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Caption transcript for Beauty For Ashes: “The Heart” (5/9)

• 00:01 On today's program of Zola Levitt Presents
• 00:04 we'll take you again to Auschwitz
• 00:06 and you'll see the depths of depravity.
• 00:08 We'll also take you to Israel
• 00:11 and the heights of humanity.
• 00:13 Stay with us.
• 00:36 ISAIAH 61:3 "I will console those who mourn in Zion,"
• 00:40 ISAIAH 61:3 "to give them beauty for ashes,"
• 00:44 ISAIAH 61:3 "the oil of joy for mourning,"
• 00:48 ISAIAH 61:3 "the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,"
• 00:52 ISAIAH 61:3 "that they might be called oaks of righteousness,"
• 00:55 ISAIAH 61:3 "the planting of Adonai, that He may be glorified."
• 01:05 Shalom, Havarim
• 01:06 Welcome Friends I'm Myles Weiss.
• 01:08 And I'm Katharine Weiss.
• 01:09 Welcome to our series Beauty for Ashes.
• 01:12 In this series we take you to
• 01:14 the horror of the Holocaust.
• 01:16 And then, we also show you
• 01:17 the hope, which is Israel.
• 01:19 It is so applicable that they even have
• 01:22 their national anthem is Hatikva , "The Hope".
• 01:25 Yes, a question that has to come to mind
• 01:28 and certainly came to the minds of
• 01:30 those that went through this is
• 01:31 Where was God?
• 01:33 Were we abandoned?
• 01:34 Did God forget us?
• 01:35 Did He forsake us?
• 01:36 And that was a natural question
• 01:38 that many people asked and still
• 01:40 ask about that time period.
• 01:42 So in this program that you're about to see,
• 01:45 this was one of the most difficult ones that we had to do.
• 01:47 The entire series was hard to do at Auschwitz Birkenau.
• 01:51 But in this one I had to go into the crematorium
• 01:55 in order to speak to you from the place
• 01:58 that remains standing where the actual crematorium stood
• 02:02 and where the bodies were burned.
• 02:05 It was the hardest thing I have done in my ministry life.
• 02:08 And we feel obligated to bring you this story.
• 02:12 We need to document this,
• 02:14 as the Holocaust generation is passing from the scene
• 02:17 and also show how God's redemption brings beauty for ashes
• 02:23 as the nation of Israel, the people of Israel
• 02:26 are restored to our Land and the beauty that is Israel.
• 02:30 So lets go now to Auschwitz.
• 03:13 I am coming to you out of
• 03:14 respect for my ancestors
• 03:17 and an obligation to you as our viewers.
• 03:21 I feel supremely unqualified to stand here as
• 03:25 somebody who has had a comfortable life.
• 03:29 But I am in Crematorium 1 in Auschwitz
• 03:33 Holocaust deniers today are either
• 03:35 deniers or minimizers.
• 03:37 Some say it never happened
• 03:39 which is absurd of course.
• 03:40 Some say, Oh, well there couldn't have been
• 03:42 gas chambers or crematoriums,
• 03:43 there's no such thing.
• 03:45 I'm standing in the first one.
• 03:48 This was an operation mostly from 1941 to 1943,
• 03:53 initially Soviet prisoners, Polish prisoners,
• 03:56 political prisoners so-called who had committed no crimes in general,
• 04:02 were exterminated and then their bodies
• 04:05 were brought in on this conveyor belt.
• 04:08 And then the bodies, the corpses would be shoved
• 04:11 through these areas into these ovens burned to ash.
• 04:18 And then the ash would be distributed elsewhere.
• 04:23 Its unfathomable.
• 04:27 Its very hard to be here.
• 04:33 The eminent Jewish philosopher
• 04:35 Emil Fackenheim
• 04:37 wrote a wonderful book
• 04:38 called "To Mend The World"
• 04:40 trying to make sense out of this era.
• 04:43 One of the things he said was,
• 04:44 "Yes, there were political prisoners."
• 04:46 "Yes, it was war."
• 04:47 "Yes, all of that is true."
• 04:49 "But it was only the Jewish people"
• 04:51 "whose crime was having Jewish blood."
