Question: Is it good, worthwhile and
appropriate to go to see the extermination camps in Poland in order to remember
what Amalek did to us, and to thereby become stronger in one’s fear of G-d? While
one is there, one can also visit the graves of the great Rabbis.
Answer: No, for seven reasons, any one of
which would suffice:
1. There is a halachic prohibition against
leaving the Land of Israel. It is brought down in the Talmud, the Rambam
(Hilchot Melachim Chapter 5) and the Shulchan Aruch. This is a prohibition like
any other, and it cannot be overridden due to human emotions. Rambam takes the
strict approach, and only permits leaving the Land temporarily for two great
Mitzvot: learning Torah and marrying. The Tosafot permit leaving for any Mitzvah,
but visiting extermination camps is not classified anywhere as a Mitzvah, just
as there is no Mitzvah to visit Egypt to see where we were enslaved, or to
visit Spain to see from whence we were exiled, or to visit any of the many
other countries where we suffered. Were there such a Mitzvah, it would have to
be defined in the Shulchan Aruch. Were there such a Mitzvah, we would expect to
have seen our greatest Torah luminaries going there, and even taking the strict
approach of going there many times.
2. People claim that such trips have
educational value, hence the trips are integrated into the school curriculum. And
yet it cannot be that there are activities for wealthy students capable of
paying 6,000 Shekels ($1700) that are closed to poor students who will have to
suffer financially to attain such a sum.
Is this educationally sound?
3. And all the more so, it’s not educationally
sound that the Poles are going to benefit financially because of the
extermination camps were located in their country. It was no accident that the
Nazis chose this country, because the vast majority of Poles were anti-Semites. The Poles were happy to see us in these
camps. They did not blow up the train
tracks that led to them. They did not
provide shelter to those who fled from them. They even carried out a pogrom
after the Holocaust. They stole our homes and refused to return them to the
Jews who came back from the extermination camps. Until today trials are going on over this.
4. Furthermore, fleeting emotions or transient
shocks do not educate one to fear G-d or to adopt any other important
characteristic. Emotions are easy come, easy go. Education involves a long-term
yoke and constant hard work.
5. True, there are Rabbis who accompany their
students and give them important Torah lectures along the way, yet for that
there is no reason to leave Eretz Yisrael. We have Yad Vashem and similar sites
here. We have got films and books, and camp survivors to whom we can listen
directly, instead of seeing an artificial reconstruction of the shacks that
housed them.
6. As for those survivors, we must realize
that some of them are still living. Many are alone, poor, sick, suffering, and short
of money to buy medicine, food or heat. It seems a lot more educational to give
them the six thousand Shekels. In fact, it seems very uneducational to look for
"thrills" far from here, instead of showing kindness to those who are
suffering, which is a clear Mitzvah of the Torah. Locating the organizations
that help the survivors takes five minutes on the Internet.
7. As for those holy Rabbis who are buried
abroad, without a doubt, if anyone were to ask them, they would prefer that
time and money be invested in learning their books rather than leaving Eretz
Yisrael to visit their graves.
Here’s a general principle to remember: Devote
yourself to the Mitzvot G-d commanded us, and don’t invent other Mitzvot.
