Menachem Ziemba postscript and works

The only commentary I have is that with the burning of Warsaw , thousands of pages of the writings of R Ziemba were lost: The Responsa would have been most illuminating but mankind's darkness precluded it being preserved.

QUOTE . Totzos Chaim, a work on the laws pertaining to carrying on Shabbos, written in honour of Rabbi Ziemba's father-in-law who died in 1920 Zera Avraham (seed of Abraham), a correspondence between Rabbi Ziemba and Rabbi Avraham Luftbier of Warsaw, who died at a very young age Gur Arye Yehuda, a book of novellae by Moshe Yehuda Arye, Rabbi Ziemba's prodigious son, who died at the age of 19 in 1924. It also contained some correspondence between father and son. Tens of thousands of pages of works authored by Rabbi Ziemba were destroyed in the burning of the Warsaw Ghetto. Among these was a treatise on the entire Rambam called Machaze Hamelech, another on the Talmud Yerushalmi called Menachem Yerushalaim, as well as hundreds of responsa and novellae on Bavli, Shulchan Aruch, Midrash and many other parts of the Torah. These works were lost for posterity

Postscript
In 1958, upon learning that the Polish Government was
planning to rebuild the area of the ghetto that included Rabbi Ziemba's grave,
his brothers Rabbi Avraham and Rabbi Yitzchok Meir Ziemba (who were with him to
the very end) and others expended great efforts to exhume his body and bring it
to Israel. After
weeks of work by surveyors and others, his grave was finally located - all
landmarks remembered by the survivors had been destroyed in the interim. His
body was flown to Israel and after a funeral attended by all the Moetzes Gedolei
HaTorah and tens of thousands of people, he was finally laid to rest on Har
HaMenuchot.

[edit]
Works
Totzos Chaim, a work on the laws pertaining to carrying on Shabbos, written in honour of
Rabbi Ziemba's father-in-law who died in 1920
Zera Avraham (seed of Abraham), a
correspondence between Rabbi Ziemba and Rabbi Avraham Luftbier of Warsaw, who
died at a very young age
Gur Arye Yehuda, a book of novellae by Moshe Yehuda
Arye, Rabbi Ziemba's prodigious son, who died at the age of 19 in 1924. It also
contained some correspondence between father and son.
Tens of thousands of
pages of works authored by Rabbi Ziemba were destroyed in the burning of the
Warsaw Ghetto. Among these was a treatise on the entire Rambam called
Machaze Hamelech, another on the Talmud Yerushalmi
called Menachem Yerushalaim, as well as hundreds of responsa and novellae on Bavli, Shulchan Aruch, Midrash and many
other parts of the Torah. These works were lost for posterity

Menachem Ziemba 2 escape offers refused

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menachem_Ziemba

He was a source of hope and could not abandon his fellow Jews and set up secret locations for the study of torah. There was a rescue offer from the Catholic church for him and two other mermbers of the rabbinate: R Shimshon Sztokhamer and R David Shapiro. They all refused saying the rabbinate gave their fellow Jews strength to carry on.He contributed money to buy ammunition for the underground and gave the underground his blessing.

World War II
With the outbreak of World War II and the German invasion of
Poland, Rabbi Ziemba became the single most important force in the Warsaw
Ghetto. In the darkest days of despair, he was a source of hope, optimism and
inspiration. He set up secret locations for the study of Torah, and at great
personal risk, constantly visited these clandestine places to strengthen those
who studied there. His wife died in the ghetto.
Rabbi Ziemba was given two
opportunities to escape from the ghetto. Through the efforts of Chaim Israel and
the Sternbuch family of Switzerland, he was sent a Costa
Rican passport and citizenship papers. His last name, however, was
misspelled - Ziember instead of Ziemba. This was enough excuse for his papers to
be declared void.
In another incident, Rabbi Ziemba, along with the other two
surviving members of the Warsaw Rabbinate, Rabbi Shimshon Sztokhamer and Rabbi
David Shapiro, were suddenly summoned to the Judenrat. They were told that
the Catholic Church was
willing to rescue them. The three refused to go, saying that the existence of
the Rabbinate gave Jews strength to carry on, although such a formality was no
longer needed.
Rabbi Ziemba established a committee to provide Pesach supplies for the Ghetto
inhabitants. He was under constant surveillance by the authorities, and as such,
could not become personally involved with the Ghetto underground. However, when
money was needed to obtain ammunition, he was the first to donate, and added
personal blessings to this resistance
movement.

