On January 18, 1943, the Germans began their second deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto, which led to the first instance of armed resistance. The deportation was halted within a few days; due to their brave efforts, 3,000 of the 8,000 Jews whom the Nazis intended to deport at that time were saved. The Nazis retreated, only to return three months later, at which time the Warsaw uprising started in earnest.
Link: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
R. Chaim Kapusi was one of the leading sages of Egypt in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. He passed away at the age of ninety, on 12 Shevat in the year 5391 from Creation (1631).
It is related that R. Chaim once became blind, and the townsfolk spread rumors attributing his condition to bribery, as the verse states, “Bribery blinds the eyes of the wise.” Hearing this, R. Chaim got up before the entire congregation and announced: “If it is true that I have accepted bribery, may my eyes retain their sightlessness. But if it is not true, may my vision be restored!” Miraculously, his vision returned immediately, and he proceeded to identify the congregants by name (Shem Hagedolim).
Link: Don’t Get Bribed!
The sages describe the Torah as the wisdom by which the world was made. But that does not capture its essence. It is far beyond that. Torah is the wisdom by which the world is healed.
To heal a world, you must stand entirely beyond it. You must enter into the very essence of its Creator and sense what He wanted from this world to begin with. In the story of creation, you will find whispers of an unfathomable Author. In its healing, you will discover the Author Himself.
That is why Torah was initially given to survivors, to people who had suffered lives marked by trauma, yanked out of the darkest pits of human existence at the last possible moment. To people who had to be told not to steal, not to murder, not to covet that which belongs to someone else.
Because it is when Torah reaches you at your lowest point and pulls you out of there that you see its very essence and deepest power.
And it is when you have been to the rock bottom of human experience and back that you have the power to grasp the Torah at its essential core. To sense the Author within the command.