A Century of Emunah

“Hashem, Elokim, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your strong hand, for who is [like] Hashem in heaven or earth?” (Devarim 3:24)

What’s the connection between the praise with which Moshe Rabbeinu begins his tefillah and his actual request to enter Eretz Yisrael?

Rabbeinu Bechaye explains that Moshe Rabbeinu was telling Hashem, “You showed me Your strong hand during Yetzias Mitzrayim and Krias Yam Suf. Then you showed me the nissim in the Midbar — the mahn, the be’er, the Ananei Hakavod, and most recently, the miracles fighting Sichon and Og. Please, let me go further and gain a complete picture of emunah by experiencing the miracles of entering Eretz Yisrael.” (Rav Elimelech Reznik, Parsha Preview)

Happy birthday, Ella!

Ella Blumenthal just celebrated her 100th birthday in Cape Town, South Africa. Yet despite this distinction, there’s much more to Ella than this milestone of becoming a centenarian. Born Hela Frank in Warsaw, August 1921, the youngest of seven in a frum family, she was forced into the Warsaw Ghetto before she turned 20. From there she was deported to Majdanek, then Auschwitz, then to Bergen-Belsen, where she was eventually liberated by the British army.

Here is her story.

“In the Warsaw ghetto, there was constant death, by starvation, disease, or the Germans. I lost almost my entire extended family. Through miracles, my father, my eldest niece, Roma, and I managed to hide in a makeshift bunker.

“Pesach 1943: I remember my father giving everybody a piece of matzah, which he’d saved from last year, and davening that Hashem should save us like He saved the Jews in Mitzrayim. The next morning the Warsaw Ghetto uprising began.

“We survived three weeks into the uprising, but then the Germans set fire to the entire ghetto to eliminate any survivors. Forced outside our bunker, we were blinded by daylight, having spent weeks underground. We were ordered to stand facing the wall, our hands up, and waited, expecting to be shot. I begged Hashem that I should be shot first before my father and Roma.