For the first time in about 14 years, I have developed a medical issue that was under control for 39 years before the lockdown that has been exasperated by my gaining weight due to lack of sports. The last time I was under the scalpel, I was able to put out the Blogspot. This time I will try my best to continue weekly. Please pray for Rachamim ben Charlotte Jacqueline.
Parshiyos Tazria Metzora
The Torah is resting these two Parshiyos from the death of the two sons of Aaron. Death is Avi-Avos HaTuma and one gives birth or has Tsaras one has Av HaTuma. So that is the relationship between the Parshiyos. Most of Tazria and all of Metzora are based on the skin disease called Tsaras.
12:1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying: If a woman be delivered, and bear a man-child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of the impurity of her sickness shall she be unclean.
From here the Rabbis say that if a woman has her seed ready first in the be fruitful and multiply act then she will have a male child.
3 And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. 4 And she shall continue in the blood of purification three and thirty days; she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purification be fulfilled. 5 But if she bear a maid-child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her impurity; and she shall continue in the blood of purification threescore and six days.
This was because the husband produced seed prior to the woman.
6 And when the days of her purification are fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt-offering, and a young pigeon, or a turtle-dove, for a sin-offering, unto the door of the tent of meeting, unto the priest. 7 And he shall offer it before the LORD, and make atonement for her; and she shall be cleansed from the fountain of her blood. This is the law for her that bears, whether a male or a female. 8 And if her means suffice not for a lamb, then she shall take two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons: the one for a burnt-offering, and the other for a sin-offering; and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean.
Our Rabbis noted that this was similar to the atonement for a vow. From here the Rabbis learned that many women while giving birth make a vow not to have more children and therefore this atonement is appropriate.
13:1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying: 2 When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, or a scab, or a bright spot, and it become in the skin of his flesh the plague of leprosy, then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests.
Our Rabbis taught us that the spiritual root cause of Tsaras is Lashon HaRa. We learn this from Moshe who said, “They will not believe me.” He had to put his hand in his breast and it became ‘leprous’ or whitish. The solution to talking Lashon HaRa and gossip is to send the man away from the camp and he cannot talk the Lashon HaRa (I used man but it applies to woman too).
3 And the priest shall look upon the plague in the skin of the flesh; and if the hair in the plague be turned white, and the appearance of the plague be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is the plague of leprosy; and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean. 4 And if the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh, and the appearance thereof be not deeper than the skin, and the hair thereof be not turned white, then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague seven days. 5 And the priest shall look on him the seventh day; and, behold, if the plague stay in its appearance, and the plague be not spread in the skin, then the priest shall shut him up seven days more.
The initial time or minimum away from the camp is 7 days and if the person is still burning to tell Lashon HaRa without repentance then another 7 days apply.
6 And the priest shall look on him again the seventh day; and, behold, if the plague be dim, and the plague be not spread in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean: it is a scab; and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean.
The first of 4 different appearances of skin disease.
7 But if the scab spread abroad in the skin, after that he hath shown himself to the priest for his cleansing, he shall show himself to the priest again. 8 And the priest shall look, and, behold, if the scab be spread in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is leprosy.
If the Tsaras is still active after 21 days, then the person is officially pronounced unclean.
… 13 then the priest shall look; and, behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague; it is all turned white: he is clean. 14 But whensoever raw flesh appears in him, he shall be unclean. 15 And the priest shall look on the raw flesh, and pronounce him unclean; the raw flesh is unclean: it is leprosy. 16 But if the raw flesh again be turned into white, then he shall come unto the priest; 17 and the priest shall look on him; and, behold, if the plague be turned into white, then the priest shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague: he is clean.
If he turns completely white, he is clean otherwise he is in a contamination stage. Or that the size of the blister(s) have stopped growing.
18 And when the flesh hath in the skin thereof a boil, and it is healed, 19 and in the place of the boil there is a white rising, or a bright spot, reddish-white, then it shall be shown to the priest. 20 And the priest shall look; and, behold, if the appearance thereof be lower than the skin, and the hair thereof be turned white, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is the plague of leprosy, it hath broken out in the boil. 21 But if the priest look on it, and, behold, there be no white hairs therein, and it be not lower than the skin, but be dim, then the priest shall shut him up seven days.
