Whoever Saves A Single Soul

My mother’s mother – Grandma Celia – never got over the suffering she experienced as a child in Russia. She didn’t hit me or any of my siblings, but it could be very difficult to understand her behavior. Mom told me that Celia had been diagnosed with manic depression but added that was because the doctors did not know what else to call it.

After one episode – I don’t remember what happened, I asked my mother why Grandma acted that way. Mom reminded me that sometimes I felt guilty about stuff I did, and so did Grandma. My mother was quite effective at explaining life to a 6-year-old.

We’ve all heard stories about the brutality Jews experienced in Russia. Well, here’s another one. The Russians were typically clean shaven, but Celia’s father sported a beard, as did the rest of the landsmen. And not some wimpy little scruff like mine, but a good, full, Jewish beard.

One day, Celia was out with her father. Some Russians threw him to the ground and cut off his beard. I can’t imagine how terrified a little girl would be while witnessing this.

But not all Russians were like that. Celia’s family had a wonderful neighbor. This lady had a few cows and churned her own butter, which she shared with Celia’s family. Showing a sensitivity that few Russians had, she let Celia’s mother cut the butter with her own knife before any other utensil rendered it treif, allowing the gift to remain kosher. Contrast this with stories about Jews being grabbed and having pork shoved into their mouths.

One night, some of the less sensitive Russians hammered shut the doors and windows of Celia’s house and set it on fire. If it weren’t for this kindly woman acting swiftly to rescue the family, they would have all died. My mother would never have been born, and I suppose it would have been a problem for me as well.

According to Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5: “Therefore, Adam was created alone… to teach you that whoever destroys a single soul from Israel is considered by Scripture as if he destroyed an entire world; and whoever saves a single soul from Israel is considered by Scripture as if he saved an entire world.”

When I’ve heard this referred to in various d’vars and drashes, the “from Israel” is usually omitted. That’s fortunate, not just to give the gentiles one less excuse to besmirch us, but because the same sentiment should apply to any of the Almighty’s self-portraits.

Of course, your garden variety anti-Semite doesn’t need much help coming up with reasons to hate us. For starters, there’s that tsuris about whacking the Nazarene. Not to mention, poisoning wells, desecrating hosts, and mixing Christian children’s blood into the Bread of Affliction. And what about all those strings we pulled from our comfort in the ghettos? Now, I could be wrong, but it’s probably our pretense to being the Chosen People that really harshes their mellow. What makes us so special anyway? Here’s a quick survey.

In 1543, Martin Luther wrote: “For they are no longer the people of God… neither are they called so, nor are they such. Rather, they are rejected and condemned… for they have denied the promised Seed, Christ.”

A century or so later, Voltaire came out with this: “They are, all of them, born with raging fanaticism in their hearts… they have surpassed all nations in impertinent fables, in bad conduct, and in barbarism.”

Then there’s Arnold White, who is less well known but at least as strident: “The claim to be a peculiar people has resulted in their becoming a people apart, refusing the duties and responsibilities of citizenship.”

As per Houston Stewart Chamberlain: “The Jew has no true culture… his existence is parasitic upon other nations.”

And of course this from Henry Ford: “The Jew is a disintegrating force in society… he must be looked upon as a race apart.”

That’s some nasty stuff! But what can you expect from a bunch of goyim? Now for some kinder thoughts.

Abraham Joshua Heschel: “To be chosen means to be challenged, not to be privileged.”

Jonathan Sacks: “The Jewish people were chosen not for privilege but for responsibility: to be a blessing to others.”

Solomon Schecter: “It must, however, be noted that this doctrine of election - and it is difficult to see how any revealed religion can dispense with it – was not quite so exclusive a nature as is commonly imagined…In fact, it did not escape the composers of the Liturgy that the same prophet by whom they establish their claim to election called G-d ‘the King of the Gentiles.’” Sol was referring, of course, to the Bullfrog.

I especially like something Irshad Manji wrote in “The Trouble with Islam: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith”: “Jews believe they’re chosen, but not simply for raisins in heaven. They’re also chosen for burdens on earth, and on behalf of all humanity. Whether Jews prove themselves capable of handling those burdens responsibly will determine if they deserve deliverance.”

I’ll explain that bit about raisins later.

My besherta points out that some gentiles are offended that traditional Jews won’t eat in their homes. There could be some truth to that. After all, the word “companion” comes from the Latin for someone you break bread with. I remember my mother-in-law agreeing that this was quite disrespectful. Still, a thoughtful host will find some way to accommodate vegetarians, food allergies and various New Age diets. Hey, if some Yids are coming to dinner, grab some paper plates, plastic utensils, and apply some creativity.

