Spirit and StoryWelcome to Spirit and Story, where you can find the latest thoughts and reflections by CLAL faculty and associates on the contours of our contemporary spiritual journeys. To access the CLAL Spirit and Story Archive, click here.
We commonly round numbers, especially large ones.
Anything more offers detail that is superfluous. Who would desire to know
the price of a car to its last dollar? The population of a city to its last
person? The length of an airplane flight to its last minute? Roundness
mercifully spares us meaningless details. Six million is a rounded number. It is the symbol that designates the Jewish lives lost
during the Holocaust. Its very roundness implies a loss of unimportant
detail. But the smallest possible unit counted by this symbol is a human
life, a detail that can never be without meaning, a detail that, in fact,
contains all meaning for anyone conscious enough to reflect upon it. Six million is a symbol that does not fully honor those
Jews who perished under Nazi decree. Its roundness is not merciful. There is a number,
however, which retains the magnitude of six million, but adds detail. That
number is six million and one. Six million and one Jews died in the Holocaust. Six million and one is a symbol of inherent contrast
and tension, sharpening its power to awaken our consciousness. The greatest
and the smallest are contained in it, each informing the other. The one
informs the six million, its very presence highlighting that six million is
actually one plus one plus one…six million times, stretched out in an
endless row of numbers. It heightens our awareness of the infinite worth of
each life lost. And the six million informs the one. Every person was
executed by virtue of belonging to a greater whole, the Jewish people. The
one is entwined with the six million and cannot be separated. Despite the unimaginable death it designates, six
million and one has the potential to inspire, to affirm Jewish life and its
mission. Six million and one echoes our revered and ancient declaration of
faith, the Shema. Its very utterance connects us to the Divine, whose
essence can never be extinguished. Shema Israel, Adonai
Elohainu, Adonai echad Sesh million ve echad …Adonai echad…ve echad ...echad It recalls our beloved and martyred Rabbi Akiva, who
perished in his own holocaust. As flames consumed his flesh, he declared
the Shema, emphasizing its final word, ehcad, with his last breath. The physical characteristics of the new symbol also
have the power to affirm living. Six million and one ends with a numeral
that is perfectly upright, firmly grounded as it ascends upward. A human
body resembling this shape connotes strength and power, unbowed and
triumphant as it strives to bring divinity to earth. Six million, however,
ends with a zero, best represented in human form by the fetal position, a
state of abject defeat, depletion and surrender. Out of the ashes of our brothers and sisters, we arise
resolute in our mission to redeem each of their deaths by affirming the
sanctity of all life and creation. Six million and one
Jews died in the Holocaust. Many, many more will survive to honor them. |
Copyright c. 2002, CLAL - The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.