Q&A: They Did Not Go Up to Zion and Were Destroyed in Auschwitz; the Rebbes Told Them Not to Go Up.
They Did Not Go Up to Zion and Were Destroyed in Auschwitz; the Rebbes Told Them Not to Go Up.
Question
In my family they were uncertain whether to return to Zion. (Because of the hatred of the surrounding gentiles, they were extremely wealthy and lacked nothing.)
The rebbes told them to remain in exile and promised that things would be fine.
They believed the rebbes, did not return to Zion, and their ashes are in Auschwitz, God avenge their blood, and so too the blood of their descendants—even that of the rebbes who promised them, and because of that promise they were destroyed.
But in Jeremiah 29 it is the opposite: the false prophets encourage the return to Zion, and Jeremiah, in God’s name, says no.
Only after another 70 years.
And now the trend is reversed: in Babylonia they will dwell securely, build houses, and take wives, while the people of Jerusalem are for slaughter and famine.
So what is correct?
To return to Zion, or on the contrary to settle in the exile?
Answer
That is a hard question. Each case has to be judged on its own merits. A rebbe who expressed his opinion not to go up, for his own reasons, said something entirely legitimate. The fact that in the end it turned out badly does not make him responsible for the outcome. No one’s blood is on his hands. If he made promises irresponsibly, then perhaps more so.
As for prophets, they speak from prophetic knowledge, so that is an entirely different discussion. If they promise something, it is in God’s name.
In general, the answer to the question of whether to go up is not always the same. Sometimes it is right to go up and sometimes not. True, there is a commandment to settle the Land, but a prophet may suspend a Torah law through passive non-performance or as a temporary measure.