“Tatty, I Know Your Secret”

Perhaps the only thing that we know with certainty about Rav Shimshon Pincus is that no one really knew him. Renowned simultaneously as a master of prayer, a fiery activist, a talented orator, and loving leader, he could not confine himself to any one role. Ten years after his shocking passing, his son Eliyahu Pincus describes the man whose prayers were so powerful that “Hashem had to take him suddenly, without allowing him a chance to ask for more time”

The drashah was over: tape recorders were switched off and notebooks shut, people rose and stretched their legs. A small cluster of listeners gathered around Reb Shimshon, leaning in eagerly to hear one more vort. Others greeted him in the hope of being lifted by his glowing smile, standing in his presence to feel the contagious energy that seemed to emanate from deep within him.

An acquaintance approached. “Rebbi, don’t return to Ofakim tonight. You don’t look well. Spend the night at my home.”

But Reb Shimshon excused himself on that night, just before Pesach, saying that he was in a hurry.