Death
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began soon before Pesach. While the battle raged around him, Rabbi Ziemba prepared himself for the coming holiday as if nothing was happening. In the evening, the fighting stopped and Rabbi Ziemba conducted the Seder as though the times were normal.
The next few days were spent in hideouts watching the ghetto being burned. The Nazis were methodically destroying the ghetto, house by house, in order to break the resistance. Among those burning were the houses around Kupiecka 7, including the building where Rabbi Ziemba was holed up.
With the air thick with smoke and nearly impossible to breathe, Rabbi Ziemba and the people with him decided to try to run across the street, past SS men manning machine guns, to the building where the "Volia Rav", Rabbi Ber, was hiding.
During a momentary lull in the shooting, when it seemed safe, Rabbi Ziemba's daughter Rosa managed to run across first and then motioned to the others with her arm. Her signal was misunderstood. Believing it to be safe, Rabbi Ziemba, holding his five year old grandson Yankele Ber by the hand, tried to make a run for dear life. Wild screams and gunfire ensued. Rabbi Ziemba fell to the floor; the others retreated under the ferocious assault.
The news of the Rabbi's death quickly spread to all neighboring hideouts. In spite of the great danger, a number of minyanim gathered. A Beth Din was set up, which decided to bury the Rabbi temporarily in a grave in the courtyard of Kupiecka 4. When the ghetto was finally liquidated, his entire immediate family was taken to Treblinka where they all perished.

R. Menachem Ziemba continued

He was world renowned as a torah scholar and master of Chassidic thought.He envisaged himself as a simple Chassid of the Rebbe of Ger. He grew up in Warsaw as a formidable scholar and Genius (GAON). He corresponded with the Rogatchover who had not a high tolerance for mediocirity. As he married at 18 the daughter of a wealthy local merchant, he was not bound down by financial worries and could study torah/talmud unhindered. His fame further spread and he attracted the attention of R Meir Simcha of Dvinsk . He authored more than 10,000 pages of torah novellae during this period. He then entered commual affairs at the request of his beloved Gerrer Rebbe.Between 1930 to 35, his father in law's store was forced to close due to the depression. Offerings of Rabbinic appointments were turned down by him at this time. This was the last massive gathering before the holocaust at Marienbad .

• In 1935 he, together with Rabbi Yaakov Myer Biderman, brother-in-law of the Gerrer Rebbe, and Rabbi Avraham Weinberg, was appointed to the Warsaw Rabbinate, becoming one of the foremost spokesmen for Orthodox Jewry in Poland quote




• His two active roles as halachic decisor and an active role in Agudas Yisroel.




• He was appointed to the Warsaw rabbinate, and was at the height of his fame at the 3rd Knessiah Gedolah at Marienbad

Rabbi Menachem Ziemba (1883–1943) (Hebrew: מנחם זמבה) was a
distinguished pre-World War II Rabbi, known
as a Talmudic
genius and prodigy.
He was gunned down by the Nazis in the Warsaw
Ghetto.
Contents[hide]
1 Biography
2 World
War II
3
Death
4 Postscript
5 Works
//