• 04:54 And there are of course trumped up
• 04:56 charges against Jews as well to get them here.
• 04:58 But you cannot overlook the systematic
• 05:01 extermination of 6 million Jewish people
• 05:04 without recognizing that it was an operation
• 05:08 scientifically put together by the
• 05:10 "civilized country", of Germany.
• 05:13 And in fact, they could come here,
• 05:16 do this work all day
• 05:18 and then go home and listen to the greatest music of the world,
• 05:22 Beethoven, Bach, and read Goethe and Schiller.
• 05:26 And the dichotomy cannot be explained in any other way
• 05:31 but by looking at it spiritually, ultimately
• 05:34 and seeing that we live in a world with good and evil.
• 05:59 Sometimes I look at these events,
• 06:01 the mentality of the German people at the time and
• 06:04 as a therapist I try to look at it psychologically
• 06:08 but psychology cannot explain the massive
• 06:12 levels of compartmentalization and denial.
• 06:15 You think about what Yeshua said in Matthew 7:5,
• 06:18 To take the beam out of your own eye
• 06:20 before you try to take the speck
• 06:22 out of someone else's eye.
• 06:23 And there's this -
• 06:25 And woe to those
• 06:26 who call good "evil"
• 06:27 and evil "good."
• 06:28 Isaiah 5:20
• 06:29 that we have this capacity as humans to be in just a huge
• 06:35 amount of denial about the evil that we are participating in.
• 06:39 Myles, that's so true.
• 06:40 We'll be back after this.
• 06:44 We hope you're enjoying our series
• 06:46 Beauty for Ashes
• 06:47 as we contrast the horrors of the Holocaust
• 06:50 with the miracle of modern Israel.
• 06:53 Get this series for yourself
• 06:54 or to share with friends.
• 06:56 Just call us at 1-800-WONDERS
• 06:59 or go to levitt.com
• 07:01 and ask for the DVD series
• 07:03 "Beauty for Ashes"
• 07:07 Hi, you know, a lot of things are going on
• 07:09 in the world today,
• 07:10 and especially in Israel.
• 07:12 And this news needs to be told
• 07:14 through this lens.
• 07:16 That's what we do here at Zola Levitt Presents.
• 07:19 And we're only able to do it because of
• 07:21 your generous donations.
• 07:23 And we just wanted to remind you
• 07:25 please keep giving as you are able.
• 07:28 And we will keep doing what we do as well.
• 07:30 Thank you so much.
• 07:34 This ministry has been one of the earliest proponents
• 07:37 of teaching the Jewish roots of the Christian faith.
• 07:40 They've been doing it since the 1970's.
• 07:42 And we're really involved with
• 07:43 ministries throughout Israel,
• 07:45 life-giving ministries,
• 07:46 social work ministries.
• 07:48 We're really involved in helping to see
• 07:50 this work come to pass
• 07:52 that God Himself has begun,
• 07:54 which is the restoration of the Land of Israel,
• 07:57 the Jewish people,
• 07:58 and the grafting in of all those who believe.
• 08:01 Right, right.
• 08:02 Well we know that
• 08:02 you watch this program
• 08:04 because that's your heart too,
• 08:05 that you love Israel,
• 08:06 you love supporting Israel.
• 08:08 And we want to thank you
• 08:09 for partnering with us.
• 08:10 Let's go now to hear Myles
• 08:12 at the Museum in Israel.
• 08:35 We're here at the Israel Museum.
• 08:38 At the risk of sounding like
• 08:40 Adam Sandler singing the Hanukkah song.
• 08:42 The fact is that Jewish people have been at the
• 08:45 forefront of every kind of art form
• 08:48 since the beginning of time.
• 08:50 And Israel is one of the most prolific
• 08:53 places from which art generates.
• 08:56 Think about the writers that you've read over the years,
• 09:00 The science fiction writer.
• 09:05 Talking about Hebrew culture
• 09:07 and Jewish culture
• 09:08 in the Old Country in Europe.
• 09:10 What about some popular musicians?
• 09:12 (aka) Robert Zimmerman
• 09:17 All Jewish people.
• 09:19 All related to this restoration
• 09:21 and this release of beauty.
• 09:23 This release of power.
