BY Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Times

Many Bnei Torah, this Simchas Torah, are well aware of the famous statement of Rav Boruch Ber. It was a statement that he had burst out with in the middle of Hakafos one simchas Torah.
Rav Boruch Ber Leibowitz zt�l (1862 � 1939 (5 Kislev, 5700) was the Rosh Yeshiva of Knesses Beis Yitzchok � the other Yeshiva in Slabodka. He was also one of the most prominent students of Rav Chaim Brisker.
What was the statement? �Vei es tantz zich � lerent zich!� This means, �The way you dance on Simchas Torah is the way you will be learning [throughout the year]!�

Rav Avrohom Pam zt�l once said that if chas v�shalom a sefer drops, most people perform an act of Kavod HaTorah and kiss the sefer. Even more so, he stated, would be to also learn from it and make the sefer�s words a part of you.

�This,� said Rav Pam, �is how we must also view SImchas Torah. We express our ahavas haTorah � our love for Torah, by kissing it and dancing with it. After hakafos and simchas Torah end, however, in a similar vein we must express our love and kavod haTorah by learneing ever more vigorously.�

Rav Henoch Leibowitz zt�l explains that on Simchas Torah we read of Moshe Rabbeinu�s imminent death and his deep expression of love for Klal Yisroel by giving them brachos (See Midrash tanchuma Vaeschonon 6). �This expression of ultimate love was necessary,� explains Rav Henoch, �so that Klal Yisroel can reach for the highest level of avodas Hashem.� By the same token, we recite the brachos of krias shma before we say the shma to highlight to ourselves Hashem�s deep love for us � �Ahava Rabba ahavtanu.�

We see from these three giants the paramount importance of the expression and recognition of love � in the development of our Avodas Hashem. May the hakafos that we dance on this Yom Tov, inspire us all to greater growth in Torah and Dveikus Bashem and bias go�el tzedek amain.

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