In Israel and in the rest of the world, there is a whole generation of atheistic Jews who were born to Orthodox parents. These Jews are the Ashkenazi (European) Jews who went through the Holocaust. Their parents and relatives were traditionally religious (as the Jewish community had been for centuries).

Although some Western European Jews in the early 20th century had become "modern" and left religion behind, most Jews--especially those in Eastern Europe and Russia--were very Orthodox. They followed the religion of their fathers as it had been practiced for centuries. Six million Jews, most of whom were religious, were destroyed by Hitler. Consequently, the vast majority of survivors became atheists--a few might prefer the term agnostic. Their reasoning: If a God such as described in the Bible exists, He would never have let the Holocaust occur. If this God chose Israel as His own peculiar treasure, how could He have allowed a disaster of such unimaginable proportions to happen? Their conclusion: there is no God.

To make matters worse, the Nazis--professing Catholics and Protestants--were the killers who carried out the atrocities.

The Jews conclude that Yeshua could never be the Messiah, since He was the head of a religion whose people massacred the people of the Book. Some of them reason that God can't have a son if He Himself doesn't exist. In their eyes, Yeshua has proved He is a false Messiah because of what His followers have done to the Jews for the last 1900 years.

The Scriptures clearly teach that the people of Israel are God's chosen people. Why, then, did He allow the Holocaust to occur?

For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth (Deut. 7:6).

How then could God allow a third of Israel to be exterminated? The answer lies in understanding the requirements and conditions of the covenants God made with Israel.

The covenant God made with Abraham and his seed promises that God will be a God to the children of Abraham forever. And that He will prosper and bless this nation and give Israel her own land (Gen. 12:1-3, 15:18, 17:7). Except for the ordinance of circumcision, this is an unconditional covenant. In other words, the only requirement for a natural son of Abraham (a physical Jew) to be a beneficiary of this covenant is circumcision (Gen. 17:10-14). It is because of this everlasting covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel) that the Jewish people exist today (Psa. 105:8-11). This covenant can never be annulled (Gal. 3:17).

But some 400 years after God made the covenant with Abraham, He made a second covenant with Israel through His servant Moses. This covenant, unlike the Abrahamic covenant, was very conditional. The conditions are found in Deuteronomy 28.

Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the Lord your God (Deut. 28:1-2).

In summary, if Israel would obey the commands of God given through Moses, she would be the greatest of all nations and superabundantly blessed by God.

However, there was a second condition to the Law of Moses:

But it shall come about, if you will not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I charge you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you (Deut. 28:15).

The rest of this chapter details the kind of curses that will come upon Israel if she does not keep the Mosaic Covenant.

Then the Lord will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses...

And it shall come about that as the Lord delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the Lord will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you shall be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it.

Moreover, the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known.

And among those nations you shall find no rest, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul.

So your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you shall be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life (Deut. 28:59, 63-66).

These verses, then, explain the history of Israel for the last 2500 years. Israel has seen two dispersions, the destruction of her Temple twice, and genocide to her people in many countries--the worst disaster being the destruction wreaked by the Nazis, whose ultimate plan involved taking over the world and exterminating every Jew on the planet.

The majority of the Jews who died in the Holocaust were pious and observant of the Law. However, regardless of how pious and observant a person is, every one of us has broken God's Torah. Many Scripture passages witness to that. King David said,

The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God.

They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one" (Psa. 14:2-3).

We repeat the words of Isaiah:

For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment" (Isa. 64:6).

All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way...(Isa. 53:6).

Even with the explicit language of Moses and the prophets, however, the religious leaders of Israel have not seen the association between the suffering of Israel and her breaking the Torah (Law of Moses).

So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you (Deut. 28:45).

When Daniel the prophet asked God to return His people to the land of their fathers, he acknowledged that they were scattered and suffering because they transgressed the Torah.

So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.

And I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, "Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments.

"We have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly, and rebelled, even turning aside from Thy commandments and ordinances...

"Nor have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His teachings which He set before us through His servants the prophets.

"Indeed all Israel has transgressed Thy law and turned aside, not obeying Thy voice; so the curse has been poured out on us along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against Him...

"As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us; yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Thy truth" (Dan. 9:3-5, 10-11, 13).

Indeed Daniel was a righteous man; but he, too, had to confess his sins. If all Israel transgressed the Torah, why then did God not let Israel be completely destroyed? In the New Testament, Paul explained why Israel still exists:

...The Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise.

For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise (Gal. 3:17-18).

It is because of the promise God gave Abraham that Israel is still here and will yet fulfill God's plan for her as His chosen people. This is explained by Ezekiel. He says that first Israel will be punished for breaking the (Mosaic) covenant.

For thus says the Lord God, "I will also do with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath by breaking the covenant" (Ezek. 16:59).

But Ezekiel reveals that because of the earlier Abrahamic covenant, God will establish yet a third covenant.

Nevertheless, I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you (Ezek. 16:60).

Logically, this New Covenant would have to provide for Israel's release from the curses of the Mosaic Covenant in order that the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant may be fully implemented.

For further information or to receive I Became as a Jew, you may call 1.800.856.7060. Or, email your request to maoz@onramp.net.

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