Editing Levite (section)

===The Levites and the Holocaust===
{{Main|Holocaust theology}}

In 1938, with the outbreak of violence that would come to be known as [[Kristallnacht]], American Orthodox rabbi [[Mnachem Risikoff|Menachem HaKohen Risikoff]] wrote about the central role he saw for Priests and Levites in terms of Jewish and world responses, in worship, liturgy, and [[Repentance in Judaism|''teshuva'']], repentance. In ''The Priests and the Levites'' (1940),<ref>[https://www.hebrewbooks.org/36377 הכהנים והלוים HaKohanim vHaLeviim (1940)]</ref> he stressed that members of these groups exist in the realm between history (below) and redemption (above), and must act in a unique way to help move others to prayer and action, and 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."<ref>Gershon Greenberg, "Kristallnacht: The American Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Theology of Response," in Maria Mazzenga (editor), ''American Religious Responses to Kristallnacht'', Palgrave MacMillan: 2009, pp. 158–172.</ref>