My father danced a Hassidic dance

A moving piece from the Vine of David’s short biography of Feivel (Paul Philip) Levertoff in its introduction to Love and the Messianic Age, a Hassidic discourse on the gospel of John:

Feivel Paul Philip Levertoff died at the age of 75 on July 31, 1954, on Rosh Chodesh Av (the new moon of the fifth month).

Just before his death, Levertoff rose from his bed and danced a joyful Chasidic dance. Meanwhile, “an ocean away”, in North America, his younger daughter Denise, completely oblivious of her father’s passing, spontaneously performed a wild dance of mourning and praise, “unaware that he, perhaps at the same moment, had risen from his deathbed at the last to perform a Hasidic dance as well.”

Quoted then is his daughter’s poem on Levertoff’s death, a moving piece exalting God and rightfully stating her father’s fulfillment of his role in restoring Israel to Messiah:

My father danced a Hassidic dance the day before he died,
His daughters they were far away, his wife was by his side.

He danced for Jesus his Messiah who rose up from the dead
And left the tomb for the upper room and was known in the breaking of bread.

Except you become as a little child my kingdom you shall not see.
So he danced in his joy as he did when a boy
and as often he danced for me.

He danced for those he left long ago and for those he never knew,
For an end of strife for eternal life for behold
I shall make all things new.

My father danced a Hassidic dance and sang with his latest breath.
The dance of peace it will never cease till life has conquered death.

My father danced and then he died and his name is a long time gone.
His voice was stilled and his task fulfilled for a people that shall be born.

-Olga Levertoff, The Ballad of My Father