Q:
If כל דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד so what was the good in having the Israeli Supreme Court overturn the life-sentence of that murderer, the Nazi concentration camp guard, Ivan Demanjuk? If everything Hashem does is good, can you explain that?
A:
You’re asking me to tell you what Hashem wanted. That’s a big order. But just like an ant that’s looking up at the skyscraper and trying to guess what’s on top, so I’ll give my silly opinion.
One of the reasons was to let us know that no matter what you do to reshaim it doesn’t matter in this world – you’ll never be able to punish them what they deserve.
Of course, if we could press a button and all the reshaim should go right away into Gehinom this minute, I’d do it this minute. All the reshaim and the Reform Jews that are ruining the world with Reform rabbis who are homosexuals. All the gays. I’d press a button; go in Gehinom this minute!
But Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn’t want to give us the satisfaction always of seeing it happen. Because we have to have emunah too. We have to know there’s a Gehinom. And in Gehinom, that’s where nobody gets away with it. There’s no Israeli Supreme Court reshaim there to acquit. The Israeli Supreme Court are all reshaim, all reshaim. Some are less reshaim and some are more but they’re all reshaim. That’s why they’re in the Supreme Court.
And so Hakadosh Baruch Hu lets the reshaim get away with it in order that we should know there’s a next world, so that we should practice up the emunah that there’s another world where they’re really going to get it.
You know Hitler got away with it in this world. What did he do at the end? He saw they were losing out so he took a perfumed flavored poison and he painlessly left the world. That’s not the way for a Hitler to go out of this world. He deserved a much worse exit. But it means, it shows, that it’s the beginning of a very big career in the next world. The fun begins over there. That’s what it teaches us, that there’s a big Gehinom.
And therefore when we see a rasha like Demanjuk go out of the world painlessly, it’s to teach us that there is waiting for him another world. Otherwise, we’d forget about the next world. One of the lessons therefore is that Olam Haba is waiting for that fellow. He’ll get there and then he’ll get what’s coming to him.
TAPE # 927 (August 1993)
