Simcha’s Torah

ATfirst glance you’d think it was another upscale Bnei Brak wedding.

On the synthetic grass outside the Keter Rimon hall, family members huddle together, ignoring background noise from the street and connecting instead to the joy and excitement of their own personal gathering.

There’s the stage with the multi-piece band, the chassidishe choir, and Motti Steinmetz in his shtreimel, his soulful voice pleading as he sings the words from Neilah: “Oy, shaarei Shamayim pesach” — open the gates of Heaven…

But at the kabbalas panim, Simcha’le, the chassan, is signing another kind of kesubah — he’s filling in the last letter in a sefer Torah. And at the badeken, he covers his “kallah” with a pristine white embroidered mantel and places a crown of flowers over her head.