Pipeline Torah Gem #899, 2025-10-09: Pushed Aside
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Vaughn Seward
Oct 28, 2025, 1:43:15 PM10/28/25
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Pushed Aside
On Simchas Torah, my father would ensure that every man had an opportunity to encircle the bimah with the Torah scroll, so that no one's feelings would be hurt. The children would dance carrying the scrolls of the Prophets and Writings. At times, the children would push one another as they struggled to snatch one of the scrolls out of the ark. Sometimes, they would hit one another. My father would calm me so that I would not fight. He gave me the Sefer HaSemag (about the 613 commandments) to hold during the dancing, for he said that this printed volume encompassed both the Oral and Written laws. Once, when I visited my father a few years before his passing, he summoned the family together and told us: "All my life, I was careful never to cause anyone to be pushed aside; to the contrary, I always allowed myself to be pushed aside for the sake of others — it is good to conduct oneself in this way." It is told that my father was once walking on a narrow sidewalk in Grodno when an army officer came walking towards him. My father immediately stepped off the sidewalk to allow the officer to pass. The officer was amazed that a man so advanced in years would quickly make way for someone much younger than himself. When the officer asked my father about this he replied, "All my life, it has been my way to move aside for someone else. With this approach, one lives a happy life." [From the reflections of Rabbi Aryeh Leib HaKohen Kagan, Chofetz Chaim's son.] Adapted from Chofetz Chaim, A Lesson a Day, by Rabbi Shimon Finkelman and Rabbi Yitzchak Berkowitz, 1995; Page 436-437. Torah Gem Archives: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/torahtidbits
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Yiddish Corner
Simches Toyre Simchat Torah Tantsn mit di Toyre To dance with the Torah Lomir zikh freyen! Let us rejoice! Khazak, khazak, v'niskhazek! Be strong, be strong, and let us strengthen one another! While technically Hebrew/Aramaic, this is universally chanted after completing the Torah reading (on Simchat Torah).
On Simchas Torah, my father would ensure that every man had an opportunity to encircle the bimah with the Torah scroll, so that no one's feelings would be hurt. The children would dance carrying the scrolls of the Prophets and Writings. At times, the children would push one another as they struggled to snatch one of the scrolls out of the ark. Sometimes, they would hit one another. My father would calm me so that I would not fight. He gave me the Sefer HaSemag (about the 613 commandments) to hold during the dancing, for he said that this printed volume encompassed both the Oral and Written laws. Once, when I visited my father a few years before his passing, he summoned the family together and told us: "All my life, I was careful never to cause anyone to be pushed aside; to the contrary, I always allowed myself to be pushed aside for the sake of others — it is good to conduct oneself in this way." It is told that my father was once walking on a narrow sidewalk in Grodno when an army officer came walking towards him. My father immediately stepped off the sidewalk to allow the officer to pass. The officer was amazed that a man so advanced in years would quickly make way for someone much younger than himself. When the officer asked my father about this he replied, "All my life, it has been my way to move aside for someone else. With this approach, one lives a happy life." [From the reflections of Rabbi Aryeh Leib HaKohen Kagan, Chofetz Chaim's son.] Adapted from Chofetz Chaim, A Lesson a Day, by Rabbi Shimon Finkelman and Rabbi Yitzchak Berkowitz, 1995; Page 436-437. Torah Gem Archives: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/torahtidbits
_________________
Yiddish Corner
Simches Toyre Simchat Torah Tantsn mit di Toyre To dance with the Torah Lomir zikh freyen! Let us rejoice! Khazak, khazak, v'niskhazek! Be strong, be strong, and let us strengthen one another! While technically Hebrew/Aramaic, this is universally chanted after completing the Torah reading (on Simchat Torah).
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