Dancing to the Torah’s Song     

There was the lomdus and hasmadah, but there was also something else. Rav Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi ztz”l knew how to have simchah from a sevarah and delight in a diyuk, yet he didn’t want to keep all that joy to himself. He taught three generations how to have a geshmak in learning, eventually building his own yeshivah, “a yeshivah for people, not malachim,” because it is in them that the Torah can work its wonders

“Shulamis, zeh Baruch medaber,” he called out. “Shulamis, it’s Baruch speaking.”

And again, this time while banging insistently, “It’s Baruch!”

And then, once more, a cry of “Shulaaamis” — his voice rising in desperation, then a wail of hopelessness, and he sat down.

The hesped was over.

A hesped on his wife of 70 years.

What was he doing? Why was he addressing her directly, talking like a person trying to enter a room when the door is locked?