modern” Hebrew which means destruction or catastrophe. Because of our past, there is no unfortunately no shortage of words in Hebrew for destruction or catastrophe. Two thousand years earlier, when the holy Temple was reduced to rubble, the word Churban was ultimately chosen to describe a destruction or catastrophe that would eventually lead to two thousand years of homelessness for our people. The date of the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nissan was chosen only after much acrimony between opposing factions in the Israeli Knesset. Even though it flew in the face of the Orthodox, the Knesset declared that the 27th of Nissan would be the day when the Holocaust would be commemorated. In reality, any and every day of the Jewish year would have been equally appropriate.
With no disrespect to the term Yom HaShoah, perhaps there are also other names that would have aptly described man’s inhumanity against man, while at the same time adding the much needed dimension of solace:
Yom HaBechi (Hebrew for the Day of Crying). Yom HaBechi would have been a most appropriate term. It would have atoned for a world that was criticized as being totally indifferent to the suffering and annihilation of those whose biggest crime was being a Jew. Yom HaBechi would have shown that the rest of the world was not as heartless as it appeared to be. Yom HaBechi would have served yet one other purpose; it would have provided an answer (admittedly not “the” answer) to those who asked “Where was G-d”? G-d was also crying, seeing the unfathomable depth to which His human creations had sunk.
Yom Shearit Yisrael. There are more than a few synagogues in this country that have the name Shearit (or Shearith) Yisrael. It’s a term that means Remnant of Israel. The term Shearit Yisrael appears in Jeremiah 31:6; Shearit Yisrael also appears in the Tachanun prayer, which is included the vast majority of days of daily prayer. Shearit Yisrael reassures us that we will never disappear as a people, and that there will at the very least always be a remnant. The liberation of the concentration and death camps with the handful of survivors served as a painful validation of Shearit Yisrael.
Yom HaNess (Miracle Day). There are refugees and there are refugees. And then there are those who not only managed to defy Hitler and his death machine, but also managed to defy the expectations – if there were any – on the part of a world that didn’t seem to care all that much. The living skeletons that somehow succeeded to walk out of Auschwitz also succeeded to outwit the British who were under orders to prevent refugee Jews from reaching the shores of Haifa. Once in Israel, those who survived the past began to rebuild their lives and shape their future. In no time whatsoever, they became valuable assets to the communities where they set down roots. Those who survived Hitler came out of the camps financially impoverished. They were, however, rich in their aspirations, and they possessed boundless determination. In short, they were human miracles.
Yom HaShoah deserves to be more than a date on a calendar. The 27th of Nissan deserves more than to be accorded Yom HaShoah status. Let this date on the Jewish calendar also be recognized as Yom HaBechi, the Day of Crying; Yom Shearit Yisrael, the Day of the Remnant of Israel; and Yom HaNess, the day of Miracle.
