Yesterday, my wife Esther gave birth to a baby girl. Our daughter arrived a bit early, but we are grateful for the gift whenever it comes. Thank G-d, mother and baby are well.
I was holding my precious daughter and thinking about the infinite gift of life that Esther and I are privileged to have received. The word precious isn’t really enough to describe the emotions of holding a new baby – even if you’ve done this eleven times before.
As I pondered this, my thoughts wandered to the upcoming celebration of Simchat Torah this Saturday night, when we will dance with the most precious object in Judaism – the holy Torah Scroll. Embracing a baby and embracing the Torah certainly share many similarities. Perhaps the most important is how precious they are.
Then it dawned upon me another important commonality.
The Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe once remarked that on Simchat Torah the Torah scrolls yearn to dance. After all, they have been studied and cherished for an entire year. They are brimming with joy and wish to leap in dance. The problem is, they don’t have legs. So, we need to become the legs of the Torah. We hold the Torah and dance, serving as its legs.
A baby is so delicate and needy. It cannot feed itself, walk, or even crawl. We need to be there for it at every moment of need – which is quite often! We are it’s legs, and more.
Just like the Torah scroll, our most precious humans are the ones that need us most – be they young or old.
And, when we serve as the Torah’s legs, we get an upgrade. The Torah might not be able to dance on its own – but it can lift us up to heights unachievable by mere mortals.
So too, by lifting up others, we lift ourselves to unimaginable heights.
This Simchat Torah, let’s embrace the most precious amongst us – in spirit and body.
Dance! Sing!
Embrace the Torah! It is a gift that gives more than it receives!
Reuven Etzion wrote...