• 09:25 The release of art that comes
• 09:27 through the Jewish people all over the world.
• 09:29 Fantastic writers of Broadway Shows
• 09:34 and Directors like Leonard Bernstein,
• 09:36 "West Side Story"
• 09:38 And all the actors that you've seen,
• 09:40 many of whom you
• 09:42 don't even realize are Jewish people.
• 09:43 The are " lantzmen ",
• 09:44 they are "part of the family"
• 09:51 And throughout every era of life
• 09:54 every part of life this creativity,
• 09:56 this desire to be part of Tikkun Olam
• 09:59 of making the world a better place
• 10:01 a more beautiful place,
• 10:03 a more restored place
• 10:05 of giving something back,
• 10:07 of restoring that which has been broken
• 10:09 I believe by the fall of man as we see in Genesis
• 10:12 but also over the years as
• 10:14 people drift further and further from God.
• 10:17 And now throughout history,
• 10:19 throughout the world
• 10:21 people coming back to and bringing forth
• 10:24 creativity in every sphere of life.
• 10:26 This is a visual arts center.
• 10:29 But the arts of all kind have been
• 10:32 connected to the Jewish people forever.
• 10:35 Not to mention the intellectual contributions of
• 10:41 everyone from the least to the greatest.
• 10:44 Albert Einstein, one of the
• 10:46 greatest thinkers of all time.
• 10:48 Part of this restoration,
• 10:50 part of the desire of the
• 10:52 human mind to reach for that which is
• 10:54 coming down from heaven and touching the human spirit.
• 10:59 So here we are at the Israel Museum.
• 11:02 A good place to speak about the contribution of
• 11:05 Jewish people to the arts, to literature,
• 11:08 to sports, to every sphere of life as we
• 11:11 participate in making the world a better place.
• 11:41 It's important to remember
• 11:42 that even though our story is
• 11:45 Out of the Ashes,
• 11:46 out of the horror of the Holocaust,
• 11:48 the promise of love,
• 11:50 the promise of Abraham's children
• 11:52 being a blessing
• 11:53 to the entire earth
• 11:55 goes way back 4,000 years
• 11:56 to Genesis 12:1-3
• 11:58 where the promise is
• 12:00 that God would bless
• 12:01 those who bless the children of Abraham,
• 12:03 curse those who curse the children of Abraham.
• 12:05 That's why cultures have
• 12:07 disappeared from the earth
• 12:08 based on whether they
• 12:10 loved or hated Abraham and his sons.
• 12:13 And now we see the power of love in
• 12:17 the arts, in the incredible
• 12:19 manifestation of beauty that
• 12:21 is modern Israel.
• 12:23 Yeah, we are here in the Israel Museum.
• 12:25 It's also called "The Shrine of the Book".
• 12:27 The copy of the Dead Sea Scrolls are kept here.
• 12:31 And when you come here you can come and see them.
• 12:33 They're amazing.
• 12:35 And it's the restoration that we're talking about.
• 12:37 It's out of the ashes to life.
• 12:39 It's what Ezekiel prophesied.
• 12:42 He prophesied that the dead bones would come back to life.
• 12:46 What is a dry bone?
• 12:47 It's something without marrow.
• 12:49 It's something without blood.
• 12:51 But God has brought the Jewish people back,
• 12:53 He has breathed his Life on them,
• 12:55 He has called them in to His Way, His Life.
• 12:58 And He has given them the ability to love beyond hate.
• 13:03 Hate is such a diminishing degree of what people have.
• 13:09 When you love you expand you grow, you multiply.
• 13:13 You know when I think about the Israeli art
• 13:15 I think about that it is always focused on family,
• 13:18 and on faith, on future.
• 13:21 And it's focused on things that are above
• 13:23 and it's focused on things that bring joy.
• 13:25 It's so amazing, there's so many people -
• 13:27 Yerushalayim is the painting of two Jerusalems,
• 13:31 one coming down and the Jerusalem that is here.
• 13:34 It's actually a prophetic painting.
• 13:36 And there's so many,
• 13:38 there's the pomegranate that speaks of the
• 13:40 quintessential fruit of the Jewish people,
• 13:43 of they wish you would have a fruitful and a blessed New Year.
