Q: Why did Hashem save us during the time of Purim, but not during the Holocaust?
A: We do not know the secrets of Hashem. We obviously do not understand the Holocaust. While our Rabbi, Ha-Rav Tzvi Yehudah, taught at length why the Holocaust occurred (see Sichot Ha-Rav Tzvi Yehudah – Moadim, vol. 2), he said both before and after speaking about it that it is a Divine secret. We grasp in the dark in order to understand what happened, but with or without Purim, we do not understand. We also do not know when it comes to individuals why one person is murdered and not another. My dear brother-in-law was murdered by a terrorist in the street and this was worse than the Holocaust for my sister-in-law. The Holocaust destroyed one-third of the Nation of Israel, but my brother-in-law was everything to my sister-in-law. The Gemara in Yevamot (50a) says that Hashem establishes how long each person will live – it is the secret of souls. Someone once traveled to the United States to raise money and recruit students for the Hevron Yeshiva. One student who he recruited was killed in the riots in Hevron. Whenever he returned to the States, he feared that he would meet the father and he would travel in a round-about way in order not to meet him. One day he met the father on a street corner. The father took him by the shoulders and said: "You took my son to Hevron and he was killed. This was a sign that Hashem decided to take him. If he would have stayed here, he would have been killed by some gang in Chicago; now he was killed for the sake of our Land, the sanctification of Hashem's Name and the Torah. Therefore, I have been looking for you to thank you." The Master of the Universe sometimes performs a miracle for us and sometimes He does not. Joseph Stalin also wanted to destroy the Jews. He planned to transfer all of the Jews to Siberia in one day. Everything was ready – trains, buses, trucks, cars, etc… The plan was for half of the Jews to die on the way and half of them to die in Siberia. Stalin died Erev Purim, three days before the plan. I was a little kid. I remember that in shul on Shabbat everyone was very excited after davening and drank a "Le-Chaim." I asked them in Yiddish: Wos? Wos? – What? What? They told me: Stalin died. I asked: Who is Stalin? They said: The leader of Russia. Like any child I asked: A good non-Jew or a bad non-Jew? They said: A bad non-Jew, very bad. I said: Then give me a "Le-Chaim" too. But they didn't know how bad he was. We only learned later. Sometimes there are miracles and sometimes there are not miracles. A friend of mine who is a high-ranking officer in the army told me: "We have prevented 300 terrorist attacks this year. We captured three hundred terrorists with explosive belts." It was not that they thought that perhaps the terrorists would do something – they caught them with the explosive belts. But there is sometimes one terrorist who they do not capture. Why this one and not that one? Why was this person injured and not that one? Why was this person killed and not that person? We do not know. These are the secrets of Hashem.
A: We do not know the secrets of Hashem. We obviously do not understand the Holocaust. While our Rabbi, Ha-Rav Tzvi Yehudah, taught at length why the Holocaust occurred (see Sichot Ha-Rav Tzvi Yehudah – Moadim, vol. 2), he said both before and after speaking about it that it is a Divine secret. We grasp in the dark in order to understand what happened, but with or without Purim, we do not understand. We also do not know when it comes to individuals why one person is murdered and not another. My dear brother-in-law was murdered by a terrorist in the street and this was worse than the Holocaust for my sister-in-law. The Holocaust destroyed one-third of the Nation of Israel, but my brother-in-law was everything to my sister-in-law. The Gemara in Yevamot (50a) says that Hashem establishes how long each person will live – it is the secret of souls. Someone once traveled to the United States to raise money and recruit students for the Hevron Yeshiva. One student who he recruited was killed in the riots in Hevron. Whenever he returned to the States, he feared that he would meet the father and he would travel in a round-about way in order not to meet him. One day he met the father on a street corner. The father took him by the shoulders and said: "You took my son to Hevron and he was killed. This was a sign that Hashem decided to take him. If he would have stayed here, he would have been killed by some gang in Chicago; now he was killed for the sake of our Land, the sanctification of Hashem's Name and the Torah. Therefore, I have been looking for you to thank you." The Master of the Universe sometimes performs a miracle for us and sometimes He does not. Joseph Stalin also wanted to destroy the Jews. He planned to transfer all of the Jews to Siberia in one day. Everything was ready – trains, buses, trucks, cars, etc… The plan was for half of the Jews to die on the way and half of them to die in Siberia. Stalin died Erev Purim, three days before the plan. I was a little kid. I remember that in shul on Shabbat everyone was very excited after davening and drank a "Le-Chaim." I asked them in Yiddish: Wos? Wos? – What? What? They told me: Stalin died. I asked: Who is Stalin? They said: The leader of Russia. Like any child I asked: A good non-Jew or a bad non-Jew? They said: A bad non-Jew, very bad. I said: Then give me a "Le-Chaim" too. But they didn't know how bad he was. We only learned later. Sometimes there are miracles and sometimes there are not miracles. A friend of mine who is a high-ranking officer in the army told me: "We have prevented 300 terrorist attacks this year. We captured three hundred terrorists with explosive belts." It was not that they thought that perhaps the terrorists would do something – they caught them with the explosive belts. But there is sometimes one terrorist who they do not capture. Why this one and not that one? Why was this person injured and not that one? Why was this person killed and not that person? We do not know. These are the secrets of Hashem.
Originally posted by Torat HaRav Aviner
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