Wow! We just had dinner in the basement of the first modern yeshiva! A rabbi who died with no children at the age of 46 developed the yeshiva system here in Lublin, Poland. Rabbi Shapiro also started the Daf Yomi system of learning - the international system of Talmud study where one studies 1 folio of Talmud daily as part of a 7 year cycle. We toured the synagogue in the yeshiva and saw photos from the times when it was a vibrant building that housed 200 boys.
After the tour of the yeshiva, even though it was 10 at night, we took a night walking tour of the city of Lublin. It has an old walled old town with colorful buildings and cobblestone streets. This area was the Jewish neighborhood first and then the ghetto. As we walked around I tried to imagine what it was like for the Jews who called it home. One of the last buildings we passed was an orphanage. All the children were killed during the holocaust.
When I think about children being rounded up and murdered, I actually have to close my heart a little bit if I want to avoid crying. There are few things crueler than murdering children. Earlier today at the Warsaw cemetery we saw a monument to the little smugglers - children who snuck out of their ghetto to find food for their families and were caught and killed. I know that if we were stuck and starving, my little boy would try to sneak out and find us food.
We are them, we are no different other than the time we live in.
