One of my fondest childhood memories is of my mother’s father being in synagogue with me on Simchat Torah. The rabbi always called the hakafot (processions around the synagogue with people carrying Torah scrolls) by age and my grandfather, Benjamin Goldstein, who was born in Russia, was in the first one. I don’t remember him as a particularly religious man (he died when I was 10), but I will never forget the joy on his face when he carried the Torah around the synagogue.

Simchat Torah was (as it still is in many places) the occasion for the Consecration ceremony for students beginning their religious school studies. We were all called up to the bimah for a blessing, and then we each received a miniature Torah. The small gold or blue boxes containing the small scrolls were piled up on the steps to the bimah.

When I was six, I must confess, I came back into the empty sanctuary after the service was over and helped myself to as many of the remaining miniature Torahs as I could carry. I cannot remember how I hid this larcenous deed from my parents, but I stashed the contraband in the bottom draw of my bedroom night table where they remained for many years.

When I pilfered those scrolls, Torah study was not what I had in mind as a professional pursuit (I planned to be the Catcher for the New York Yankees), but I hope the Almighty will consider my rabbinical career to be suitable penance.

The scrolls certainly came in handy in later years.

During the meal at the first communal Seder I conducted at my congregation in Columbia, MD, I remembered to my horror that I had forgotten (and no one on the committee had thought of it either) to buy a prize for the young person who found the afikomen (the piece of matzah hidden and looked for after the meal by the children present). While everyone ate, I quickly drove the mile to our house and grabbed a miniature scroll to give to the winner. I don’t think I have ever revealed that I was making a young boy or girl party to my trafficking in stolen goods.

On Simchat Torah we read the last verses of the book of Deuteronomy and then immediately begin again to read the opening lines of Genesis. Even when I was six the message came through: the study of Torah never ends.

As years have gone by I consider it increasingly remarkable that we have a special celebration just to honour study and learning!

While meeting to prepare for our celebration here in Bad Segeberg this year, the make up of the planning committee necessitated translating our respective ideas into German, Russian and English!

Much of our discussion revolved around how to honor members of the local Christian community who raised funds to purchase the Torah scroll from which we shall read and did so much in other ways to help the Bad Segeberg Reform congregation re-establish itself.

As we worship in freedom in the beautiful synagogue that sits proudly not far from the center of town, I will give thanks for the opportunity to help to replant the love and learning of Torah in the land of my father’s birth where evil forces sought to uproot our precious heritage.

I will also rejoice that a sizeable number of Russian Jews have found freedom here in Germany to practice our faith that the communists tried to stamp out.

Yes, a celebration conducted in Hebrew, English, German and Russian seems such a wonderful way to honor the Torah and all of the ideals for which it stands!

Oft fragen mich Leute: Warum erlaubt Gott Mose nicht, in das verheißene Land einzuziehen?

Tatsächlich betritt niemand von uns das verheißene Land. Wir alle sterben mit nicht verwirklichten Träumen und unerfüllten Hoffnungen.

Aber Mose braucht uns nicht Leid zu tun. Er starb in hohem Alter, aber in voller Kraft. Er konnte das verheißene Land von ferne sehen und hatte die Ehre vom EwigEinen selbst beerdigt zu werden. Und darüberinaus lesen wir: Nie wieder wird sich ein Prophet erheben, dem der EwigEine פנים אל פנים begegnet, wörtlich “von Angesicht zu Angesicht” (Deuteronomium 34,10).

“Von Angesicht zu Angesicht” lässt sich verstehen als: direkter als jemals jemand bevor.

Aber bei all seiner Größe offenbart Mose menschliche Schwächen. Sein Temperament konnte explodieren, und seine Geduld schwinden.

Spätere jüdische Traidtionen kritisieren ihn, weil er die ersten beiden Bundes-Tafeln zerbrochen hat, und weil er Wasser für die durstigen Menschen hervorbrachte, indem er mit dem Stab gegen einen Felsen schlug anstatt ihn anzusprechen, wie Gott es gesagt hatte.

Aber ich stimme überein mit denen, die meinen, dass, wie ernst diese Eigenwilligkeiten auch waren, sie nicht ausreichenten um ihn davon abzuhalten, den Jordan zu überqueren. Vielmehr erinnert uns der Tod des Mose daran, dass das Leben auch ohne uns weitergeht, egal wie wichtig wir sind. Darum ist es unsere Aufgabe so viel Gutes zu tun, wie wir können, im begrenzten Zeitraum, der uns zugedacht ist. Welch wunderbare Einsicht am Ende der Tora.

Aber wir schließen nur um sofort die Schöpfungsgeschichte der Genesis zu bedenken und die Verantwortung, die uns verliehen ist als Geschöpfe geschaffen im אלהים בצלם in Gottes Bild.

Translationn: with thanks to Pastor Ursula Sieg

Das zu tun mit dem Bild des Mose in unserem Rückspiegel befeuert unsere Leidenschaft zu werden,waser r wa עבד ה׳, “Diener des EwigEinen”, der seine Gaben nutz eine gerechtere, solidarischere und mitfühlendere Gesellschaft zu schaffen.

Often people ask, why did God not allow Moses to enter the Promised Land?

In reality none of us enter the Promised Land. We all die with dreams unfulfilled and hopes unrealized.

But we need not feel sorry for Moses. He dies at a ripe old age in full vigor. He has the privilege of viewing the land from afar and has the honor of burial by the Eternal One. Moreover, we read: “Never again has there arisen a prophet whom the Eternal One encountered פנים אל פנים, literally ‘face to face.'” (Deuteronomy 34:10)

We understand “face to face” to mean more directly than anyone before or since.

 But for all his greatness Moses displayed human foibles. His temper could explode, and his patience could wear thin.

Later Jewish tradition criticizes him for breaking the first set of Tablets of the Covenant and bringing forth water for the thirsty people by banging his staff against the rock instead of addressing it as God had instructed.

But I agree with those who claim that, serious though they were these transgressions were not sufficient to keep him from crossing the Jordan. Rather, Moses death reminds us that no matter how important we are, life will go on without us. Therefore our task is to do the most good that we can in the finite amount of time allotted to us.

What a wonderful lesson to close the Torah!

But we conclude only to immediately ponder Genesis’ creation story and the responsibilities imposed upon us as creatures created אלהים בצלם in the image of God. As we do Moses’ reflection in our rear view mirror fuels our passion to become, as he was ה׳ עבד, “servants of the Eternal One,” who use our talents to create a more just, caring and compassionate society.