A Torah view of the Holocaust

[Nadav]

I'm currently reading the Or hara'ayon chapter on revenge and I can't help but to think of the holocaust in this section:

As King David said (Ps. 58:11-12):

        The righteous man shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He shall wash his
        feet in the blood of the wicked. Men shall say, "Verily there is a reward for the
        righteous. Verily there is a G-d Who judges on earth."

   This is the secret of the greatness and holiness of revenge. It explains why it is a mitzvah and why the righteous are joyous when they see is carried out. When injustice is done on earth, when the kingdom of evil takes control and stifles the righteous and the innocent, it is only natural for a person to ask G-d, "Where are You?" In a period of Divine concealment, doubt and heresy burgeon fourth, as it says
(Deut. 31:17), "I wil hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured. Many evils and troubles shall come upon them, so that they will say on that day, 'Are not these evils come upon us because our G-d is not among us?"
    The explanation of most of the commentaries, that this verse refers to Israel's repenting, does not seem valid, for if so, why does Scripture immediately reiterate, "I will surely hide My face" (Ibid., v.18)? Rather, the explanation is that Israel will explain the lack of G-d's presence not as His intentionally hiding His face, but as testimony, so to speak, that G-d is incapable of helping or that He does not exist, G-d forbid. The evildoer's victory is the very worst profanation of G-d's name, because it implies the defeat or impotence of G-d. Of this King David said (Ps. 44:23-25):

        Nay, but for Your sake are we killed all the day. We are accounted as sheep
        for the slaughter. Awake! Why do You sleep, O L-rd? Arouse Yourself, cast
        us not off forever. Where do you hide Your face...?

    Thus, when G-d stops hiding His face and actually "awakens... like a mighty man recovering from wine, and smites His enemies" (Ps. 78:65-66), when He takes the revenge of His people and of Himself, which are one, He thereby sanctifies His name, proving to the world that Israel indeed has a G-d and that He lives and endures. The victory of injustice and wickedness is ostensible proof of G-d's absence from the world, and there is no greater profanation of G-d's name. By contrast, G-d's victory and revenge over His enemies, the evildoers, prove to the world that "verily there is a G-d Who judges on earth!" (Ps. 58:12).

Clearly we see here, G-d awakens when the righteous humble the evildoers. Another vital question to this is does G-d see a difference between the nations? In other words there are Jews, and gentiles, two categories. Not Jews and different nations: Americans, British, Indians, etc. In essence the Germans did it, but the Arabs (who of course had their hand in the holocaust, google Hitlers favorite Arab: Mohammad Amin al-Husayni or Egypt's former President Sadat who spied for the Nazis) paid for it, and paid for it big time with the state of Israel. By which of course, in essence the extent of this vengeance is currently ongoing.

[Spectator]

When injustice is done on earth, when the kingdom of evil takes control and stifles the righteous and the innocent, it is only natural for a person to ask G-d, "Where are You?" In a period of Divine concealment, doubt and heresy burgeon fourth, as it says
(Deut. 31:17), "I wil hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured. Many evils and troubles shall come upon them, so that they will say on that day, 'Are not these evils come upon us because our G-d is not among us?"

Indeed, many Jews who saw the atrocities of Holocaust ceased to be religious. They thought that if G-d really exists, how could He let all this evil happen to His people? 

Actually, there is no contradiction. G-d warns Jews in the fifth book of Moses what will happen to them if they rebel against Him. G-d as well says that if they follow His will they'll live a happy life.

G-d is just and doesn't punish immediately. He gives the opportunity to repent and return to the righteous path.  Also, His punishments are proportionate to the sins.

Numerous Jews in Europe wanted to assimilate, to cease to be Jews. They did their best to show themselves and their children that they are now "civilized enlightened" Europeans and "dark primitive" Judaism is the matter of the past. Many not only stopped to practice Judaism but also were ashamed to be Jewish and tried to conceal it by all the ways possible. Instead of being G-d's people, as G-d Himself commanded, they tried to run away..

But this is the false path. G-d created the world in such a way that the Jews ARE destined to be different. Nothing can change it. And if the Jews themselves try to deny it, G-d brings on them tyrants like Hitler who remind it to us..

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P.S. "different" doesn't mean "superior" or "inferior", as antisemites of different types say. Just - different.

הן עם לבדד ישכן ובגוים לא יתחשב
Behold, a people who dwells apart, And will not be reckoned among the nations.
(Numbers 23:9)