Before Moshe our leader passes away (‘samoch l’misaso’), he blesses the Children of Israel [1]. The issue has been raised as to why Moshe waited until he blessed them [2]. One explanation given is ‘if not now then when?’ [3] – but this generally indicates the necessity to do something as soon as possible [4] and here we see the opposite!
A yeshiva student lost his father and the dean of the yeshiva went to comfort him. The student told the dean that his father had never really had an opportunity to learn Torah. He had arrived in England on a kinder transport from Germany, and then he was sent to Palestine, where he made his way to Petch Tikva. Although he had never learned in a yeshiva, he had remained observant, and with time became very involved with the Great Synagogue of Petach Tikva. All his sons became Torah scholars.
The dean then asked the oldest son what was the secret of his father’s success: how did someone with little Torah knowledge; alone in the world from a young age, grow to take on such great responsibilities and demonstrate such success in child rearing?
The son answered with a story that his father had told him of his childhood.
“When I was less than 10 years old, my father sent me to Germany (from where I ultimately made my way to England) from the town where we lived in Austria. Before I crossed the border, my father waited with me for the train in silence. Finally the lights of the train appeared. When my father lifted me onto the train, he finally broke the silence, “Zei ah gutte Yid – be a good Jew!”
As the train began to pull out of the station, my father ran alongside yelling “Zei ah gutte Yid.”
The train began picking up speed but my father kept running after it screaming and pleading “Zei ah gutte Yid.”
As he was running, my father tripped and fell on the station platform.”
“That image,” he concluded “of my father running and then falling, as he desperately attempted to implant the message to be a good Jew in his son’s heart, remained with me for the rest of my life.”
This is the ‘image’ of the end of the Torah which we read on Simchas Torah – the blessings to the Children of Israel: that we should follow in the ways of our righteous ancestry and “zei ah gutte Yid”.
Perhaps this is the explanation of the phrase ‘samoch l’misaso’ (literally: near to his death) which can also be translated as ‘to be dependent upon his death’ – we should make our lives dependent upon that image of Moshe blessing us to follow in the ways of our righteous ancestry. ‘If not now then when?’ Now was the time for Moshe’s final message to us specifically before he passed away, leaving us with a lasting image for us to always remember.
And this is the message of Simchas Torah; this is the message that the Torah leaves us for each generation – as the Torah concludes “to the eyes of ALL of the Children of Israel” [5]. This is the message that we should take to heart and make a fresh start – (as we indeed continue to read from the Torah on Simchas Torah) “In the beginning…” [6].
“Zei ah gutte Yid” this Simchas Torah,
Dan.
Additional sources:
Story: R’ Yechiel Spero, Touched by the Parasha, p.212
[1] Devarim 33
[2] Sifri 342
[3] Rashi, Devarim 33:1
[4] Pirkei Avos 1:14
[5] Ibid. 34:12
[6] Bereishis 1:1