• 13:47 There's so many beautiful things Myles.
• 13:49 One of my favorite painters
• 13:51 is Marc Chagall,
• 13:52 a hero of the early 20th century.
• 13:54 His paintings have mystical
• 13:57 pictures within them
• 13:59 of the connection between the Jewish people and Yeshua,
• 14:03 the Jewish people and the history of this Land,
• 14:06 a very mystical and beautiful sense of art.
• 14:09 His stained glassed windows are in the hospital are here
• 14:13 and this incredible tapestry of his
• 14:15 is in the Knesset.
• 14:16 It's enormous.
• 14:18 One of my favorite artists of all time.
• 14:20 You know there's something very interesting
• 14:21 about the word "love".
• 14:23 In English it's hard to understand what people mean
• 14:25 when they say they love a doughnut
• 14:26 as much as they love a person.
• 14:28 But in Hebrew there is " Rajah ",
• 14:30 there is "the friend"
• 14:32 The friend, like Ruth.
• 14:34 There's the " Ahava "
• 14:36 the "Love" that is expansive.
• 14:40 And then beyond that
• 14:41 there's of course the " Dodi ",
• 14:44 " Ani L'Dodi, v'Dodi Li "
• 14:46 "I am my Beloved's"
• 14:48 "and my Beloved is mine"
• 14:49 It's speaking not only of a man and woman
• 14:51 but also of God and Humankind.
• 14:54 And so we would leave you
• 14:55 with that thought.
• 14:56 " Ani L'Dodi, v'Dodi Li "
• 15:19 For insightful perspectives on Israel and Bible prophecy
• 15:23 ask for our free monthly newsletter
• 15:25 the Levitt Letter.
• 15:27 At levitt.com you can read the newsletter
• 15:30 watch the TV program
• 15:32 or visit our online store.
• 15:34 Stay current with us on Social Media
• 15:36 via Face Book and Twitter.
• 15:38 Come with us on a tour of Israel or Petra,
• 15:41 or a cruise to Greece and Ephesus.
• 15:44 Please contact us for more information.
• 15:52 You know, when you
• 15:53 come with us to Israel
• 15:54 You'll see the ancient
• 15:55 and the modern.
• 15:57 And you'll see how
• 15:58 this tiny little nation
• 15:59 has come forth to such
• 16:00 beauty and such grace
• 16:02 even in the face of difficulty
• 16:04 the hand of God is
• 16:05 on these people
• 16:07 and on this place, Myles.
• 16:08 Yeah, I think we see even
• 16:09 from this particular series
• 16:12 that the will to survive
• 16:13 is connected to the innovation
• 16:15 and to the arts
• 16:16 and to the beauty
• 16:17 that's produced.
• 16:19 Because there's just this sense of " L'Chaim ", "To Life"
• 16:21 that we have this desire
• 16:24 to see life and life expand.
• 16:26 Joseph Bau is one of the key artists
• 16:29 that helped in the effort in moving,
• 16:32 transitioning from the horror of the Holocaust
• 16:34 into the beauty of current Israel.
• 16:37 And we actually had a chance to visit the museum
• 16:40 dedicated to him by his children.
• 16:42 It's The Bau Museum in Tel Aviv.
• 16:44 Let's go there now.
• 17:09 We can't look at the arts being restored
• 17:13 and the beauty of artistic endeavor
• 17:15 being reclaimed for Israel without
• 17:18 understanding the costs that was paid
• 17:20 and some of the ironic pieces of art
• 17:23 that came to be here in Israel after the war.
• 17:26 It actually began during the war.
• 17:27 We see here an outrageous picture
• 17:30 done by Joseph Bau.
• 17:33 Joseph and Rebecca Bau
• 17:35 had a lifelong love affair
• 17:37 that included a way
• 17:38 of attaining sanity
• 17:42 in the face of the Auschwitz death camp.
• 17:45 In this case by making a mockery of the
• 17:48 death of the Jews becoming smoke going up into the air.
• 17:52 A very painful and difficult view of
• 17:55 what was happening in that particular death camp.