The Cohain turns into a dermatologist in essence to determine if it be Tsaras or Psoriasis.
… 4 Or when the flesh hath in the skin thereof a burning by fire, and the quick flesh of the burning become a bright spot, reddish-white, or white; … 25 then the priest shall look upon it; and, behold, if the hair in the bright spot be turned white, and the appearance thereof be deeper than the skin, it is leprosy, it hath broken out in the burning; and the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is the plague of leprosy. 26 But if the priest look on it, and, behold, there be no white hair in the bright spot, and it be no lower than the skin, but be dim; then the priest shall shut him up seven days. 27 And the priest shall look upon him the seventh day; if it spread abroad in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is the plague of leprosy. 28 And if the bright spot stay in its place, and be not spread in the skin, but be dim, it is the rising of the burning, and the priest shall pronounce him clean; for it is the scar of the burning.
The Priest had to learn to be a master of this skin disease.
29 And when a man or woman hath a plague upon the head or upon the beard,
“The glory of a man is he beard” – Rabbi Akiva Daf 157A bottom of the page to 157B.
30 then the priest shall look on the plague; and, behold, if the appearance thereof be deeper than the skin, and there be in it yellow thin hair, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a scall, it is leprosy of the head or of the beard. 31 And if the priest look on the plague of the scall, and, behold, the appearance thereof be not deeper than the skin, and there be no black hair in it, then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague of the scall seven days. 32 And in the seventh day the priest shall look on the plague; and, behold, if the scall be not spread, and there be in it no yellow hair, and the appearance of the scall be not deeper than the skin, 33 then he shall be shaven, but the scall shall he not shave; and the priest shall shut up him that hath the scall seven days more. 34 And in the seventh day the priest shall look on the scall; and, behold, if the scall be not spread in the skin, and the appearance thereof be not deeper than the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean; and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean.
The disease has stopped spreading and he is clean. The beauty of the woman is in her hair and therefore married women are required to be modest and only their husbands should be allowed to see their hair that is considered part of the body to be covered. Unmarried females show their beautiful hair to attract men. Now these parts have become infected with Tsaras and have to be hidden 7 days.
35 But if the scall spread abroad in the skin after his cleansing, 36 then the priest shall look on him; and, behold, if the scall be spread in the skin, the priest shall not seek for the yellow hair: he is unclean. 37 But if the scall stay in its appearance, and black hair be grown up therein; the scall is healed, he is clean; and the priest shall pronounce him clean.
The rule is no more growth or less appearance and the boil, scall, etc. is clean.
38 And if a man or a woman have in the skin of their flesh bright spots, even white bright spots; 39 then the priest shall look; and, behold, if the bright spots in the skin of their flesh be of a dull white, it is a tetter, it hath broken out in the skin: he is clean. 40 And if a man's hair be fallen off his head, he is bald; yet is he clean. 41 And if his hair be fallen off from the front part of his head, he is forehead-bald; yet is he clean.
The priest sees that he is clean by virtual of the shrinking of changing of the color of the disease.
42 But if there be in the bald head, or the bald forehead, a reddish-white plague, it is leprosy breaking out in his bald head, or his bald forehead. 43 Then the priest shall look upon him; and, behold, if the rising of the plague be reddish-white in his bald head, or in his bald forehead, as the appearance of leprosy in the skin of the flesh, 44 he is a leprous man, he is unclean; the priest shall surely pronounce him unclean: his plague is in his head.
However, in this case he has the disease growing and he is Tamay.
45 And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and the hair of his head shall go loose, and he shall cover his upper lip, and shall cry: 'Unclean, unclean.' 46 All the days wherein the plague is in him he shall be unclean; he is unclean; he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his dwelling be.
With his Lashon Hara, he has embarrassed others so now he/she is isolated and declared “unclean”. Maybe in the first place somebody would have said Lashon HaRa they would have stopped it.
47 And when the plague of leprosy is in a garment, whether it be a woolen garment, or a linen garment; 48 or in the warp, or in the woof, whether they be of linen, or of wool; or in a skin, or in any thing made of skin. 49 If the plague be greenish or reddish in the garment, or in the skin, or in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin, it is the plague of leprosy, and shall be shown unto the priest. 50 And the priest shall look upon the plague, and shut up that which hath the plague seven days.
