Once, on Simchas Torah, the Berditchiver Rav, noticed a Yid dancing very enthusiastically with the Torah. He recognized the Yid, Shmuel the Shoemaker, and asked him. "Shmuel, did you learn any Torah this year?"
"No," the shoemaker admitted.
"Then why are you dancing so joyfully with the Torah?"
"At your brother’s wedding, you dance!" answered Reb Shmuel.
Our Rebbe says that, really, Simchas Torah is not just a brother’s wedding; it is the essential rejoicing of every Jew over the fact that the Torah was given to him personally. If even one Jew, no matter how simple and unlearned, was missing at Mount Sinai, the receiving of the Torah would not have taken place at all.
The verse states that the Torah that Moshe commanded us is an inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. Like any inheritance, its ownership is not dependent on the talents and intellect of the inheritor. If he is a son [a Jew], he acquires the Torah through inheritance. Therefore, all Jews are equal in receiving the Torah, from the most accomplished scholar to the simple unlearned person.
Really the rejoicing of the simple Jew on Simchas Torah achieves more than that of the scholar.
[As we see from our story, the simple shoemaker’s joy gave additional joy to a Rebbe!]
The reason is that a scholar’s rejoicing is mixed with his happiness in what he understands. His understanding covers over his essential happiness and pure joy, which is not the case with the simple person.
