Timeless Torah

Several months ago I met a man. It was tragedy that brought us together. His wife had passed away and I conducted the funeral. Like so many encounters for a Rabbi in our society, this one proved to be painful and challenging. How does one eulogize an individual you’ve never met? How does one comfort the living if your lives have never crossed before?

After the Shiva, during which we gathered the required minyan each morning and night, I started to bring the husband to the synagogue. He had no transportation, but he did have to say Kaddish. Could I do less? It was my personal mitzvah and it made me proud. After all, did I venture to the spiritual wasteland of Coral Springs ten years ago just to give speeches? Was my job to oversee a building committee, meet payrolls, or help people do mitzvohs?

Last Sunday, Milt as I now knew him, shared with me a sad tale. The bus driver who daily picked him up from work was in a terrible accident. All this had happened only one mile after Milt himself had been dropped off. His remark rings today loudly in my ear, “But for the grace of G-d, it could have been me who was hurt.”

Four days later as he crossed the street, Milt was struck by a car. He held on for less than one day. Like so many other encounters for a modern-day Rabbi, this one was painful, challenging, but still very rewarding. Milt Reiss was quiet, unassuming, never complained about how little he had…. and I will sorely miss him.

His passing this week coincides with the first reading from the Book of Leviticus, which opens with the Hebrew word Vayikra - ויקרא, “and G-d called.” The final letter of that word is an aleph (א) and it is written in a smaller size than all of the other letters. Many explanations are offered by the various commentaries for this anomaly, but let me add one more.

This passage speaks of G-d calling Moses. Elsewhere in the Bible, in reference to the first human being, Adam, (אדם) the letter aleph in his name is written larger than all the other letters. Adam had everything the world had to offer. Well, almost everything. Only the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge was denied him. One would imagine that Adam would be grateful, humbled by the overwhelming bounty given to him by G-d. Instead his pride and his ego demanded that he be given access even to that which was forbidden. This character flaw is symbolized by the large aleph. Moses, on the other hand, had all that was precious to him taken away. Separated from his family at a tender age, forced to flee his country, he plummeted from being a prince in Egypt to a shepherd at the edge of the desert. Moses might have been forgiven had he felt cheated out of life, yet the Torah describes Moses as being humble and thankful for all that he had been allowed to enjoy. His self-effacement is represented by a small aleph.

Moses might have been called with a littlealeph but he was hardly a ‘little’ man. Good-bye Milt.