How to cite this article: Moshe Navon, “Better Than the Day of Birth: Reflecting on David Flusser’s Interpretation of the Love Commandment on the 25th Anniversary of His Passing,” Jerusalem Perspective (2025): [https://www.jerusalemperspective.com/31263/].
In my own small archive of memories of David Flusser I remember once coming to his modest Jerusalem home for a lesson, not realizing that David was sitting Shiv‘a (i.e., he was in mourning) for his brother who had just passed away. When I arrived David stood up and said to those who had come to comfort him: “My student has arrived. Now I will teach him!” In light of this memory I can think of no better way to honor the memory of David—l’ilui neshama (“for the elevation of his soul”)—than to reflect on some of his most important teaching with you.
David Flusser left this world on September 15, 2000, which also happened to be his 83rd birthday. Friends called to wish him a happy birthday, only to learn that it had become the day of his passing. The coincidence of David’s birth and death taking place on the same day of the year calls to mind a saying of Kohelet: The day of death is better than the day of birth (Eccl. 7:1).
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- [1] Text and translation according to https://www.sefaria.org/Midrash_Tanchuma%2C_Vayakhel.1.3?lang=bi. ↩
- [2] Text and translation according to https://www.sefaria.org/Midrash_Tanchuma_Buber%2C_Vayakhel.1.3?lang=bi
. ↩ - [3] Translation according to https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/224482.21?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en. ↩
- [4] Translation according to https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Sanhedrin.4.5?lang=bi&with=Commentary&lang2=en. ↩
- [5] See John 4:20–24 for Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman about the proper place to worship God, and Luke 9:51–53 for the episode in which the Samaritans refused to receive Jesus because he was on his way to Jerusalem. See also Jonathan Ben-Dov, “An Altar on Mt Ebal or Mt Gerizim?—The Torah in the Sectarian Debate” [https://www.thetorah.com/article/an-altar-on-mt-ebal-or-mt-gerizim-the-torah-in-the-sectarian-debate?utm_source=chatgpt.com]. ↩
- [6] On the Hebraic background of this verse, Joshua N. Tilton, “Perfect Children,” WholeStones.org (March 4, 2017) [https://wholestones.org/2017/03/04/perfect-children/]. ↩
- [7] Peninei Halakhah (“Pearls of Halakhah”), R. Eliezer Melamed — launched 1993; 22 vols.; online; Eng. trans. since 2014 (e.g., Laws of Shabbat Vol. 1, 2016). ↩
- [8] Hilula (Aram./Heb. הִלּוּלָא, “celebration”)—a joyful commemoration of a tzaddik’s yahrzeit (day of passing), marked with prayer, study, charity, and often pilgrimage to the grave; e.g., Lag BaOmer, the hilula of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. ↩
- [9] Text and translation according to https://www.sefaria.org/Peninei_Halakhah%2C_Zemanim.5.2.5. ↩