Besides, we Hebrews don’t have a monopoly on this kind of finickiness. Didn’t the ancient Egyptians consider it an abomination to break bread with redneck shepherds from Canaan? In “Sufferings Of The Jews During The Middle Ages”, Leopold Zunz recalled that “In 1050 a Council at Cuenca forbade Christians to eat at the same tables with Jews.” And just how many Jews did the Brownshirts invite into their dining rooms?

Nonetheless, there are a few practices that can seem exclusionary and even a bit snooty. For example, there’s the minhag of only drinking wine poured by Jews. We wouldn’t want to give a gentile the chance to soil the libation with an idolatrous benediction. I don’t observe that practice, but I can respect it. After all, making kiddush is an important religious ritual.

But then there’s this: an orthodox friend pointed out that, in the name of erecting a fence around Torah, this restriction keeps us from throwing down shooters with gentiles and being polluted by their cooties. That’s just embarrassing.

In “Siddur Sim Shalom for Weekdays”, there’s a Rabbinic text that I like very much. It’s based on GITTIN 61 with TOSEFTA GITTIN 3.18:

“The Rabbis taught: One supports the poor of the gentiles as one does the poor of Israel; one visits the sick among the gentiles as one does the sick in Israel; one mourns and buries the dead of the gentiles as one does the dead of Israel; one comforts the mourners among the gentiles as one does those in Israel – for the sake of peace.” Score one for our sages – a nifty rabbinical counterpoint for a biblical injunction.

Our history is overflowing with the many Jewish worlds that have been destroyed by gentiles, and we should never forget. We should also remember the Jewish worlds that have been saved by gentiles.

Let’s start with Pharoah’s daughter. If she hadn’t fished Moses out of the water, we wouldn’t have gotten as far as dayenu. At the same time, the midwives Shiphrah and Puah spared Israelite baby boys from the Wrath of Ramesses. Some of the commentary depicts these lovely ladies as Egyptians. Certainly, the Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem should name its maternity ward after them.

At the risk to her own life, Rahab, a low status sex worker, saved Joshua’s spies from Jericho’s king. Jael batted her eyelashes at Sisera before driving a spike into his head. This also serves as a convenient object lesson about the perils of cheating on your wife.

Ebed-Melech, an Ethiopian eunuch, persuaded Zedekiah to release Jeremiah from the muddy pit, where the prophet would have otherwise died.

Heretic that I am, I don’t view our ancient texts as necessarily accurate and unbiased history but that doesn’t make them any less valuable. It is nothing short of awesome that these stories about helpful gentiles are in our canonical scriptures.

Jumping forward a thousand years or so, the Rhineland Massacres in 1096 were a brutal time for our people. Still, there were Christians - Bishop John of Speyer, Archbishop Ruthard, Bishop Adalbert of Worms - who sheltered Jews. This may have been motivated out of a combination of compassion and self-interest, but I’m not keeping score.

During the Russian pogroms, Pavel Florensky and other Orthodox clergy publicly rejected antisemitic violence, opened church courtyards to Jewish families, and preached against blood libels. I’d like to think that my grandmother’s neighbor attended one of their churches.

The 1929 riots in Hebron, Jerusalem, and Safed were particularly blood thirsty, but there were in fact Arabs who saved Jewish lives.

There were many heroic gentiles during the Shoah. Some of their names are familiar, others are not: Oskar Schindler, Irena Sendler, Chiune Sugihara, Miep Gies, Jan Karski, Corrie ten Boom, Raoul Wallenberg, and Aristides de Sousa Mendes. But here’s a wonderful bit of history that I have only learned very recently.

Most of the countries occupied by the Nazis had Christian majorities. Albania was an exception. There were only a hundred or so Jews in the country, but they were all hidden by their neighbors. As the war dragged on, about a thousand Jewish refugees escaped to Albania and were also saved by the locals.

So there you have it: Muslim Albania was the only European nation occupied by Nazis that had more Jews after the Holocaust than before.

As a child, I heard many stories of Christian cruelty toward Jews and pretty much inherited fear of Christians from my extended family. In some ways, that’s probably not that different from how anti-Semites learn to hate Jews. This leads us to Sister Rose Thering, a truly remarkable woman. While she was pursuing a master’s degree in the 1950’s, she researched Catholic liturgy and educational materials to identify anti-Judaic teachings. At one point, she was called in by some bishop to explain why she was digging up all the Church’s dirty laundry. Way back then, men did not always listen to women, who were expected to know their place. Whatever transpired between the bishop and this twenty-something nun, it didn’t stop her.

