The Blogs: The Song of Moses

Before I look back at the ancient history of Israel, I begin with two events from more recent times.

On 9 May 2024, roughly six months after 7 October 2023, the ‘International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen 2024’ was awarded to Pinchas Goldschmidt, President of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER), and to the Jewish people in Europe. The Charlemagne Prize is awarded to individuals or institutions that have rendered outstanding services to Europe and European integration.

On the day before the official award ceremony, a panel discussion with Mr Goldschmidt took place at RWTH Aachen University. During this event, I had the opportunity to ask him publicly:

“You mentioned earlier the situation 100 years ago. That is important. The Jews in Germany at that time were not outsiders, but were very well integrated and highly educated. They revered German culture, Goethe, Schiller and other idols. And as you know, it was all over 10 years later. It began with the small sign at Wannsee reading ‘Bathing forbidden for Jews’. Just as the Jews of that time upheld German values, so you now uphold Western values and are honored for doing so. My question is: against this backdrop, do you see a connection between what is written at the end of the Books of Numbers and Deuteronomy (‘blessing and curse’) and 7 October? To put it another way: why did God not prevent 7 October?”

After giving a linguistic explanation of the Hebrew language, he responded with a surprising question:

“The question is not: ‘Where was God in Auschwitz?’, but: ‘Where was man in Auschwitz?’

A few years earlier, Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, had been asked a similar question (not by me):

“Mr. Wiesel, to what degree would you be willing to acknowledge that the sufferings that we have experienced as Jews, in all of the calamities of our history and especially the Holocaust, are the fulfillment of God’s judgments forewarned prophetically in the concluding chapters of the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy?”

Mr. Wiesel paused briefly and then explained:

“I refuse to consider that.”

Two outstanding Jewish figures. Both are confronted with the same question. They respond to it in very different ways, but with the same aim: to avoid facing up to this question. The one replaces my question, without explanation, with another – one I had not asked – and replaces that, in turn, with yet another question. By asking ‘Where was humanity in Auschwitz?’, he remains silent on the relationship between the Holy One of Israel and Israel. And he replaces it with a reflection on the relationship between human beings. This is where psychologists, educators and sociologists find their field of work – the question of responsibility towards the Most High is no longer raised.

Mr. Wiesel is more direct. He does not beat about the bush; he says it straight out: I refuse to encounter the Most High as He is revealed in the Holy Scriptures and in His deeds.

Neither approach is of any use. One may escape an uncomfortable question in the short term. But it does not save one from encountering the Holy One. We must have the courage to face the facts head-on. And the first fact is this: the Holy One of Israel. He has acted and He has spoken. Therefore: ‘Schma Yisrael!’ (Deut. 6,4)

‘The Song of Moses’ in Deuteronomy 32 concludes a very long and meticulous summary of the terms of the covenant between Israel and the Holy One of Israel. It sets out the full measure of the Most High’s promises and confronts the people with the drastic consequences of breaking the covenant. For the Most High has bound Israel to this covenant. And the people of Israel themselves have agreed to this. Citing Deuteronomy 28,53, I mention just one of the announced judgments:

And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters whom the LORD thy God hath given thee; in the siege and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall straiten thee.

Unimaginable! Unimaginable? Jeremiah later takes up this horror in Lamentations 2,20. However, he no longer laments it as a punishment that has been foretold, but as an event that has already come to pass:

See, O ETERNAL One, and behold, to whom You have done this!
Alas, women eat their own fruit, their newborn babes!
Alas, priest and prophet are slain In the Sanctuary of the Sovereign!

At that time, the Holy One of Israel was known throughout the world, even amongst the Goyim. Jeremiah reports (Jer. 40,2–3):

The chief of the guards took charge of Jeremiah, and he said to him, “The ETERNAL your God threatened this place with this disaster; and now GOD has brought it about, by acting on the threat—because you sinned against GOD and did not pay heed. That is why this has happened to you.

We are amazed: a soldier from Babylon has insight! He recognizes the hand of the Most High in what he is doing with his troops. And he understands the reasons why the Holy One of Israel is abandoning His city to destruction. Who told him about the One? Had he met Daniel? Had Nebuchadnezzar told him about his encounters? Certainly not only after he had recovered from his madness.

We fast-forward about 700 years. Flavius Josephus reports from besieged Jerusalem: A woman named Mary eats her own infant during the famine. (‘The Jewish War’, Book 6, Chapter 3) The horrific incident quickly becomes known in detail, reaching even the besieging Romans. The Roman commander is enraged by this inhumanity and resolves, now more than ever, to destroy the city without any regard or mercy.

Why bring up these memories? I’d like to recount a little incident by way of answer. In the early 1990s, the daily news was full of reports of the massacres in Yugoslavia. A visitor said to me in my office at the time: ‘If God existed, He couldn’t allow this to happen!’ I replied: ‘You’re quite something! You haven’t asked about Him your whole life, but now you know what He would have to be like, according to your judgement, if He did exist!’

How does man know the Most High? He has revealed Himself from the very beginning. Jer. 35,15:

I persistently sent you all My servants, the prophets, to say: ‘Turn back, every one of you, from your wicked ways and mend your deeds; do not follow other gods or serve them. Then you may remain on the land that I gave to you and your ancestors.’ But you did not give ear or listen to Me.

Why, then, does man still fail to recognize Him? Is it because the Holy One of Israel is holy and does not conform to cultural, civilizational or religious notions. When will man be honest before the One who created him?

And a final point. The Holocaust has a long history, stretching from the destruction of the First Temple to 7 October 2023. But it was the Germans, in particular, who drove this persecution and destruction of the Jewish people to its satanic extreme. These Germans, who at that time were one of the world’s leading nations in terms of culture, civilization and progress! If there was ever a nation of learning and culture, it was this one! And for those who do not reckon with the Holy One of Israel, it is perhaps just as surprising that, after so many years of threats from the ‘right’, the threat now and today comes from the ‘left’ and is first and foremost taking hold of universities and other educational institutions.

I wonder where the hope comes from, that hatred of Jews could be ended through education, memorials, lectures or days of remembrance.