[edit]
Biography
Rabbi Ziemba was born in Praga, a suburb of Warsaw, in 1883. His father,
Elazar, died while Menachem was still a young boy and the orphan was brought up
by his grandfather Rabbi Avraham Ziemba. Rabbi Avraham had been a chassid of the Kotzker Rebbe and a
student of the Chiddushei Harim, and
was now a follower of the Sfas Emes of Gur.
Rabbi Ziemba
was brought up in the Gerrer chasidus by
his grandfather and remained a loyal chasid his entire life. Even years later
when he was world-renowned as a Torah scholar, Posek and master of Hasidic
thought, he still considered himself a simple Chasid of the rebbe of Ger. When he visited Ger,
he was called by his first name and refused to sit at the Rebbe's top table, an
honour reserved for visitors of note.
As Rabbi Ziemba grew up in Warsaw, he
gained a reputation as a formidable Talmid Chacham (scholar) and dazzling
genius. He maintained a unique correspondence with the Gaon of Rogatchov, a
fiery individual not known for his tolerance of mediocrity, nor tolerance of
younger students.
At the age of eighteen, Rabbi Ziemba married the daughter
of a wealthy local merchant. He was thus able to learn Torah unhindered for the
next twenty years, a time remembered by him as the happiest years of his life.
His fame spread further afield, attracting the attention of Rabbi Meir Simcha of
Dvinsk and others. He once confided that he authored more than 10,000 pages
of Torah novellae during this golden period.
When his father-in-law died,
Rabbi Ziemba found it necessary to help out in the former's store in order to
continue supporting his family. He rejected numerous offers to serve as rabbi in many towns
and cities, saying that he had more time to study while working than as a
communal rabbi.
However, at the request of his beloved Gerrer Rebbe,
Rabbi Ziemba entered communal affairs. He was appointed the representative of
Praga to the Kehilla Council in Warsaw.
Between 1930 and 1935, the world economic depression
affected Rabbi Ziemba. His store was forced to close. He was offered the
prestigious position of Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, but
turned it down. After the untimely death of Rabbi Meir Shapiro, Rabbi Ziemba
was offered the position as his successor as both Rabbi of Lublin and rosh
yeshiva of Yeshivas Chachmei
Lublin. For unknown reasons, this never came to pass.
In 1935 he,
together with Rabbi Yaakov Myer Biderman,
brother-in-law of the Gerrer Rebbe, and Rabbi Avraham Weinberg, was appointed to
the Warsaw Rabbinate, becoming one of the foremost spokesmen for Orthodox Jewry in Poland. Aside from
his newfound political prominence, Rabbi Ziemba became a Halachic decisor
of great importance, answering questions from around the world, as well as from
Poland.
Rabbi Ziemba also took an active role in the Agudas Yisroel at
an early stage. At its first Knessia Gedola (great gathering), he was not yet
forty when chosen to serve as honorary secretary in the Moetzes Gedolei
HaTorah. At the second Knessia Gedola, Rabbi Chaim Ozer
Grodzenski agreed to serve as chairman of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah only
if Rabbi Ziemba would continue in his position, while the forty-five year old
Rabbi Ziemba felt himself to be too young and sought to stay in the background.
At the third Knessiah Gedolah in 1937 in Marienbad, Austria, which played witness to
the last massive gathering of European Orthodoxy before the Holocaust, Rabbi
Ziemba was at the height of his fame. He spoke twice to the full assemblage and
each time was greeted with hushed silence and awe.

Rabbi Menachem Ziemba hero of the holocaust

The above portrait of the Rogatchover Rebbe pre WWII whose writings were smuggled out.

http://www.cross-currents.com/archives/2007/04/15/spiritual-and-physical-resistance-to-the-nazis/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Hasidic_rabbis_in_Europe

The review of Hidden in Thunder accentuates that in this dark period were displayed many types of heroism and acts of spiritual heroism were among the foremost acts displayed. Note the comment of R Yehoshua Moshe Aronson Note the speech quoted as the speech of Menachem Zemba's that the only way possible to sanctify G-d's name in the holocaust period unlike the expulsion of Spain was to take up arms, for the Nazis left them no other choice in the matter. Death in defiance was preferable to death in Surrender. I will continue with more of a bio on his life and writings and the circumstances offered him to escape the Warsaw ghetto which, with three other Rebbes, they refused and stuck by their fellow Jews and died in that Ghetto.