A few years later, the Second Vatican Council was convened, and an august collection of priests, monsignors, bishops, cardinals, prelates, deacons, theologians, and the occasional altar boy were gathered to update Church teachings. As you might imagine, this gathering was almost exclusively made up of cisgender males, a virtual ocean of testosterone. Some thirty-something nun was also in attendance, sporting the only double X chromosomes not serving up dinner.

A lot came out of Vatican 2, including absolving Jews of deicide as well as abandoning the doctrine of supersession, which held KBH’s covenant with Jews was no longer valid. It’s hard to imagine that any of this would have taken place without Sister Rose’s efforts. Just how much juice did that woman have? Sister Rose: you go girl!

Before I conclude, I’m going to make a quick detour through Megillat Esther. As you all know, the Jews first got in trouble when Mordechai wouldn’t bow down to Snidely Whiplash. But what’s up with that? In some cultures, bowing is not all that different from shaking hands or waving. And besides that, who among us hasn’t bowed, perhaps while asking an elegant lady to dance at a Mar-a-Lago cotillion, or after concluding a virtuoso harmonica performance at the Trump-Kennedy Arts Center? So, no biggie.

Except we learn from Midrash Esther that He Who Must Not Be Named had an image of an idol on his robe. And Jews are absolutely, positively forbidden from bowing down to idols. So, quite the biggie.

But what about bowing to a church official wearing a cross? Our sages did not consider Christianity to be idolatry, and there are various halakhic rulings that such bowing is acceptable, if it is a matter of social etiquette and customary respect. Even so, I would not be comfortable with that, and I imagine that many of our ancestors felt the same way.

Israel Isserlin lived in Europe during the fifteenth century of the Common Era. He was perhaps the most prominent rabbinical authority of his time. Several years ago, while reading "Reckless Rites" by Elliott S. Horowitz, I came across this:

“(Isserlin) recalled that in his youth a certain priest from Vienna would fold his robe over the sign of the cross when he expected to be visited by Jews for business purposes, so that they would be able to show him proper respect.”

I was quite struck by the compassion shown by a member of a hierarchy that thought so little of Jews.

Within the past few months, I read something similar about a different medieval clergyman who used to keep his cross out of sight to spare Jews any embarrassment. Unfortunately I didn’t think to record where I found this. I went back to the books I had been leafing through at the time, but no luck. After a bit of Googling, Wikipediaing, and ChatGPTing, I still came up blank. There were some stories that were kind of close – about Bishop Rudolf of Mainz, Bishop Agobard of Lyon, and of more recent vintage, Pope Benedict. However, in each case these were dismissed as mere rumors, without actual historical basis.

Undaunted, I wrote to some authors I’ve read and asked if they had heard anything like this. At least two of them were kind enough to respond.

From Diarmaid MacCulloch, a fellow at St. Cross College in Oxford: “Not in my books, I'm afraid.  I haven't heard the story before, but it would be nice to think that one medieval Catholic bishop had behaved with decency towards Jews.”

I got something a little more encouraging from Amy-Jill Levine, whose works I avidly read: “Alas, the story does not sound familiar. On a personal note: I remember my father, who was for a while stationed in Australia during WWII, telling me that when he met a bishop (don’t remember which) at an officer’s function, when my father (last name ‘Levine’) was introduced, the bishop immediately shifted his right hand so that instead of offering his ring to be kissed, he offered his hand to be shaken. Excellent move.”

For what it’s worth, Horowitz didn’t give a source for the bit about Rabbi Isserlin, so that could be apocryphal as well. But I’ll keep looking. A boy can dream, can’t he?

There never have been enough Righteous Among Nations. Without a doubt, more Jewish worlds were destroyed then saved. This doesn’t mean anything is owed to us. If anything, we have a special responsibility to be a light unto nations and pay it forward.

There is a resemblance between the Thugs From ICE hunting down random unfortunates and the antebellum South slave patrols chasing runaways. Of course, this is somewhat superficial since the slave patrols did not wear masks. I imagine that the heroes of the Underground Railroad feared for their lives. I admire the courage of those helping migrants today even if they’re only risking cuts and bruises, broken windshields, and a week or so in a detention center. Of course, some so-called domestic terrorists have given much more.

Toward the end of her life, my Grandma Celia heard from distant cousins who had stayed in the Old World. Considering the millions of Jews who were slaughtered during the Shoah, this must have been quite a surprise for Celia. Even more so was the fact that these relatives were retired and living on pensions. Celia didn’t believe this at all. There was no way the Russians would give a pension to a Jew.

I don’t know the name of the neighbor who saved my family. Talking about her is the best I can do. If KBH would show me the way, I would like nothing more than to visit her gravesite. Jewish custom is to bring a small stone as a memorial. Christians typically bring flowers. I would do both. And I’d bring a lot of flowers.

Now, go and study.