The plague is a mold that develops on the garment. It is partially due to Lashon HaRa but aeration of the garments and keep them in a dry area prevent such a mold. In FL I found a white mold on leather shoes that were not aerated and I assume that had I had a woolen garment, the color mold would appear. That was due to a natural process and Lashon HaRa only speeds up such things.
…14:1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 2 This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: he shall be brought unto the priest. 3 And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper;
The following is done. I was told by the late Dr. Rabbi Zev Vilna MD specializing in internal medication. Once there were twins who had Jaundice. One twin was more primitive and the relatives brought him two doves and sent one away and one they slaughtered the other twin was more modern and depended on medicine. The primitive twin was cured first.
4 then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two living clean birds, and cedar-wood, and scarlet, and hyssop. 5 And the priest shall command to kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water. 6 As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar-wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. 7 And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let go the living bird into the open field. 8 And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and bathe himself in water, and he shall be clean; and after that he may come into the camp, but shall dwell outside his tent seven days. 9 And it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off; and he shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and he shall be clean. 10 And on the eighth day he shall take two he-lambs without blemish, and one ewe-lamb of the first year without blemish, and three tenth parts of an ephah of fine flour for him shall set the man that is to be cleansed, and those things, before the LORD, at the door of the tent of meeting. 12 And the priest shall take one of the he-lambs, and offer him for a guilt-offering, and the log of oil, and wave them for a slaughter the sin-offering and the burnt-offering, in the place of the sanctuary; for as the sin-offering is the priest's, so is the guilt-offering; it is most holy. 14 And the priest shall take of the blood of the guilt-offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot. 15 And the priest shall take of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand. 16 And the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven times before the LORD. 17 And of the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the blood of the guilt-offering. 18 And the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put upon the head of him that is to be cleansed; and the priest shall make atonement for him before the LORD. 19 And the priest shall offer the sin-offering, and make atonement for him that is to be cleansed because of his uncleanness; and afterward he slaughters the burnt-offering. 20 And the priest shall offer the burnt-offering and the meal-offering upon the altar; and the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean.
This is the process of the Korbanos and cleansing. This is for a person of certain means but for the poor the process is less expensive.
21 And if he be poor, and his means suffice not, then he shall take one he-lamb for a guilt-offering to be waved, to make atonement for him, and one tenth part of an ephah of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal-offering, and a log of oil; 22 and two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, such as his means suffice for; and the one shall be a sin-offering, and the other a burnt-offering. 23 And on the eighth day he shall bring them for his cleansing unto the priest, unto the door of the tent of meeting, before the LORD. 24 And the priest shall take the lamb of the guilt-offering, and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them for a wave-offering before the LORD. 25 And he shall kill the lamb of the guilt-offering, and the priest shall take of the blood of the guilt-offering, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot. 26 And the priest shall pour of the oil into the palm of his own left hand. 27 And the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the LORD. 28 And the priest shall put of the oil that is in his hand upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the place of the blood of the guilt-offering. 29 And the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put upon the head of him that is to be cleansed, to make atonement for him before the LORD. 30 And he shall offer one of the turtle-doves, or of the young pigeons, such as his means suffice for; 31 even such as his means suffice for, the one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt-offering, with the meal-offering; and the priest shall make atonement for him that is to be cleansed before the LORD. 32 This is the law of him in whom is the plague of leprosy, whose means suffice not for that which pertains to his cleansing.
Now like with woolen garments, the stones of the house can develop a mold rooted in physical reasons but caused by the negative spirituality of Lashon HaRa.
33 And the LORD spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying: 34 When ye are come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession; 35 then he that owns the house shall come and tell the priest, saying: 'There seems to me to be as it were a plague in the house.' 36 And the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest go in to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean; and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house. …54 This is the law for all manner of plague of leprosy, and for a scall; 55 and for the leprosy of a garment, and for a house; 56 and for a rising, and for a scab, and for a bright spot; 57 to teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean; this is the law of leprosy.
15:1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses and to Aaron, saying: 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: When any man hath an issue out of his flesh, his issue is unclean. 3 And this shall be his uncleanness in his issue: whether his flesh run with his issue, or his flesh be stopped from his issue, it is his uncleanness.
The issue is not that the man had a ‘wet dream’ as happens to teens or that he purposely released seed but that it flowed a few times and three times involuntary seed release or gonorrhea. He is called a Zav.
