Meseras Nefesh for Minyan
September 23, 2022
Many years ago I traveled to Poland, with Project Mesorah. It was a spirited mission led by Rabbi Paysach Krohn. Needless to say it was a most inspiring trip.
To go back in time and actually see how Jews once lived, prior to the attempted extermination of World War II, was an eye opener and very infomative. Experiencing the old country, which I had heard so much about throughout my youth and having the opportunity to relate to the stories my parents told me, was special. Standing on the very soil of the Auschwitz concentration camp, where my mother was once incarcerated and suffered so much, was unbelievable and very healing. Here I was, a child of a Holocust survivor, reciting Kaddish at the site where the gas chambers once stood and where much of my family was slaughtered. In a certain sense, survival is victory and here stood the descendent, of a courageous woman who miraculously escaped the gas chambers.
The mission started in the airport, where all participants met, arriving on different flights. My flight was delayed in France. By the time we arrived in Poland the mission had already left to daven Mincha in one of the surviving shuls in Warsaw. I caught up with the mission at the Einsatz Platz. This was the place where all Jews were rounded up before deportation. Hard to imagine the pain and suffering that took place here. Families were torn asunder. Husbands were separated from their wives and children from their parents. Not having davened Mincha yet, I asked Rabbi Krohn if I could daven and say a loud Kedusha.
It was certainly a very meaningful moment when the entire mission recited Kedusha all together at this place. The very place from where children and mothers were shipped off to their deaths. Now some 60 years later, in the very same place, their descendants were reciting Kedusha.
Why did this happen and how did this happen. How it happened was only because we missed our connecting flight in France. At the time we were upset at missing our connecting flight, but after looking back we realize that it only happened because Hashem wanted Kedusha to be recited in this place. He made us miss the connecting flight in order to make that happen.
As Jews it is important to understand who is really orchestrating our lives. Truth be said it is only Hashem. Unfortunately we think we are orchestrating our life, when in reality it is all Hashem. We are only going through the motions. We think it’s us but it is really him. We are where we are, at a specific place and at a specific time, for a specific purpose. Many times we only find out about it later. Sometimes Hashem reveals his plan to us later on,
for us to find out that what we thought makes no sense, really makes lots of sense. He does that to let us know that He is always with us and that as a Jew we are never alone. He does things with us which seemingly are sometimes out of the ordinary and later reveals his master plan in order to draw our attention to Him. By being connected to Hashem we are able to connect the dots in our lives.