• 17:58 But as we shift over here to life itself
• 18:01 you see a mural of their entire family
• 18:03 in the goodness of life after the Holocaust
• 18:07 when they were rescued,
• 18:08 when they were found
• 18:10 they had daughters, family and growth
• 18:13 among the family members.
• 18:15 And it developed a wonderful life here in Israel.
• 18:19 This whole story is told with humor,
• 18:21 with irony, with sarcasm.
• 18:24 Let's go into Joseph's studio
• 18:26 and take a look at some of the works
• 18:29 that he's famous for.
• 18:31 This is a very humble studio
• 18:33 but contains some very profound artworks.
• 18:47 Here again we see pictures
• 18:48 of Joseph and Rebecca
• 18:50 as they are being saved out of the Holocaust.
• 18:53 If you saw "Shindler's List"
• 18:56 it was actually this couple who
• 18:58 got married in Shindler's factory in the movie.
• 19:02 Not exactly cinematically accurate
• 19:04 because they got married in the concentration camp.
• 19:07 But Spielberg used it in a dramatic sense
• 19:11 to take a respite, a moment in time
• 19:13 when something good could
• 19:15 come in the middle of the Holocaust.
• 19:18 Our parents, they met
• 19:20 inside Plaszow concentration camp.
• 19:23 Our father got dressed as a woman,
• 19:26 smuggled himself into the women's camp.
• 19:29 And that's how they got married secretly.
• 19:32 Now the wedding was very unique.
• 19:35 I think it's the only wedding.
• 19:37 Not only it was from love to each other,
• 19:41 it was from the love for all the people around them because
• 19:45 they wanted to show people that life continues,
• 19:49 they are getting married,
• 19:51 they lifting their spirits.
• 19:53 And our father was an artist.
• 19:56 And he saved hundreds of Jews.
• 19:59 He forged documents for them.
• 20:01 And from the underground they came to him
• 20:03 and they said, forge for yourself a document and run away.
• 20:06 So he said, but if I run away who'll save the others?
• 20:10 And he stayed till the last day.
• 20:13 Someone asked him after the war,
• 20:15 tell me aren't you sorry?
• 20:16 You could have escaped
• 20:18 and not suffered for 5 years.
• 20:19 So he said, but if I had escaped
• 20:22 how would I have met my wife?
• 20:25 Well Joseph Bau dedicated himself to something good
• 20:28 which was the renaissance of all kinds of
• 20:31 cartoon art with a sarcastic touch,
• 20:34 with a humorous touch.
• 20:36 Up here we see the absurdity
• 20:39 of lipsticks being changed from bullets into lipsticks.
• 20:45 And the words in Hebrew
• 20:47 are very similar
• 20:49 and so it has an ironic message to those around
• 20:52 that wouldn't it be wonderful when the day comes
• 20:54 when instead of making bullets
• 20:56 we are making lipsticks
• 20:58 so that love and not war
• 21:00 is the affect of these international difficulties?
• 21:03 We see the dove of peace
• 21:05 slightly out of the grasp of the hand of the man.
• 21:09 We see here that the upward climb for peace and the
• 21:12 seeming impossibility of achieving peace
• 21:16 and the devastation
• 21:19 of what was lost in music
• 21:21 as this musician
• 21:23 is trying to play
• 21:25 his bass cello
• 21:26 with a saw.
• 21:28 And the probability
• 21:29 of things being lost.
• 21:30 Over here we see the sharing
• 21:33 within the death camps
• 21:35 as people shared
• 21:37 what little they had
• 21:38 to stay alive.
• 21:39 And here, Joseph Bau himself
• 21:41 is carving himself
• 21:42 out of a piece of rock.
• 21:44 A statement about
• 21:46 having to mold ourselves
• 21:48 into the likeness and image that God has for us.
• 21:51 And our museum is open 7 days a week.
• 21:55 You only have to book a visit in advance.
• 21:58 And when people come here they see -
• 22:01 first of all they hear their story, unique story.
• 22:03 But they see what they created here in Israel.
• 22:06 He was like an entrepreneur.
• 22:09 He started from scratch everything.
• 22:11 He built the smallest movie theatre in the world.
• 22:13 He was the first animator in Israel
• 22:16 and people come
• 22:19 And they see this beautiful unique museum.
