Rabbi Avigdor Miller's Latest Book

The recently published book "A Divine Madness", by Rabbi Avigdor Miller, tells about how Jewish reformist elements across Europe tore at the flesh of Orthodox Judaism, effectively bringing the traditional love and sanctity of Judaic lifestyle to the brink of extinction. Then came the terrible holocaust that, paradoxically, left mostly orthodoxy in its wake.

Rabbi Miller's words pack with emotion and plenty of detail as he describes European Jewry gutting that which had been so dear to Jewish people for millennia, and the subsequent horrific abuse and slaughter of the Jewish people.

He never quite says so, but the implication you are left with is - that the holocaust came as a result of the abandonment of religion.

Truth is, correlation does not prove causation. Every fact Rabbi Miller writes about is true, but nowhere, in fact, does the good Rabbi explicitly state that the former state of affairs caused the latter catastrophe.

I say this because the Rebbe had said that nobody can claim knowledge of why so great a horror was wrought upon the Jewish people. Just as sure as Abraham was surprised to learn his offspring will suffer for 400 years, with no reason offered, so too the holocaust came about as a decree of God - one that nobody can understand. The ways of God remain a mystery to Man and the holocaust, he said, was just such a decree. Nobody, said the Rebbe, can say this supreme tragedy came as the result of punishment.

It is important to note, therefore, that - in fact - Rabbi Miller possessed this manuscript for many years, as per the book's prologue, but never finished it and never published it. It's present publication was initiated by some of his students and admirers (of which I myself count as one) posthumously. Perhaps it was because, in fact, Rabbi Miller shared the Rebbe's view and therefore could not bring himself to establish with certainty real cause and effect.

Having said that, I really enjoyed every word in the book, including its great running commentary. The Rabbi, as in all his books, knows so much and delivers his diatribe against those who would dilute Judaism with brilliance and impact.

The book's subtitle, "Rabbi Avigdor Miller's Defense of Hashem in the Matter of the Holocaust", may well have been Rabbi Miller's reason for his writing the manuscript. "Defending Hashem" for the holocaust may just mean it worked out that Hashem's plan had full import, but this could be said of anything and everything Hashem does. However, the actual and many reasons for the holocaust will never and can never be known in this world.