One could almost hear a familiar voice in Shamayim, responding with a resounding Amen
Abar mitzvah boy’s leining is always a poignant moment, melding hopes and dreams with a fiery commitment to realize those goals. But at Nochi Simes’s bar mitzvah a few weeks ago, the bar mitzvah bochur’s flawless rendition of parshas Ha’azinu marked a connection to the past as much as it did a promise for the future.
In 2010, the Simes family, who then lived in Ottawa, Ontario, were involved in a terrible car accident. Mrs. Simes and the seven children present in the car emerged miraculously unharmed. Her husband, Rabbi Yehuda Simes, was less fortunate; the accident left him a quadriplegic.
At the time, Mrs. Simes was expecting, and incredibly, the unborn child was unharmed as well. Young Nochi, born shortly afterward, grew up in a home filled with the joy that can only come from the deepest reservoirs of faith. Rabbi Simes, “the Rolling Rabbi,” faced his nisayon head-on, with courage and strength, and became a legendary source of inspiration to thousands, as well as those who learned about him from the book his wife wrote after his petirah, published by Israel Bookshop Publications.
In 2017, after battling complications for years, Rabbi Simes passed away, and the following year, a sefer Torah was donated to Congregation Beit Tikvah Ottawa in his memory.
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