Honoring freedom Thoughts on Yom HaShoah, Shavuot and Memorial Day

By Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin

EDITOR

Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin

COPY EDITOR

Suzanne Cummins

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Feigie Ceitlin, Yossi Feller, Libby Herz, Mordechai Schmutter, Yehuda Shurpin, Benjamin Weiss

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Jacqueline Soffer Studio

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Note: “G-d” and “L-rd” are written with a hyphen instead of an “o .”This is one way we accord reverence to the sacred divine name. This also reminds us that, even as we seek G-d, He transcends any human effort to describe His reality.

On Yom HaShoah (April 18, 2023), the state of Colorado erected a statue honoring Major General Maurice Rose, a Jewish American hero who fought in both World War I and World War II. His is an inspiring story.

As a sixteen-year-old, he lied about his age to enlist in the Colorado National Guard. Though his father tried to talk him out of a military life, Maurice was undeterred.

He was not naive to the difficulties and dangers that would lay ahead, but he was committed to the higher path. He lied again about his age to make it into OCS (Officer Candidate School) at the age of 17. At 18, he was a lieutenant commanding troops in the Meuse–Argonne offensive in World War I.

In his military career, he received the Distinguished Service Cross; the Distinguished Service Medal; the Silver Star (awarded three times); the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star and Purple Heart — each awarded twice.

World War II saw Maurice promoted to Major General. He assumed command of the legendary 3rd Armored Division. His were the first tanks to breach the Siegfried Line and enter Germany. Tragically, though, he would not live to see peace. While leading from the front, German tanks ambushed and killed him. He was the highest-ranking American killed by the enemy in World War II.

General Rose had had a bar mitzvah. He spoke Yiddish. He was everything the Nazis sought to destroy — and ultimately, he lost his life to them. But his sacrifice paved the way for a resurgence of Jewish life after the War. The survivors liberated by American soldiers and the Allies — the remnants who Hitler could not wipe out — made a new life for themselves and their descendants.

The sacrifice of General Maurice Rose can be remembered in the context of the fight for freedom that Jews have engaged in since the dawn of our peoplehood.

As recounted in the Book of Exodus, the Jewish People were enslaved in Egypt for more than 200 years. They suffered forced backbreaking labor, torture and genocide. They cried out to G-d — and G-d listened, and put in place the sequence of events that would set them free. After the tenth and final miraculous plague, the Egyptian Pharaoh let the Jewish People go.

They were now free from their oppressors, but honoring that freedom and using it for good purposes took some time.

For 49 days after leaving Egypt, the Jewish people counted each day, slowly elevating themselves from rock bottom. On the 50th day, G-d gave them the Torah, a book of guidance and instruction — a book that gives us the freedom to live lives imbued with true purpose and meaning.

We recall our exodus from Egypt each year at Passover, and we remember the giving of the Torah fifty days after the second Seder, on Shavuot. This year we celebrate Shavuot beginning on the evening of May 25, and continuing through the evening of the 27th.

In between Passover and Shavuot, we count the days, focusing on improving our perspective. Like General Rose, we learn not to ask, “How do I make my life better?” but to instead ask, “How do I make the world a better place to live in?”

The life of General Maurice Rose is a testament to fundamental Jewish values. He knew it was not enough to live a life focused on himself. He was free to live as a Jew in America. He was far from the jackboots and tanks and gas chambers that terrorized, enslaved and murdered millions of his brothers and sisters.

But he chose true freedom, to the benefit of all of us.