4 Every bed whereon he that hath the issue lies shall be unclean; and everything whereon he sits shall be unclean. 5 And whosoever touches his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
This is not your average Tuma as sitting down does not impart such Tuma, this is worse.
6 And he that sits on anything whereon he that hath the issue sat shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 7 And he that touches the flesh of him that hath the issue shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 8 And if he that hath the issue spit upon him that is clean, then he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
This goes for a wagon, bus, train, ferry or car seat.
9 And what saddle soever he that hath the issue rides upon shall be unclean. 10 And whosoever touches anything that was under him shall be unclean until the even; and he that bears those things shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
Even the cleaner of such cushions from cars, boats, wagons etc. has to wash his own clothing and go to the Mikvah.
11 And whomsoever he that hath the issue touches, without having rinsed his hands in water, he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 12 And the earthen vessel, which he that hath the issue touches shall be broken; and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water. 13 And when he that hath an issue is cleansed of his issue, then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes; and he shall bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean. 14 And on the eighth day he shall take to him two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, and come before the LORD unto the door of the tent of meeting, and give them unto the priest.
As one kosher vessels and clothing for use or wearing in the Mikdash.
15 And the priest shall offer them, the one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt-offering; and the priest shall make atonement for him before the LORD for his issue. {S} 16 And if the flow of seed go out from a man, then he shall bathe all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the even. 17 And every garment, and every skin, whereon is the flow of seed, shall be washed with water, and be unclean until the even. 18 The woman also with whom a man shall lie carnally, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even.
Unlike the state of Niddah, this woman is only unclean until bathing in the Mikvah and that night she is clean and can prepare food in a Tahor manner. The blood that the Zava sees also comes from the womb and not a bleeding wound on the side of the walls of the passage to the womb.
19 And if a woman has an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be in her impurity seven days; and whosoever touches her shall be unclean until the even. 20 And everything that she lies upon in her impurity shall be unclean; everything also that she sits upon shall be unclean. 21 And whosoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 22 And whosoever touches anything that she sits upon shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 23 And if he be on the bed, or on anything whereon she sits, when he touches it, he shall be unclean until the even. 24 And if any man lie with her, and her impurity be upon him, he shall be unclean seven days; and every bed whereon he lies shall be unclean.
During the times of the Temple, women marked off their periods from the day they got the first one. Example Rosh Chodesh Nissan. Between 7 to 11 days in the month is considered a Zava. If they occur three days in a row, then the woman is a Zava. Since we don’t record when I daughters had their first period and calculate periods from there, we observe 7 clean days and don’t know when a Zava starts.
25 And if a woman have an issue of her blood many days not in the time of her impurity, or if she have an issue beyond the time of her impurity; all the days of the issue of her uncleanness she shall be as in the days of her impurity: she is unclean. 26 Every bed whereon she lies all the days of her issue shall be unto her as the bed of her impurity; and everything whereon she sits shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her impurity. 27 And whosoever touches those things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
Towards the end of the first chapter of Tractate Shabbos the Rabbis issued a Gezaira. “A Zav should not sit down to eat with a Zava – (lest they get together as both being Tamay).”
28 But if she be cleansed of her issue, then she shall number to herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean. 29 And on the eighth day she shall take unto her two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, and bring them unto the priest, to the door of the tent of meeting. 30 And the priest shall offer the one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt-offering; and the priest shall make atonement for her before the LORD for the issue of her uncleanness.
Both for the Zav and the Zava, the purification is 7 days.
31 Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness; that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile My tabernacle that is in the midst of them. 32 This is the law of him that hath an issue, and of him from whom the flow of seed goes out, so that he is unclean thereby; 33 and of her that is sick with her impurity, and of them that have an issue, whether it be a man, or a woman; and of him that lies with her that is unclean.
Since the woman had Gonorrhea, I left the translation of sickness and the object here is that Am Yisrael should be pure.
A miracle in Gush Katif – English R. Pauli
This is part of a TV Channel 12 Series
Called my miracle hosted by a woman named Nes Li
Forgive me if I got the names wrong I did not write them down at the time. One was a 21year old soldier named Avi who had a Yarmulke on and the other a border policeman non-religious named Uri. Both are in their mid to late 40’s today.
