October 3, 2023|י"ח תשרי ה' אלפים תשפ"ד Find Your Letter in the Torah
Print Article
The Zohar states that there are 600,000 letters in the Sefer Torah which correspond to the 600,000 Jews. (In actuality, there are 304,805 letters. Many explanations are offered how to get to 600,000 including counting different vowel pronunciations or counting the white space around each letter) The Megaleh Amukos, Rav Nosson Nota Spira (Va'eschanan #186:1) writes that the soul of every Jew stems from one of the 600,000 letters in the Torah. The name "ישראל" itself can be viewed as an acronym for the words, "יש ששים רבוא אותיות לתורה." There is a letter in the Torah for each of our names.
While some letters in the Torah are written larger than others, there is no letter that is more significant than any other letter. If any letter is missing or incomplete, the entire Torah is invalid to use. The Jewish nation is one Torah scroll. Everybody counts. Every individual—big or small, scholar or unlearned—is a letter. We are all one, interdependent and equally important.
The Me’or Einayim (Emor), Rav Menachem Nochum of Chernobyl writes that Simchas Torah is the day on which each of us reconnects to Torah in a way that can only happen after all the other holidays of Tishrei are finished. He says that since there are 600,000 letters in the Torah and there were 600,000 Jews who received Torah at Mount Sinai, we conclude that each Jewish soul has a spiritual connection to one of the Torah’s letters. Simchas Torah is the day on which each of us reconnects with our special letter. We can only do this after we have been purified by the teshuva of the Yamim Noraim and unified together by sitting in the Sukkah. On this day, each of us merits to receive an aliyah and come up to the Torah to meet the letter that sings to our souls, the letter that is our name.
A name highlights the essence of an individual. Rav Shimshon Refael Hirsch suggests that the word for name “shem,” can also be vowelized “sham,” there. A name depicts where a person is in life.
Though the Shulchan Aruch records that the proper thing to do during Hagbah, when the Torah is lifted, is to bow, the more prevalent custom is to point. The Arizal wouldn’t just point from a distance, but he would get close to the Torah during Hagbah so that he could see the actual letters. The Mishna Berura (134:11) quotes this and says עי"ז נמשך אור גדול על האדםthis practice draws down a great light upon a person.
The Ben Ish Chai, R. Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, and the Kaf Ha’Chaim go even further, writing that during Hagbah a person should look for a word in the Torah that begins with the first letter of his own name. Each time the Torah is read, we are to remember that we have a place, a letter, the Torah speaks to our name, to each of us, we have a mission and a purpose, we have a piece and a part of Torah.
Immediately after instructing Avraham to leave the land of his ancestors and journey to Eretz Yisrael, Hashem promises:
וְאֶֽעֶשְׂךָ֙ לְג֣וֹי גָּד֔וֹל וַאֲבָ֣רֶכְךָ֔ וַאֲגַדְּלָ֖ה שְׁמֶ֑ךָ וֶהְיֵ֖ה בְּרָכָֽה׃
I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you; I will make your name great, And you shall be a blessing.
The simple understanding of the second promise is Hashem will make Avraham’s name great among the nations of the world, but the Bnei Yissaschar (Agra De’Kala) says it means Hashem promises to make Avraham believe in the greatness of his name, in his potential and possibility, in his unique mission for this world.
Rabbi Levi Welton, a rabbi from New York, and his wife were visiting their family in Sacramento, California. On Shabbos, they went to the local Chabad for davening and met another out-of-town family celebrating a Bat Mitzvah. At the Kiddush, Rabbi Welton struck up a conversation with the father of the Bat Mitzvah girl and discovered that the man, named “Chaim,” was from Mexico City and had converted to Judaism many years ago.
"Why did you pick Chaim as your Hebrew name?" The Rabbi asked. The man told Rabbi Welton the following story:
“Towards the start of my spiritual journey, I once spent a Friday night at a synagogue in Westchester, New York. After Lecha Dodi, we started dancing and I noticed that the elderly man I was holding hands with had numbers tattooed on his arm. Suddenly, I remembered something a rabbi once said about Holocaust survivors: ‘A Holocaust survivor who doesn't believe in God is a normal person. A Holocaust survivor who does is an angel.’
I felt overwhelmed to be dancing with an angel and after davening I asked the man his name. The old man smiled and said, ‘Chaim.’ Chaim survived Buchenwald, was in the Israeli Air Force, and then immigrated to America. At that moment, I decided that when the time came for me to convert, I would call myself Chaim. Years passed and I never saw Chaim again, but I’ll never forget him because we share the same name.”
After listening attentively, Rabbi Welton asked: "By any chance, would the man’s name have been Chaim Grossman?" The father of the Bat Mitzvah girl was shocked. "How do you know that?" he asked. Rabbi Welton explained that he was a shul rabbi in Westchester, and he had a congregant who survived Buchenwald, served in the Israeli Air Force, and then immigrated to America. Chaim Grossman was his congregant.
The man began to cry. Rabbi Welton promised that he would send regards, but the father had another request. So after Shabbos, they took a picture together to convey his love to his namesake, “Chaim."
The next Shabbos, Rabbi Welton asked Chaim Grossman to sit in the center of the Shul for the derasha. The parsha that week was Shemos which lists the names of B’nei Yisrael. Rabbi Welton related that 3,000 miles away there lived a man named Chaim who carried Chaim Grossman’s name and who was raising his family in an observant, Torah home.
The rabbi then took out the photo, printed and framed, and handed it to Chaim. Chaim stood up and raised his numbered arm to receive the photo of his "Godson”. With tears streaming down his cheeks, Chaim proclaimed “Baruch Hashem, Shehechiyanu, V’kiyamu, V’higiyanu V’higiyanu Lazman Hazeh!”
Chaim Grossman had never been blessed with children. But now he had a proud Jew halfway around the world who carried his name and who would pass it on to future generations.
Simchas Torah is not just a technical occasion that we finish and roll the Torah to start again. It is a day we unroll ourselves to find our place in the masorah of Torah, to reconnect to our eternal heritage. We do this not as a burden but as a gift. With great joy we embrace our life purpose, our unique mission. So, during Hagbah, get close to the Torah and look for a word that begins with the letter of your name. Find your name and find your place in Torah.