ABSTRACT
Fackenheim, Emil (1916-) Germanborn rabbi, theologian, and religious existentialist; best known for his view that the Holocaust represents a new revelation, through which God presented a 614th commandment forbidding Jews to cease practicing Judaism, which would have the impact of handing Hitler a posthumous victory. Fackenheim rejects interpretations that deem the Holocaust the result of Jews’ sin and, in general, repudiates the idea that any “explanation” of the Holocaust is possible. Instead he employs a model of dialogical revelation, similar to that proposed by Martin Buber, in which revelation is the personal encounter of an I with the Eternal Thou (God).
