SHOAH

Shoá (em hebraico:השואה, HaShoá, “a catástrofe”; foi o genocídio ou assassinato em massa de cerca de seis milhões de judeus durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial, através de um programa sistemático de extermínio étnico patrocinado pelo Estado nazista, liderado por Adolf Hitler e pelo Partido Nazista e que ocorreu em todo o Terceiro Reich e nos territórios ocupados pelos alemães durante a guerra.

Aqui está um ótimo artigo (em Ingles) sobre o dia de lembrança do holocausto em Israel.

1.  YOM HA-SHO’AH.

This Monday is Yom haSho’ah-“Holocaust Remembrance Day” in Israel.  Ceremonies began at sundown on Sunday, and at 10:00this morning a siren sounds throughout Israel.  Traffic comes to a halt; in city streets and out on the highways Jews emerge from their cars to stand silently.  It lasts for two minutes, calling to remembrance the horror which less than 80 years ago arose, seeking, not for the first time, the extermination of the Jewish race.  There are an estimated 193,000 Holocaust survivors living in Israel.  In springtime as warmer weather arrives, one may still sometimes notice a tattooed number on an exposed forearm.  But their number is quickly dwindling.

The Hebrew word for “Holocaust” is Sho’ah (Capitalized, when transliterated).  It means catastrophe, calamity, cataclysm, desolation.  The word appears several times in the Scriptures; in Ps 35:8 and 63:9 it is the destruction which the Psalmist’s enemies wish to bring upon his soul, but into which, as he trusts in the LORD, they themselves will fall.  The birth of Israel as a “Jewish State” provided a haven for the survivors of the Sho’ah– a home and bastion for their descendants, hopefully against such an evil rising ever again.  Indeed, the slogan “Never again!” has been passed from generation to generation since then.  Much has been done with the establishment of museums, with books and films and programs in the belief that “education” and ‘being informed” is the best defense against its recurrence. Yet, we feel compelled to point out that those nations most at the heart of the ideology which spawned the Holocaust in the 1930’s, had for over 400 years been considered the center of Western civilized education, culture, and for much of that time, we might add, the Christian religion. One thing we should have learned from this is that secular education will never, in and of itself, stem a rising tide of evil.

Might there be another Sho’ah?  Certainly the evil one would like for there to be.  He realizes, with the establishment and growth of this nation, perhaps especially now that there is an awakened and growing Messianic remnant in the Land, that God’s not-yet fulfilled holy purposes for His ancient people are still on course. He knows his time is short.  And so we see again a rising anti-Semitism, not only among Muslim countries (whose holy book countenances persecution of Jews), but also among many “Christianized” and industrialized nations of the west -albeit, in a form which often now finds its focus more on the existence of Israel as a Jewish homeland, cloaking itself behind a repeated assurance that it is not “anti-Jew”-only “anti-Zionist”.  A study released this week found anti-Semitism to be again spreading at a disturbing rate in Europe, carried along by a rise in popularity of extremist parties.  In Hungary, the far right Jobbik party won a fifth of parliamentary seats in recent elections.  There have been similar surges by the Svoboda party in Ukraine, the National Front in France and the “Golden Dawn” in Greece.  Meanwhile, within the territory of ancient Israel itself, this past week the Palestinian Authority broke off negotiations with Israel, announcing yet another alliance with Hamas, which maintains illegal control of the Gaza Strip and continues to maintain its stance that Israel has no right to exist.

It is sobering to find this same word sho’ah in Ezekiel 38:9  (here translated, ‘storm’), “You [an alliance led by Gog, the Prince of Rosh], will ascend coming like a storm, covering the land [of Israel] like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you” (NKJV).  In that ultimate battle, the LORD will intervene in wrath against the aggressors.  Yet now, before that day arrives, we see armies arraying against Israel, hear national and religious leaders denying the Holocaust and calling for our peoples’ annihilation.  Nor are Jews guaranteed safety by staying away from Israel.  As Ezekiel 36 & 37 and other passages make clear, their ultimate hope and safety will be in the homeland of their fathers trusting in the cleansing and protecting work of their fathers’ God.

This week, as Israel pauses to ponder a great darkness which singled out her most recent ancestors for destruction, at the same time casting an uneasy eye towards a quickly clouding future: