While I think it’s extremely important to remember the Holocaust and its victims (my family lost a lot of members there), I don’t see why we need to have a specific day to commemorate it. We have the 9th day of Av to remember our tragedies, and that should be enough. There were kinos written about the Holocaust which we say then. Why do we need more?

ok, yom hashoah, as much as it is for the Jews since it is mostly Jews who celebrate it is also to remember those who were killed but WERENT Jews such as political enemies, gypsies, slavs, those with disabilities… the list goes on.  Those people arent included in the remembrance of the 9th of Av so we remember them the same day as the rest of the world.  North America calls this day Holocaust Remembrance Day.  Basically, it keeps those who were killed in mind at a point that isn’t when we also have to remember millions of others… or at least that is what i have heard so feel free to disagree.

It’s a nice sentiment, but Yom Hashoa was created by the Israeli government, mostly to remember the six million Jews. If it were a secular remembrance day, it would make more sense to set the date based on the Gregorian calendar.

A little off topic but also about yom hashoah: Yom hashoah got me thinking about the idea of remembrance and why it’s important to remember. What I mean is some people might say we should try to forget and move on with our lives instead of recalling and reliving the pain every year.  Yet we make a specific point to remember so then we have to ask, why is remembering so important?  (remembrance also seems to be a common theme in other areas of Jewish practice) I have thought about some answers on my own but I am interested in hearing what other people have to say.

cuz at the end of the day “if we dont learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.” that means that if we dont remember, we will end up back at square 1.

That is not true.
I cannot stand how people are always like, ‘we have to learn history so we don’t repeat it’
The best quote I ever found in this regard was something like
“The only thing we ever learn from history is that we never learn from history”
The fact of the matter is, Hashem runs the world, not people. learning history books isn’t going to change the course of history.
Learning Torah can. If you look in parshath ki thavo, you will be able to read about all the same atrocities, only in gives us Hashem’s version of how to avoid a repeat performance.
If I were you, I would be more inclined to depend on Hashem’s advice than your history teacher’s justification for teaching you.
If you are still not convinced, maybe look at the haftara for parshath bechukothai, which says “cursed is the man who trusts in a person” and “blessed is the mad who trusts in Hashem, and hashem will be his trustworthy one”
Bottom line, Just do what Hashem says. The rest is out of our control. Hashem’s decrees and their reasons are beyond our comprehension. Im yirtzeh Hashem, we will be zoche to see the coming of mashiach
and the reasons will become obvious. Until then, we should emulate the Avoth who knew all the suffering their descendents would endure, and still were faithful to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It is not our job to run the world, rather, it is our job to do what the King Hahsem sends us to do as his closest emissaries in this world. If we refuse to carry out Hashem’s missions, Hashem will still have the mission carried out (nothing is beyond Hashem’s control), it may just be more painful to us. But it is not about us. It is about Hashem carrying out what needs to be done in order for the world to be sustained and reach it’s final state of fulfillment of Hashem’s will.
Just a note on the Jewish perspective of remembering. Remembering is never a end unto it’s self. The only reason why we continually remeber the destruction of our holy baith hamikdash, is because that keeps us focused on the fact that our current state of galuth is not how things are supposed to be, and remind us what we must do to rectify the problem we have created. Hashem should give us the strength to always stay focused and fix the world to bring it to it’s final state of temimuth.

EshFire - 15 July 2007 10:28 PM

Remembering is never a end unto it’s self.