I know a similar story of urban Jews in Warsaw who successfully hid out from the Nazis in another building for the whole war... thanks to a Polish prostitute who brought them food, etc.

She openly told them that she didn't like Jews, but she knew right from wrong and rounding up civilians to kill them was wrong.

Dear Robert,
(Robert, I posted this the other day but the post to which it's a response was already at that tine three-five days old so I don't know if you saw it.)

A few thoughts about the "obamanable", utterly disgusting exchange of one mass murderer for his 270 victims: first off, we mustn't forget that the number of victims goes well beyond the dreadful body count and includes parents, spouses, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends, acquaintances ... of the murder victims. Our Sages teach that to save one life is equivalent to saving an entire world. How many thousands of worlds were destroyed by this one murderer who happens to be, the claim is made, terminallt ill with cancer? Whether or not he is, frankly, is irrelevant although I'd be interested in knowing if his diagnosis can be or was independently confirmed, and I do not mean by the World Health Organization! Who among us really believes this story of "compassionate concern" by the UK Prime Minister? So what's the real story, Mr. Prime Minister? I'm sure you'd be welcome to offer an explanation on the "Savage Nation" radio show, but you're a busy man. I understand. Meanwhile, Mr. Churchill, the sun has indeed set on the British Empire where the arithmetic of human affairs now posits that 1 mass murderer + or - cancer > 270 victims + hundreds of people who knew and loved them.

My God, what a world this!

Alan D. Busch
www.authorsden.com/alandbusch1

Incredible story with an even better ending!

The real horror of evil is that too many people are unwilling to confront it, even when it is weak and easy to stop in its tracks.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

- Edmund Burke (allegedly)

It sounds trite but we cannot recognize goodness without evil. I have often wondered has evil grown in mankind? Certainly one can find evil back to Cain and Abel.

And the worst evil one can do is believing that G*d sanctions the deed.

This story gave me the chills. It is true that the noblest among us, think nothing of their nobility. They think themselves the most ordinary of people.

I almost didn't read this.

Sometimes, when I hear the rage in you, I thank G-d that you have Karen to keep you from immolating -- and I turn away. Because "evil is seductive." And justified rage is seductive, too.

But this time, something kept me reading. I refuse to click on the links, because I don't need my anger -- which I keep in a well-barred cage -- to be fueled. But I read.

Rebbetzin Bracha Goldberger gave me a great compliment once. "You know when to hate, Ruth." I try not to stroke or stoke the beast. But I do know when to hate.

I also know when to love. And when to appreciate.

This simple Polish woman is so holy that she sets my world on its side.

I have watched a lot of Jewish boys grow up with Torah. That's what I have devoted myself to for more than 20 years.

Our goal is to bring up Jewish youth with the Torah values of compassion, generosity, a humility bordering on busha (embarrassment). Sometimes it happens easily. But sometimes, these character traits take a little time to develop.

We are psychically challenged when we meet Gentiles or Torah-free Jews with moral clarity and sweetness, such as your friend's father-in-law's savior possessed, may she rest in sweet, holy peace.

How do they get it? Why is it so hard for us???

(I did not miss the sweetness of her parents-in-law. They are giants! But I expect this of us. We have the Torah. If not on our shelves, in our bones.)

How DO they get it???

Just an eternal question. Thanks for listening.

Rutimizrachi,

Don't forget we Gentiles also have (and read, and love) the Torah. In my denomination we teach even the infants--I learned about David before I knew about George Washington.

What I struggle with is atheists. Where do THEY get a moral compass? What is their foundation?

Another great post, Robert. Also, I'm praying that those wildfires burn themselves out soon; that view from your house is frightening.

Dr. Carol - I have always believed that given the physical evidence, it takes **a lot** of faith to be an atheist.

Someone once said that an atheist doesn't so much deny God as to be at war with Him.

As humans we are endowed with free will but fortunately the default setting for most is good. Evil is easy. How much easier was it for the killers on 9-11 to steer those planes into the WTC than to stay in the ME and work to make a better life for their neighbors? More than 3,000 died that day but how many muslims in Iran or Egypt have a better life because of their evil? None!

