The Holy Fire

Kalonymus Kalman Shapira

1942

Parashat Haḥodesh [Exodus 12:1–20]

[ . . . ] The Talmud states in Ḥagigah [5b] that, concerning God’s outer chambers, we may apply the verse Strength and Rejoicing Are in His Place (I Chron. 16:27), but in His inner chambers. He grieves and weeps for the sufferings of Israel. Therefore, there are occasions when, at a time of [Divine] hiddenness…

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From the Curator

The Holocaust sparked profound theological questions about how God could have allowed the murder of six million Jews. The Holy Fire, a collection of weekly sermons delivered by Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira in the Warsaw ghetto, provides a glimpse into how a religious leader addressed the question of Jewish suffering in the midst of starvation, persecution, and death. Unlike many post-Holocaust Hasidic rabbis, Shapira does not blame the murder of the Jews on their rejection of Jewish practice. Instead, he differentiates between suffering for individual sins and suffering to sanctify God’s name. In the latter case, the enemy attacks what God stands for and Jews suffer along with God.

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Creator Bio

Kalonymus Kalman Shapira

1889–1943

Kalonymus Kalman Shapira was an educator and Hasidic master who, beginning in 1913, served as the rabbi of Piascezno, Poland; in 1923, he founded Yeshiva Da‘at Moshe, a major Hasidic yeshiva in Warsaw. Shapira transcribed and translated his weekly sermons, which he delivered to his followers in the Warsaw ghetto and bequeathed to the Oyneg Shabes archive. He perished in the Trawniki camp near Lublin.

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The Holy Fire

Parashat Haḥodesh [Exodus 12:1–20]

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The Holy Fire

Parashat Haḥodesh [Exodus 12:1–20]

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