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Correspondence

July 1987

Exchange with Anonymous Correspondent on "The Face of God" (1987)

Reflections on the Shoah Biographical Material

1. Anonymous to R. Lamm

1. Anonymous to R. Lamm (Date Unknown)

1. Anonymous to R. Lamm (None)

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Exchange about R. Jakobovits's Lecture on "Religious Responses to the Holocaust" (1987)

Dear Secretary: Dr. Lamm asks to be remembered to Rabbi and Mrs. Jakobovits. He very much enjoyed meeting with them in Jerusalem, and he and Mrs. Lamm send their best wishes for a happy and joyous Hanukkah. Rabbi Lamm has one request: While they were together in Israel, Rabbi Jakobovits showed him the copy of an address he gave on the Holocaust. Somehow, he has misplaced that copy, and would be grateful to Sir Immanuel were he to send him another copy of the same address.Thank you in advance.Cordially yours,Ida D. SchwartzSecretaryCIT Whee500 West 185th Street, New York, N.Y. 10033(212) 960-528
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Exchange with Tamar Warburg about "The Face of God" and Theodicy (2002)

Dear Zeida, I am writing to you in a frenzy of excitement which has resulted from your lecture entitled “The Force of God’s Judgment in the Holocaust.” The lecture has definitely triggered off serious questions, the questions that I, just like everyone else, have regarding frankfurt vrs tzur, that since possible in Jewish history which must fall under the category of literal punishment for sins the Jews have involved in since time back. Reading this lecture was the most thrilling intellectual experience I have been involved in since I came back to Israel. I probably haven’t yet marked the response in the correct probable books, I am putting it down under the title “we ask the questions” “he just don’t understand Hashem.” Here my controversy is sparked within me. All the questions asked however I would like an answer for the greatest answer is, could this be answered if we are the Jewish people so involved in questioning all the time and not getting any answer to it and not getting settled within ourselves, if this still is the situation? We might continue to rebel – still never being able to get back to your point that the answer will not come expected. The involvement in questions is always a beautiful experience but involvement in questions that never get answered is depressing. To my point – all that we can accomplish nothing. It seems as though this stage of Jewish history has no meaning and nothing that stems from it will give us any objective base upon which to stand. You are not answered. You only see that you have a special job as a Jew – we see that. What then can be accomplished if you are not answered? We can’t believe that in a perpetual involvement in questions and never arriving at any answer is good for us. We must have some kind of answer or at least something to believe in. We can’t be satisfied that Hashem has special ways. We know that! But what does it mean for us to know this and for you to tell us this, which is impossible to find some signif…
Hidden Face of God Biographical Material

Correspondence

Letter to Chaim Potok about "The Face of God" (1992)

Dear Chaim, It was a pleasure getting to know you and your wife in Beijing. It would be good to see you each other – even in America! I enclose the article I mentioned to you. This appeared before the “mathematics professor” was popularized, and hence is not mentioned. However, the analogous idea is central to my thesis, namely, that the very meaninglessness of the שואה is its meaning – the conceptual measurement of the morally immeasurable, as it were.
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