On The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Holocaust Explanation

Please view the updated version of this post here: http://judaism-for-the-soul.blogspot.com/2015/02/on-lubavitcher-rebbes-holocaust.html

Yanki Tauber writes of the Rebbe’s opinion on the Holocaust that “Only G-d Himself can answer for what He allowed to happen.”

G-d answered me in my time of suffering by saying, “I never thought you would get this far (astray from an upright path).”  Then, He told me, “I AM punishing you,” which was music to my ears because I thought that G-d not only did not exist, but that if He did exist that He must not care what is happening to me.  Nothing could be further from the truth to believe G-d does not care.  His answer for the tremendous suffering of the Holocaust would most likely be something like, “I was trying to reach you, but when I did you ran away.  I was scared that if I spoke to you, that you would leave Me and that you would run even further in the wrong direction.”  What G-d struggles with is empathy.  The infinite G=d and Founder of the Universe has no more of a clue what it is like to be human, than ability for us to see things from His perspective.

The article is entitled:  The Rebbe on the Holocaust:  What the Rebbe Said (and Didn't Say) 

About the Holocaust

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/64888/jewish/The-Rebbe-on-the-Holocaust.htm

On My Experience: Hearing the Voice of G-d

Exodus 20:19. "...Moses would speak and God would answer him with a voice." I literally heard the amazingly resonant voice of the Lord G-d say, "I AM punishing you," meaning me in particular, ~2,000 CE.

My response was similar to that of David in Psalm 22:2 "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?..." but I asked it in a different way. I said, "Why are you punishing me?" to the Almighty G-d.

Why was I so audacious before the Lord? Because I was as low as a worm! I couldn't remember to eat and bathe. If I was any lower, I would have been dead.

When the Lord spoke to me it was unlike anything I had ever heard before. Upon hearing the speech of the Lord, I instantaneously changed from atheist to believer. I oriented my entire life to give praise to G-d.

To seek out G-d, I transferred from Rutgers to Gordon College, a Protestant school, but I found myself trying to hide my actual beliefs, which are not Christian, but what Judaism teaches.

The Genesis of New Matter and/or Space through Tzimtzum

Imagine a day where we could literally create more space, enlarging our planet so that food shortages and overpopulation are no longer a threat. How, I don't know; but it happened in the creation of the cosmos, and it continues to happen. The universe is expanding. What if we could control how it expands?

How did the matter of the cosmos' first arise? This disproves the Law of Conservation of Mass. It must have arisen through the creation of new space, energy, and/or matter. My thinking is that if it arose once, then it should be possible to accomplish the expansion of new space and/or matter again, especially through the actions of humans if we get smart about it.

According to Lurianic Kabbalah, the first hint on how we can accomplish the genesis of new space occurs is in the Book of Genesis. In the Creation Week, G-d tells us that He causes the genesis of creation with “tzimtzum.” Tzimtzum is the Hebrew word for expansion, contraction, and/or separation, which may be how we can expand the universe. What works for Hashem also works for us: But only if we use the holy language. Any scientist seeking understanding should look to the creation account in Genesis. I would say it should be thought of as an inspired "How to" manual.