Finally, a treatment with some balance. The Jerusalem Post, just in time for Yom HaShoah, provides an
important review of the new translation of Hidden in Thunder: Perspectives
on Faith, Halachah and Leadership During the Holocaust by Esther Farbstein,
a haredi Holocaust scholar and educator who has been enormously important in
setting the course for contemporary Holocaust education in the haredi world.
Farbstein’s work, says the reviewer, focuses primarily on the acts of spiritual heroism – remaining steadfast in Torah
practice under the most difficult circumstances imaginable. Drawing from haredi
archives, however, she also shows that there was a more
nuanced approach to physical resistance than is acknowledged in some circles
today. While some Torah personalities denied any value to taking up arms
not to extend the possibility of living, but to defend Jewish honor or exact
revenge,

The Radzyner Rebbe, Rabbi Shmuel Shlomo Leiner, called on Jews to break
out of the ghettos, flee to the forests and take up arms. Rabbi Shlomo David
Yehoshua Weinberg, the Slonim Rebbe, allowed underground activists to use his
basement as an arms cache. Rabbi Yehoshua Moshe Aronson, who was held in the
Konim labor camp, supported a plan by the inmates to take revenge against German
soldiers.
“Let us at least defend Jewish honor and avenge our spilled
blood,” wrote Aronson. The plan was never carried out, however, and Aronson
expressed sorrow at having missed the opportunity for vengeance and rebellion.
I was happy to see that the reviewer cited several treatments of the famous speech of R. Menachem Zemba, one of the giants of the pre-war generation. As of late, some revisionists among us have labored to extirpate his view from the record.
“If today Jews were being forced into apostasy,” said Zemba, “and we could be saved by agreeing to it, as was done in Spain or after the decrees of [the First Crusade in] 1096, our death would be a kind of martyrdom. But today the only way of sanctifying God’s name is by taking up arms.”
Faced with the Nazi program of subjugation, humiliation and annihilation of the Jewish people, he supported the ghetto fighters’ choice to take up arms. Even if the uprising was suicidal, Zemba felt that death in defiance was preferable to death in surrender.

Aron Ralston pitting against the wilderness

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705296046/Ralston-says-accident-was-a-blessing-in-a-way.html?pg=3

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/sports/othersports/01ralston.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

This is the extended story with video. This NY Times article appeared on audible and caught my interest in a climber who set a goal alone in the lap of the wilderness ,oblivious to its dangers.He knew not the dangers of the wilderness and was in danger several times. His was an act of self-preservation for a happening that never should have occurred , and his survival has been hailed over this nation ass a tribute to courage and love. How foolishness and bravado can be so easily put in a secular vein and the causes of the initial folly be lost sight of so easily indicates possibly the perverted values of so many at this time. To make a commercial circus event out of this mishap in contesting his own grit against nature is so like the scenarios happening in the world and especially the US today. To redefine this event as sacrifice really perverts the meaning of hubris in setting out to pit himself against "earth" in the first place.How this conclusion could have been drawn is really an inversion of the meaning of the incident . Here are some further rough notes from the article that I have made.

Meaning of risk for fulfillment by self and not telling anyone
documented using digital camera
wilderness gave “me” a gift
adventure and wholeness questions of identity false and beguiling set of personal norms of man confronting the wilderness –they are secular norms of what once were spiritual values of being “tested in the wilderness, not setting goals to overcome it. Native Americans held a different spiritual view of blending with mother earth and being in oneness with it. Act of pride in putting oneself in opposition to nature for the sake of ego.

On April 26, 2003, without telling anyone his plans, Aron Lee Ralston set
out alone through Robbers Roost, a steep, treacherous, largely abandoned parcel
of southeastern Utah backcountry last bent to human will by Butch Cassidy and
the Wild Bunch, who had found its forbidding terrain favorable to hiding from
the law.

Five days later, after several unsuccessful attempts to dislodge an 800-pound boulder that was crushing his right hand, Ralston snapped first the radius and then the ulna of his forearm near the wrist, applied a makeshift tourniquet, sawed through the cartilage with a throwaway multitool, rappelled to the base of Blue John Canyon and hiked until he came upon a rescue helicopter.

