Another area in which Risikoff 's writings represented ideas ahead of his time was the subject of religious responses to the '' Shoah '' , an area that would only much later be referred to as Holocaust theology . He fervently believed that redemption would come for humanity , but never turned a blind eye to suffering , struggling with the existence of evil , its meaning , and the question of human response to it . His writings showed his sorrow and horror at the anti-Jewish attacks in Hebron , Jerusalem , and Safed , in 1929 , and when Rav Kook died in 1935 , Risikoff — with " a presentiment of the catastrophe " yet to come — published a eulogy in which he put forth his belief that Kook might have been taken early to spare him from even worse times to come , based on the Biblical verse ( Isaiah 57:11 ) , " The righteous is taken away from the evil to come . " In 1938 , with the outbreak of violence that would come to be known as Kristallnacht , Risikoff wrote about keeping faith , and yet taking action in religious ways that would include worship , liturgy , and both concrete and internal responses of teshuva/repentance . He wrote that Levites , members of the Levitical tribe — and especially Kohanim , the family dynasty of Jewish Priests within that tribe — must play a special role . In his writings , especially in his book , '' HaKohanim vHaLeviim '' , '' The Priests and the Levites '' , he stressed that members of these groups exist in the realm between history ( below ) and redemption ( above ) , and were called upon to take a leading role in a call to prayer , repentance , and action that would help bring an end to suffering . He wrote , " Today , we also are living through a time of flood , Not of water , but of a bright fire , which burns and turns Jewish life into ruin . We are now drowning in a flood of blood ... Through the '' Kohanim '' and '' Levi'im '' help will come to all Israel
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Mnachem Risikoff