Because I believe in the essential goodness in most people I fear not if the government does not provide for our needs. This essential goodness will not allow people to starve or die in the streets absent a government mandate. When the government steps in to solve problems, the demand goes up, the costs go up and eventually the well will be drained.

No government can create goodness in its citizens nor can it completely eradicate it as shown by the Polish woman. If only there were more like her in D.C. than what we have now.

Robert, I believe you're right. As I see it, human beings have free choice -- and evil is a choice, not something imposed by circumstances.

Everyone:

Thanks so much for all your articulate and thought-provoking comments. I fear that the current Obama administration—dangerously naive doctrinaire leftists—is not up to the challenge of recognizing and dealing with the radical Islamist evil that crouches at civilization's door. They seem more inclined to make war on the CIA and the previous administration.

She never learned English?

That's can't be true, but there was some reason she may not have wanted to speak it. The trouble with great righteous deeds can be -- where's the next act?

Your friends parents must have had some great insight into that. They let her recuperate for forty years. Forty years to internalize the awesomeness of one's own soul, when in that time it glowed like the sun.

amazing story! Thanks for sharing.

What I struggle with is atheists. Where do THEY get a moral compass? What is their foundation?

Some of us atheists/agnostics were raised in a Judaeo-Christian society with Judeao-Christian morals and have decided that such an upbringing was fundamentally sound.

Robert, you have hit the nail on the head.

I just finished reading "All But My Life" by Gerda Weismann Klein, a Jewish Polish holocaust survivor. A beautiful story.

She wrote that she wondered why the Jews were just letting themselves be rounded up and marched off - separated from their family members - with absolutely no resistance.

She concluded that it was because they believed in the goodness of mankind.

Evil exists. It is demonstrated over and over again.

Never again. I hope every Jewish person in this world, and every Gentile ... never forgets. Never.

Thank you for this thoughtful post, and Paco for linking you.
I'm unsure about the mystery of goodness.
Create something. Software if you care to write it, fiction if not.
The love of the potter for the clay is far less than mysterious.

The wisdom expressed herein is poignant almost to the point of being overwhelming.

Thank you to Paco for linking such a wonderful site, to all that post here, and mostly to the Robert for creating it. Words are so inadequate when attempting to express the deepest condolences for your loss. Thank you for dealing with such a devastatingly sad event by creating this forum. G*d bless!

Wow. People like that never cease to amaze me.

When I teach my kids about Hevron in 1929, the main lesson is that the Jews refused to believe that the Arabs who were their neighbors and, they believed, their friends, would harm them. When the Arabs rioted, the Jews had almost nothing to protect them when those they trusted started butchering and slaughtering the Jewish community of Hevron.

Yet, here too, there were a few righteous Arabs who risked their lives to save their Jewish neighbors. There are stories, and these families deserve to be honored by us. Unfortunately, that honor will probably never come, because it would mean admitting the beastly nature of the vast majority of Arabs in Hevron.

But it's probably all for the best. If Israel ever did recognize their contribution, these families would be persectuted by their peers and Israel would probably not get involved....

Oh, one more thing

BVW doubts that it can be true that she "never learned English" but many older immigrants never learn the language of their adopted country.

My great grandmother never spoke English, though she lived in the US for many year. And I know a woman who moved to Israel from Australia and never learned Hebrew, though she lived on a kibbutz with almost no other Anglos for around 60 years.

Some people just do not learn languages easily....

A wonderful and insightful posting. Thank you.

Quoted from and linked to at:
http://www.thecampofthesaints.com/2009.08.30_arch.html#1251987700703

I maintain that it is much harder to do good than it is to do evil. The world is full of potentials that are neutral by nature. And they can be put in the service of either good or evil. The Free Will we have been granted by G-d is the test of our souls and we must be ever guarding against the easiness of laziness.

My paternal grandfather, Rabbi Shmuel Avrech, born in Poland, lived in America for over 75 years and he only spoke Yiddish. He too knew no English.