To some, Ralston's story was an inspiration. His 368-page account, "Between a Rock and a Hard Place," rose to No. 3 on the New York Times best-seller list. Corporations paid him $15,000 to $37,000 for motivational speeches. Wilderness conservation groups deployed him to raise donations. Schools invited him to speak to children, who often asked to examine his prosthetic hand. Travelers recognized him at airports. Strangers sent him letters. A film version is in the works.
To others, though, his story was the cautionary tale of a heedless fool. By Ralston's own written account, he had nearly drowned, disturbed a bear and stumbled into an avalanche on earlier adventures. Failure to leave word of his whereabouts in Utah, ignoring one of the most basic rules of hiking, drew sharp rebukes.
To some, Ralston's story was an inspiration. His 368-page account, "Between a Rock and a Hard Place," rose to No. 3 on the New York Times best-seller list. Corporations paid him $15,000 to $37,000 for motivational speeches. Wilderness conservation groups deployed him to raise donations. Schools invited him to speak to children, who often asked to examine his prosthetic hand. Travelers recognized him at airports. Strangers sent him letters. A film version is in the works.
To others, though, his story was the cautionary tale of a heedless fool. By Ralston's own written account, he had nearly drowned, disturbed a bear and stumbled into an avalanche on earlier adventures. Failure to leave word of his whereabouts in Utah, ignoring one of the most basic rules of hiking, drew sharp rebukes.
"Aron Ralston has a death wish," one book reviewer concluded.

So went the early appearances for a public speaker whose presentation, as described in promotional materials from his handlers at the Harry Walker Agency, "redefines the understanding of sacrifice, goal-attaining and what is truly important in our lives."

St Germain continued return of the dark cycle message of the prophet Samuel

The words of the Prophet Samuel are to the chosen of the "I AM Race", the seed of which is in their hearts. What does it portend to say they have not fulfilled the wholeness of the law? Certain conclusions are drawn:

• some must become initiates of Sanat Kumara-"always there has been the requirement of the ransom?"Let the first fruits stand as the ensign and raise the banner of Christ-


• As on the last supper, let these internalize the word


• The laws of Christ and His teachings are n0t fully known today. We have not expanded our consciousness to his image and likeness, -There have always been the few who did so and they have had to shroud themselves in mystery or obscurity-or have been eclipsed or persecuted. GNOSTICS? CATHARS? Will there be a zealous undertaking for these lost teachings?


• The close initiates-these teachings have been revealed to them through the efforts of St Germain and others-The proof is the leading to successively higher consciousnesses unto the heart of the I AM consciousness. They become the "pure person of the Christ spirit."


• Note the last green phrase of this section of the posting.
  

http://www.greatdreams.com/masters/ascended-masters.htm

However, as the decades have passed, the rate of increase in the return of
mankind's karma has precipitated what is known as the Dark Cycle--the era of
Chaos and old Night whose signs are foretold in Revelation, even as the hoof
beats of the Four Horsemen can be heard throughout the land. Let us listen to
the prophet Samuel--dubbed Uncle Sam by his people--who has indeed begun to
sound his prophecy to the chosen. He has warned that the I AM Race--those who
have the seed of the name I AM THAT I AM within their hearts--"have not
hearkened unto the LORD, nor have they fulfilled the wholeness of the Law."
Therefore, the Master says:
Some among this people must
be and become direct initiates of Sanat Kumara, for always there has been the
requirement of the ransom. Let those who are the inner circle of the devotees,
those who are the first fruits who come and stand as the ensign of the people,
raise up the banner of Christ as the one whom they serve, the one who by his
very Communion promise at the Last Supper designated each and every son and
daughter of God for the internalization of the Word...

Unfortunately, and this word is mild, but it is unfortunate indeed that the laws
of Christ and his Teachings, so meticulously brought forth to the close
initiates, are not fully known today, having been taken even from the holy
people. Therefore, to obey Christ becomes the challenge of the hour--to find the
Person of that Christ, to find the Way and the Teachings.