Uri was on his way out of Gush Katif. Avi had been on guard duty in Neve Dekelim and was hitchhiking his way out of the Gush on leave. Uri picks up Avi and starts driving. The night before Avi had had a nightmare of terrorist chasing him. Due to that dream, he is a bit tense and has his M16 on the window pointed outward. The drive is pleasant.
Suddenly, a car with Israeli plates pulls out of the Khan Unis road carrying three reserve soldiers. The car is driving slow to the police vehicle passes them. However, something is wrong with this picture. I don’t know about you but if you were days in the reserves away from your wife near Khan Unis, you would want to leave relatively quickly and even with the police behind you drive at 50kph but you move as fast as you can go home to your family. The car that was behind the police vehicle was driving very slow. They were almost at the exit from the Gush when the policeman suspected something awry. He pulled over the vehicle and put out his hand ordering the stop. Was the car stolen or what?
Instead of continuing to the police car, the vehicle made a U-turn. Something was not Glatt Kosher here and Uri told Avi be on high alert we are pursuing the vehicle we just passed. He turned on his lights and siren. The vehicle stopped. The three reservists with their weapons jumped out behind the doors and started firing on the police vehicle. Uri stopped. Avi jumped out his door and opened fire on the vehicle in front. Rounds of bullets were fired.
Suddenly one or the soldiers was ‘hit’. The others got him inside and speed off towards Khan Unis. Uri called for back-up and the army. Miraculously neither Uri or Avi was hit.
After both filed a report with the police of the incident they went their many ways. A short while afterwards in some bushes or reeds the vehicle was found with a dead terrorist inside. The Shin Bet told Uri that he could pat himself on the back because inside the car was a map of the Beer Sheva Mall and how to attack.
The two men had prevented a major terror attack. Avi said that although he was religious, he was not one who believed in premonitions.
Analysis what makes this story into a Nes (Miracle)? 1) The premonition dream of Avi that puts him on extra alertness. 2) The alertness of a good police instinct that causes Uri to want to check the license of the slow driver. 3) The suspicious movement of the car.
The first shows readiness when they are fired upon. And finally the total results that one terrorist is gone and the attack on Beer Sheva is prevented at the cost of a few bullets in the police vehicle.
Untold Story of Jewish Women Resisting the Nazis in WWII
By Yvette Alt Miller
https://www.aish.com/jw/s/Untold-Story-of-Jewish-Women-Resisting-Nazis.html?s=hp2
Click or copy link for photos of the heroines
Growing up in Montreal, Judy Batalion was surrounded by vibrant Jewish culture and role models. “I come from such a robust heritage,” she explained in a recent Aish.com interview.
She attended Jewish school where she learned Yiddish, and was particularly close with her Bubbe Zelda, a Holocaust survivor from Poland. Bubbe Zelda babysat Judy every day after school and would tell her about her family’s painful history, describing the tragic fate of many relatives with tears in her eyes.
Bubbe Zelda had escaped Nazi-occupied Warsaw and made her way east to the Soviet Union where she was imprisoned in Siberian work camps and saved from death in Nazi hands. Bubbe Zelda’s parents and three of her four sisters remained in Warsaw where they all perished.
Judy considered herself well educated about the Holocaust, yet she discovered how little she knew about Jewish resistance. “I didn’t know anything about the scope of the resistance, including details about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.”
After studying at Harvard, then moving to London to earn a Ph.D. in art history, she also worked as a performer, and in 2007 decided to research heroic Jewish women for a potential show. Researching the Jewish partisan Hannah Senesh at the British Library changed her life.
The starting point for Judy’s historical journey was Hannah Senesh. Born in 1921 in Budapest, Hannah was a brilliant writer and an ardent Zionist. When she was 18, in 1939, she moved to Israel where she worked on a kibbutz and wrote beautiful poetry and accounts about life in Israel. In 1943, with the Jews of Europe facing annihilation, Hannah volunteered for a daring spy mission for the British Army. Along with 32 other volunteers, she parachuted into Nazi-occupied Europe with the goal of instituting contact with resistance fighters and helping Jewish communities.
After three months fighting with Yugoslavian partisans, Hannah smuggled herself over the border into her native Hungary. The date was June 7 1944, and the Nazis’ deportation of Hungarian Jews to death camps was at its height.
