How survivors can speak of beauty and purpose, love and peace, hope and gratefulness

Modern mural of Anne Frank in Amsterdam

I’m going to explain now, one of the greatest miracles of our times. People are often afraid that logic and reason would destroy the mystique, explain away the miracle but that’s not true. We know presently better than ever before how a man and a woman can create a baby. But does anyone holding a newborn say: “Yuck, just hormones, DNA and enzymes”? Quite the opposite! The more details we know about Nature, the more awestruck we become. And the more we want to protect her.

(Maybe we may find support for this in Sayings of the Fathers 3:11, that someone who stops learning Torah and marvels at a tree or other fine creature foregoes his life. It’s fine to enjoy beauty but not by stopping to learn deeply. Life itself would become meaningless and cease.)

On top of that, when we understand a miracle, we can communicate it better, faster. Nothing spreads as well as good news with an explanation.

By last point of introduction, one can’t explain away miracles because they keep coming. So much so that Rabbi Cardozo half-jokes that G^d makes an extra effort to keep non-believers from becoming religious or everyone would turn to religion with the present rate of miracles. He also shows that miracles are not the negation of natural law. They can be 100 percent mundanely caused. Rather, we’re awed by their timing and rarity.

Miracles Generated by Humans Who Faced Evil

Many people have wondered out-loud how parents of children murdered by terrorists can speak at their funerals of beauty and purpose, love and peace, hope and gratefulness, unity and generosity. Where do they find this strength? How come they’re not too destroyed to say anything? From where comes this holy higher angelic vision they speak of?

A quite similar wonderment comes over us when we listen to the visions and passions, goals and motivations of many Holocaust survivors. Eli Wiesel became famous for this supernatural voice but he was certainly not an exception. We marvel at the words by Anne Frank, who didn’t survive but still, facing mass murder at the hands of anti-Semites, stayed completely normal and on top of that wrote of tolerance, love and hope.

What made people who personally faced the greatest Hell on Earth become so moral, ethical, elevated, sublime? We would understand if they yelled revenge. We would not condemn if they sounded bitter and disillusioned. And some might. But many have not. How? I will tell you.

When almost everything has been taken from you but life itself; when you looked Evil in the eye or survived your worst loss; when your worst nightmare became true, you must balance existence or you’ll go “insane.”

Facing the greatest Evils as Auschwitz or having your eternal baby murdered by Jew-haters — it should happen to none of us — you have two ways to balance, to “take revenge.” You can hate back, shout revenge, promise to hurt and kill “them” more. That gives a measure of balance.

Or, you can try to balance the senseless, hateful, ugly by providing their opposites. Especially for Jews, who are tasked with choosing life, clearly, death is the ultimate disaster, evil, curse and profanity. We can’t go on living with that. We need to offset evil. So we turn to goodness, beauty, meaning, love, gentleness, generosity, service, blessing, holiness, etc.

I remember when my great parents, concentration camp survivors, died. It was such an injustice, such a loss, so irreparable, that I automatically started looking to beauty and meaning. It’s a deed of emotional and ethical survival. And they weren’t even genocided or my children.

So, expect the unexpected, the unfathomable, when mass-murderous anti-Semitism has struck again, Heaven forbid, that the mourners who lost most will elevate themselves and everyone around them.

What else is the act of saying Kaddish? Kaddish speaks of G^d’s Greatness and the Promise that all will end Well. Who says this? Our Mourners!

Now, you may understand these people who in the deepest of pain, become the greatest voices of humanity. Will you now marvel at it less? No way. You will connect it with similar greatness and spread the word like wildfire. Just let’s pray that it won’t happen to anyone anymore.

When many of us will start speaking constantly of beauty and purpose, love and peace, hope and gratefulness, unity and generosity without being provoked by Evil, maybe G^d will have an easier time, so to speak, withholding such Evil. When He can say to His Angles: Look, they already are dedicated to Goodness and Life. Maybe it’s time to stop all evil and grant Final Redemption and Paradise on Earth, as I promised. They’ll enjoy it more than merely a gift because they worked for it, almost caused it.

About the Author

MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. * As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. * This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2000 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog, to which one may subscribe too, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. * Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. * Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism - more than leftwing or rightwing, he hopes to highlight reality), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. * Chronologically, his most influential teachers are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. This short list doesn't mean to disrespect others who taught him a lot or a little. One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. * He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. * He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. And so was his honesty. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. He hopes to bring new things and not just preach to the choir. * He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, powerful therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids. Previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. * His writing has been made possible by an allowance for second-generation Holocaust survivors from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. * To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. * His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1