Rav Yosef Leizerovitch retraces the path to his special son’s unusual wedding

Photos: Itzik Blinitsky, Shlomi Cohen

ATfirst glance you’d think it was another upscale Bnei Brak wedding.

On the synthetic grass outside the Keter Rimon hall, family members huddle together, ignoring background noise from the street and connecting instead to the joy and excitement of their own personal gathering.

There’s the stage with the multi-piece band, the chassidishe choir, and Motti Steinmetz in his shtreimel, his soulful voice pleading as he sings the words from Neilah: “Oy, shaarei Shamayim pesach” — open the gates of Heaven…

But at the kabbalas panim, Simcha’le, the chassan, is signing another kind of kesubah — he’s filling in the last letter in a sefer Torah. And at the badeken, he covers his “kallah” with a pristine white embroidered mantel and places a crown of flowers over her head.

Earlier, he had gone to the Kosel for his “aufruf,” where he received an aliyah and brachos from well-wishers who threw candy at him. He then drove off with family members to visit the graves of his grandparents, and in the time-honored custom, left a “wedding” invitation on their tombstones.

And now, as the procession begins to the traditional strains of the Alter Rebbe’s “Arba Bavos,” Simcha’le stands under the chuppah, flanked by his “unterfirers” — his father and brothers — and their glass-encased candles. Tears mingle with joy, and in the center of it all is Simcha’le, clutching his Torah scroll, beaming and ecstatic, listening as the “mesader kiddushin” sings to him about his kallah, the Torah. Simcha’le is finally having his moment under the chuppah, too.

Simcha’le, who was born with Down syndrome 30 years ago, watched happily as his siblings married, one after another, but his pure soul also yearned for a moment of joy all his own. And now his dream has come true.

Everyone in the audience is emotional, but Simcha’le is beaming as the badchan churns out rhymes about the chassan’s special friends — pure neshamos whose secrets remain hidden by their limited bodies. “May all go well for them, may it be easy for their families. May they be loved and respected, may they be accepted as they are. Amen, amen, amen.”

And suddenly, the slow beat of the chuppah music gives way to the whirling dancing of a hachnassas sefer Torah procession. The chuppah begins moving forward, as Simcha’le and hundreds of his friends accompany it and dance with all their might for the honor of the Torah, with torches, flags, and infectious enthusiasm.

And then comes the “yichud room.” Simcha’le will be honored with reading a few words from the new sefer Torah, he’ll raise it, help roll it up, cover it, kiss it and not let it go until he places it in the aron kodesh.

The celebration, replete with an elegant meal, pulsating lighting and dance music, a collection of popular singers, and hundreds of friends and well-wishers from around the country, leaves Simcha’le euphoric.

It also electrifies the entire country. Everyone who hears about “Simcha’le’s wedding” is amazed by the scale of the production, the famous performers who took part, the dedicated Jews who worked to make it possible, and especially Simcha’le’s own siblings, who masterminded and pulled off a wedding no one will forget.