Hannah Senesh was soon arrested by Hungarian police and turned over the Nazi authorities, who tortured her brutally for months. Senesh refused to reveal any details of the British Army’s spying plan, and she was sentenced to death by firing squad. On November 7, 1944 Senesh was executed. She refused a blindfold, looking straight at her executioners as they shot her.
Judy Batalion found that despite her fame, there were relatively few books about Hannah Senesh in the British Library. She ordered several books that mentioned Senesh’s name. When the books arrived at the front desk, Judy noticed that one of them was written in Yiddish. She almost put it back.
Instead, she began to use the Yiddish she’d learned as a child to read the volume. It was an old book, published in 1946, called Freuen in di Ghettos – “Women in the Ghettos”. This 185-page book described dozens of heroic Jewish women who fought Nazis as part of resistance movements. Their stories were incredible. Women smuggled arms into Jewish Ghettos. They assassinated Nazi officials. They spied for the Soviet Union, helped smuggle Jews out of Nazi Ghettos to safety, looked after the sick and taught Jewish children. Some fought with armed partisans while others acted alone. Why had she never heard of these stories, Judy wondered? She decided to research some of these phenomenal stories.
Her project took a dozen years. Judy discovered that thousands of Jewish women fought in the Jewish resistance against Nazis during the Holocaust. Realizing that she had enough material to write a book, -- there were so many incredible stories that Judy had to make hard decisions about whom to research and include – Judy decided to focus on Polish Jewish women who helped Jewish resistance fighters in the ghettos. “There was so much material out there,” Judy explains, “and the story had never been brought together in one narrative.”
The result is The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos, to be published on April 6, 2021.
When Germany conquered Poland in 1939, over two million Polish Jews came under Nazi control. (Several million more Jews were subject to Nazi dictates after Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.) To subdue this vast population, the Nazis set aside over 1,000 “Ghettos” in towns and cities in lands they conquered. The largest of these were in Poland: nearly half a million Jews were forced into the notorious Warsaw Ghetto. The Lodz Ghetto housed over 200,000 Jews.
The Jewish Ghettos were established in the oldest, shabbiest parts of towns and were surrounded by barbed wire and patrolled by Nazi guards. Jews were transported to the Ghettos from across Nazi-occupied Europe. Romas were also interred in some of the Ghettos. Residents were forced to remain indoors at night and couldn’t leave the Ghettos without express permission. Starvation and disease were rife and thousands of Jews died in the Ghettos from hunger and overwork. Nazis routinely rounded up and deported Jews from Ghettos to death camps, often to make more room for new Jewish residents who were shipped in from newly-conquered areas.
There was a significant uprising of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto in April 1943, and Judy discovered that over 90 other Ghettos had armed Jewish resistance units too. “Approximately 30,000 European Jews joined the partisans,” Judy wrote. “Rescue networks supported about 12,000 Jews in hiding in Warsaw alone. All this alongside daily acts of resilience – smuggling food, writing diaries, telling a joke to relieve fear, hugging a barrack mate to keep her warm. Women, aged 16 to 25, were at the helm of many of these efforts. I learned their names: Tosia Altman, Gusta Davidson, Frumka Plotnicka. Hundreds of others.”
One of the many women Judy Batalion writes about is Tosia Altman. Born in 1919 in Poland, Tosia grew up in the town of Wloclawek, where her family was cultured and stalwarts of the local Jewish community.
Judy’s prose helps readers conjure this remarkable young woman. “Tosia was considered a fashionable Polish type… a well-educated, well-spoken young woman who wore sporty outfits.” She was frightened of dogs and of the dark. Instead of giving in to these fears, she forced herself to deal with them: one night during a pogrom, when Jews were being attacked and the sounds of screams and barking dogs filled the air, she forced herself to walk outside in order to subdue her terrors.
Tosia was a passionate Zionist and worked as a youth leader for the Ha-Shomer ha-Za’ir Zionist youth movement, eventually rising to leadership of the local branch. After attending the Fourth World Convention of Ha-Shomer ha-Za’ir when she was sixteen, Tosia made the momentous decision to move to the Land of Israel, and joined a training kibbutz in Poland to learn how to farm. Instead of moving to the future state of Israel, Tosia was appointed leader of youth education in Warsaw, and moved there in 1938. She had no way of knowing then that moving to Poland instead of Mandatory Palestine would prove to be her death warrant – and that in the next few years she would be inspired to show incredible bravery and strength.
