In this week’s Parsha, Noach built a Teiva (ark) to be saved from the Mabul. Noach took in all the different animals and took care of them. He was up day and night feeding them and tending to their needs. The Midrash Tanchuma says that the lion in Noach’s ark injured Noach. There is a question here: Why would the lion be so brazen and impetuous? Didn’t the lion appreciate Noach’s efforts? Couldn’t the lion wait patiently for his food? Let me share with you a powerful message that I heard from my father, Rav Yitzchok Fingerer shlita in the name of Rav Avrahom Kalmanowitz zt”l. The lion thought, “I am the last lion. If I don’t survive, there will never be another lion again! I am responsible for all future lions! All the lions, other than me, are extinct. I must be fed! Without me there will be no more lions!”
During the Holocaust, Rav Kalmanowitz who was a huge activist for the Jews in Europe would say that the yeshiva students who were escaping the Nazis are the last lions and that they must be saved. He would make sure that they were cared for and protected. Why? Because they were the last of their kind! They were the ones who were responsible for all future generations of Torah. It was up to everyone else to do everything in our power to take care of them and help save them! Now, today, so many of our fellow Jews are assimilating. How could this not affect us? How can we go on living our lives as our brothers and sisters are literally disappearing? It is dependent on us to realize that every Jew is a last lion, never to be replaced! Every Jew you encounter is a last lion. We must respect our fellow Jews no matter their background. We must reach out to them with dignity and love!
A poor man once wrote a letter to the Imrei Moshe and expressed his desire to have a copy of the Imrei Moshe’s sefer (book). The problem was that he wasn’t able to afford it. The poor man wanted to know if he could have a copy of the sefer. The Imrei Moshe, known for his immense compassion felt a deep sense of sympathy for the Torah scholar. Even though selling his books was his sole source of income, he decided to give the scholar the sefer for free. Little did the Imrei Moshe know that this encounter and the act of kindness he had done would profoundly impact future generations. During the war, most Jewish seforim and manuscripts were tragically destroyed. After the holocaust, people wanted a copy of the Imrei Moshe’s sefer but not one copy was able to be found. They assumed that the Imrei Moshe’s entire legacy was sadly lost. One day, a family member of the Imrei Moshe met someone who had a copy of the sefer. Miraculously, the one surviving sefer that remained unscathed was the sefer that the Imrei Moshe had given to the young Torah scholar!
That young Torah scholar turned out to become the Gadol Hador, the great Steipler Goan, Rav Yaakov Yisroel Kanievsky zt”l! The sefer that had been given away in an act of compassion was reprinted and continued the Imrei Moshe’s Legacy! Imagine if the Imrei Moshe didn’t give the Steipler the sefer! By doing this act of kindness the Imrei Moshe saved his entire legacy! This story serves as a timeless reminder of the profound and far-reaching effects that acts of reaching out and kindness can have in the world. After all, this sefer was the ‘Last Lion!’