• 22:23 That is the only museum
• 22:25 of its kind in the world.
• 22:27 Because it combines the love to Israel,
• 22:30 the love to the Hebrew language,
• 22:31 Holocaust - the forgery,
• 22:34 He worked for the Mossad.
• 22:37 He was the main graphic artist of the Mossad
• 22:40 who forged documents for all the spies.
• 22:43 And it's a lot of humor and animation
• 22:48 and the smallest movie theatre in the world.
• 22:50 And everything is unique in this museum.
• 22:54 Throughout his work, he used humor
• 22:57 sarcasm and interest to make it possible for
• 23:01 people to take a longer view of this tragedy and
• 23:05 to do something with it that was positive, to say
• 23:08 yes it's terrible now,
• 23:09 it's absurd, it makes no sense,
• 23:11 but I can through my art
• 23:13 make sense out of this.
• 24:41 Our parents were talking about
• 24:42 the Holocaust every day.
• 24:44 That's why they were
• 24:46 so different from others
• 24:47 who didn't talk.
• 24:48 They said we must talk about it
• 24:51 because in 50 years, if someone will get up
• 24:53 and say the Holocaust didn't exist,
• 24:55 where are the proofs?
• 24:57 So they spoke and they encouraged other people to speak.
• 25:00 That's why our father wrote his memoirs in a
• 25:03 book "Dear God, Have You Ever Gone Hungry?" .
• 25:07 But they were telling it in a unique way
• 25:11 because they were telling us what happened
• 25:13 but there were always jokes.
• 25:16 So it wasn't a burden for us,
• 25:19 the opposite you see.
• 25:20 We continue.
• 25:21 We tell the story
• 25:23 and we encourage others to tell.
• 25:26 MYLES - So here we are,
• 25:27 the Bau Museum in Tel Aviv.
• 25:30 it's a landmark that you should know about
• 25:32 one small example of the incredible artistic endeavor
• 25:36 that kept the spirit of the Jewish people
• 25:39 alive during the Holocaust.
• 25:55 Sometimes these programs can feel like
• 25:57 we're on a roller coaster ride
• 25:59 going into the depths of hell
• 26:00 and to the heights of heaven.
• 26:02 But really there is the over-arching
• 26:05 theme of God's love for His people.
• 26:07 God's love for those He calls "the whole world"
• 26:10 to love Him in return.
• 26:12 And I think about the seminal Hebrew
• 26:14 prayer from Deuteronomy 6
• 26:16 [Speaking Hebrew]
• 26:25 and it goes on to say [Speaking Hebrew]
• 26:38 And that is what God is desiring
• 26:40 to come back towards Him
• 26:42 because He first loved us.
• 26:44 Yeah - love, faith and hope
• 26:47 These three things abide.
• 26:49 And these as believers,
• 26:50 we are called to walk in.
• 26:52 So Myles, we need a
• 26:53 fresh infilling of love.
• 26:54 We need to be like the Israelis
• 26:56 and have hope against hope.
• 26:58 And we need to stand fast like Daniel did
• 27:00 in the face of difficulties.
• 27:02 You know we have all the examples that we need
• 27:04 in the Scripture
• 27:06 and then in modern life.
• 27:07 And so, may the Lord give us
• 27:09 His grace to stand firm in these days.
• 27:11 That's good, yes.
• 27:13 And speaking of standing firm,
• 27:15 that's why every time we end the program
• 27:17 we always remind you,
• 27:18 Sha'a'lu Shalom Yerushalayim
• 27:20 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 27:25 Our monthly newsletter the "Levitt Letter"
• 27:27 is free and full of insightful articles
• 27:29 and news commentary from a Messianic perspective
• 27:32 Visit levitt.com to find our newsletter
• 27:35 along with current and past programs,
• 27:37 our television schedule,
• 27:39 and much more!
• 27:40 Don't forget to order this week's resource
• 27:42 by calling 1-800-WONDERS
• 27:45 or you can purchase it
• 27:47 from our catalogue
• 27:48 at levitt.com
• 27:50 Your donations to Zola Levitt Ministries
• 27:52 help these organizations
• 27:53 Bless Israel.