When World War II broke out, Tosia and other Zionist youth group leaders made their way – partially on foot, and at times through fighting and bombing – to Vilna, Lithuania, where they hoped to regroup and leave Europe for the Land of Israel. When that proved impossible, Tosia was given a daunting mission. Since she was blonde, pretty and outgoing, would Tosia return to German-occupied Poland and organize Jewish youth group members to resist the Nazis?
Jews weren’t allowed to travel on trains, but Tosia disguised herself as a non-Jewish Polish woman and travelled between the Jewish Ghettos that were being established. In Warsaw, she and other youth group leaders set up educational programs and a newspaper to help sustain the spirit of the Jewish imprisoned there.
As Ziva Shalev, author of Tosia Altman: From the Leadership of Ha-Shomer ha-Za’ir to the Leadership of the Uprising, wrote, once Warsaw’s Jews were confined in the Warsaw Ghetto in November 1940, Tosia’s “blonde hair and fluent Polish were no longer enough; with every trip, she risked death. Forged papers, outdated documents and stamps, and the danger of Polish informants who ‘sniffed out’ Jews were all a constant peri. But Altman continued to travel (throughout the region), her visits serving as a source of strength and encouragement to the young people.”
When news of the systematic murder of Jews began to reach the youth group leadership, Tosia’s mission changed: she traveled throughout Poland, warning Jews that the Nazis were carrying out genocide. Nothing less than the complete elimination of the Jewish community seemed to be their goal. In 1942, when the first large-scale deportations of Jews began from the Warsaw Ghetto, Tosia and other youth group leaders helped start the Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa (ZOB), the “Jewish Fighting Organization” to facilitate armed resistance to Nazi.
Once again, relying on her non-Jewish looks and her charismatic personality, Tosia smuggled herself in and out of the Warsaw Ghetto, coordinating with the two main Polish resistance organizations, the nationalist Armia Krajowa (AK) and the Communist group Armia Ludowa. Her goal was to obtain donations of arms to help Jews fight within the Warsaw Ghetto. She managed to smuggle guns and grenades through the Polish countryside, hiding the arms in her clothes, and smuggle them into the Warsaw and Krakow Ghettos. At one point, in 1943, Tosia was arrested but managed to escape her Nazi prison and continue to fight.
When the Warsaw Ghetto uprising broke out on April 18, 1943, Tosia was in the thick of the fighting. Her job was to relay information within the Ghetto and also to the outside world. She also helped smuggle Jews out of the Ghetto through sewers. After three weeks of fighting, Altman and a few other survivors managed to leave the Ghetto through sewers. Her hiding place caught fire on May 24, 1943, and a badly injured Tosia was arrested by Polish officers who promptly turned the Jewish resistance hero over to Nazi officials. Tosia was tortured, denied medical treatment, and died two days later.
Another woman investigated by Judy Batalion is Gusta Davidson (also spelled Dawidson). Born into a Chassidic Jewish family in Krakow in 1917, Gusta joined the religious youth movements B’nos Ya’akov and Akiva where she worked as a teacher and writer. She eventually became the editor of Zeirimi, the newspaper of the Akiva youth movement in Cracow.
By the time World War II broke out, 22-year-old Gusta was one of the leaders of the Akiva group. She and a handful of others remained in Krakow to help rally the Jewish community and keep up morale. Gusta fell in love with a fellow Jewish newspaper editor, Shimshon Draenger. They made a pact that if one of them would be arrested, the other would join them in jail. When he was arrested by the Nazis for running anti-Nazi articles, Gusta turned herself in to the Gestapo so she could be with him in prison.
The pair were freed in 1940, though they remained under intense surveillance. Gusta and Shimshon married, and despite the grave danger it put them in, they continued their youth group activities, forging documents, printing underground newspapers, and taking part in armed resistance. Akiva merged with other Zionist youth groups to form a more potent resistance force. Gusta was charged with searching for safe houses for these underground activities.
In her book, Judy Batalion poignantly describes the change that came over Gusta and Shimshon, as well as a whole generation of Jewish youth pioneers. Their idealism of building a Jewish state slowly turned into the cynical realization that they had to fight their Nazi oppressors, and that European Jewry faced total annihilation. “We want to survive as a generation of avengers,” Shimon said at a youth group meeting. “If we survive, it has got to be as a group, and with weapons in our hands.”