You have received the lost Word and the lost Teachings of Jesus Christ through
our effort....As a result of this, you have been strengthened and protected in
that Word and Teaching. And some from among you have taken their leave at the
conclusion of their embodiment and gone on in the full resurrection with Jesus
Christ....Thus, the proof of the Teaching and the Path is that it leads one
successively to that higher and higher consciousness where unto the individual
is assumed into the very heart of the I AM Presence [becoming indeed the pure
Person of that Christ].
Today, as we see the cycles of
earth's returning karma reach a mounting crescendo wherein even the four sacred
freedoms are threatened, the Brotherhood has set aside a place in America's
Rocky Mountains for the pursuit of the Lost Teachings of Christ to their fullest
expression.

St Germain and the embodiments- The land of the Sunset Gate

St Germain the Ascended Master is known as the wonder man of Europe and captured the quintessence of the Alchemists' dream ,the transformation of consciousness echoed by the ancient Gnostics whose teachings were relegated to the pathos of heresy by the pathetic people who so relegated them,He would release the technology of the Aquarian age when nations disband the destructive uses of science and religion for man to unharness the unlimited physical and spiritual resources in the establishment of the Golden age, the age of the Messiah which man can bring on as a premature birth according to his deeds, or force its coming by his failures and deeds of darkness. He saw the future afar off in the land of the Sunset Gate, the United States, a second golden age referred to above , a golden age of learning, "not like our own". He initiated the society of Free Masons which fired up the key signers of the Declaration of Independence. Fifty three of the fifty six members were enrolled in the Masonic Order.He called for the signing of the Declaration and anointed Washington as first President. He approached the Lords of Karma to plead for the lightbearers of all centuries. The original keepers of the Flame who came with Sanat Kumara and children of God who have been evolving throughout all ages.

Two of his well-known embodiments were Christopher Columbus and Merlin the
magician, a spiritual adept who has unfortunately been mythologized. In a series
of recent embodiments from the prophet Samuel to Francis Bacon, Saint Germain
was the all-pervasive mind, laying the empirical foundation for an age of
enlightenment, pushing back the barriers of limitation in the physical and
spiritual sciences. As Roger Bacon he directed and inspired devotees of the
sacred science, then in his embodiment as Saint Germain, the Wonderman of
Europe, he outpictured the quintessence of the alchemists’ dream for all to see.
The Ascended Master Saint Germain teaches that the highest alchemy is the
transformation of one’s human consciousness into the divinity of the Higher
Self. He stands ready to assist all souls in this endeavor. He has also said he
would release the technology of the Aquarian age when the nations shall have put
behind them the destructive uses of science and religion to accept the challenge
which lies at the heart of both, which is for man to enter his heart and the
nucleus of the atom and to harness from both the unlimited spiritual and
physical resources to establish the golden age.
His etheric retreats are
located over Transylvania in Romania and Table Mountain in Wyoming.
He wrote
in cipher, "I trusteth all to the future and a land that is very far towards the
sunset gate....I keep the future ever in my plan, looking for my reward, not to
my times and countrymen, but to a people very far off, and an age not like our
own, but a second golden age of learning." Having discovered the continent and
encouraged its colonization, he must also insure a proper foundation for the new
nation. Saint Germain stood by George Washington throughout the Revolution and
during the winter at Valley Forge. His past efforts in initiating the society of
Freemasons had enfired many of the key figures of the Revolution. General
Washington, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin
and as many as fifty-three out of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of
Independence were all members of the Masonic order, whose principles had guided
them in founding the new nation. Further, Saint Germain called for the signing
of the Declaration of Independence, directed the writing of the Constitution and
anointed Washington first President of the United States. America was secured as
the land of opportunity and Saint Germain devoted himself to the raising of the
consciousness of her people. In the twentieth century, the Master went before
the Lords of Karma to plead the cause of freedom for and on behalf of the
original 576 he has sponsored, expanding that circle to include the Lightbearers
of all centuries--the original Keepers of the Flame who came with Sanat Kumara
as well as the children of God who had been evolving unto the spiritual gifts
and graces through earth's numerous ages