Writing of Gusta’s transformation from bookish intellectual to ruthless fighter, Judy Batalion quotes Gusta after her father and sister were murdered by Nazis: “Hands, now caked with fertile loam, would soon be soaked in blood” as she and other Jews engaged in armed battle.
In December 1942, Jewish youth group fighters carried out the Cyganeria operation: the bombing of a cafe that was popular with senior Nazi and Gestapo officials. Shimshon was arrested in the aftermath of the attack, and soon after Gusta was arrested too; she was sent to the fearsome Helzlaw women’s prison where she was brutally tortured.
Gusta secretly wrote a book about her activities while in prison, painstakingly recording her testimony in tiny letters on toilet paper. Miraculously, her account survived the war and was published in 1946. It’s one of the most complete and moving accounts of Polish Jewish resistance fighters during the Holocaust. “From this prison cell that we will never leave alive,” Gusta wrote, “we young fighters who are about to die salute you. We offer our lives willingly for our holy cause, asking only that our deeds be inscribed in the book of eternal memory. May the memories preserved on these scattered bits of paper be gathered together to compose a picture of our unwavering resolve in the face of death.”
At one point, Shimshon was taken to see Gusta. The Nazi guards apparently thought that after seeing how brutally his wife had been tortured, Shimshon would give in and reveal all his secrets. Instead, as Shimshon and his guards walked into Gusta’s cell, Gusta announced “Yes, it is true. I organized groups of Jewish fighters and I promise that if we are saved from you, we will do it again.” Neither Gusta nor Shimshon revealed their youth group’s secrets to the Nazis.
In April 1943, Gusta and Shimshon took part in a prison break. Gusta was the only woman in the group of prisoners to survive. She and Shimshon travelled to a secret resistance hideout in the Polish countryside near Krakow, where they continued to take part in resistance missions. Each Friday, they distributed 250 copies of a ten-page underground newspaper to Jews in the Krakow, Bochnia and Tarnow Ghettos.
By August 1943, with fascist forces closing in, Shimshon and Gusta tried to get themselves smuggled over the border into Hungary. They were betrayed, and executed by Nazis that month. Gusta’s final words are lost to history, but the account of her underground activities that she wrote in prison lives on:
“History will never forgive us for not having thought about it. What normal, thinking person would suffer all this in silence? Future generations will want to know what overwhelming motive could have restrained us from acting heroically. If we don’t act now, history will condemn us forever. Whatever we do we’re doomed, but we can still save our souls. The least we can do now is leave a legacy of human dignity that will be honored by someone, some day.”
Telling Their Stories
The stories of these women are just some of the incredible tales of resistance and bravery that have yet to be discovered and retold. In researching her remarkable new book, Judy Batalion has grappled with the question of why so many Jewish women resistance fighters were overlooked. “For many female survivors, silence was a means of coping,” she has found.
One of the most incredible women she profiles in her book is Renia Kukielka, who worked as a courier in and around the Polish town of Bedzin during the Holocaust. Evading Nazis, she managed to link Jewish undergrounds. She was arrested and tortured, and eventually escaped and made it first to Hungary, and eventually to Mandatory Palestine. Though she wrote a Hebrew language book about her experiences in Poland during the War – one of the first full length accounts of the Holocaust – Battalion notes that Renia’s “family home after the war was not filled with stories of the resistance, but with music, art and tango nights; she was known for her fashionable tastes, and for her sharp sense of humor. Like so many refugees, the resisters wanted to start afresh, to blend into their new worlds.”
“I don’t think any of this has been covered by typical World War Two histories,” Judy explains to Aish.com. “This is a story of young Jewish women that were incredibly daring – this is part of our legacy and our heritage as Jews.” Her book is an attempt to remedy this absence in our history books.
Teaching the next generation is crucial, and Judy wants the stories of the Jewish women resistance fighters she’s documented to be part of the legacy we leave our children. Judy has already started telling these stories to her daughter, and a youth edition of The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos is also being published on April 6, so that younger readers can start learning this history.
“I want people to read this story and to be inspired by their courage and bravery,” Judy notes. “I want people to understand that our history is multifaceted and complex.”
The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos
(Harper Collins) is being published April 6, 2021.
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Have a wonderful peaceful and restful Shabbos,
Rachamim Pauli
