Hello Friends and welcome to Torah Thoughts from Adas Israel, the Jewish Congregation of Northern Iowa, based in Mason City. Several
announcements before launching into our Torah Portion for this week. Erv Shabbat services are scheduled for Friday the 7th of April at 7:00PM. Then our Midrash for Shabbat will take place on the 8th at 10:00AM. And, we’re not done…we will gather for our Community Passover Seder after Shabbat at 7:00PM. We will mark the end of Shabbat with Havdalah (You must come) and then roll into our Seder. The meal will be catered by the wonderful Cynthia Lewerke. Feel free to bring your own Kosher Wine….but we also will have some with us. The cost for the Community Seder is $25 for adults (non-members) $15 for kids under 18 and $10 for kids under 12. Please call for reservations as space is limited. Connect with us at 515-570-2220 before April 5th. We hope to see you!
Parsha Vayikra
This week we begin a new “book” in the Torah. Vayikra is the third “book” and you would know it as Leviticus. This week we begin the reading in Lev. 1 - 5. You will find that this is the section of the Torah that contains the most Mitzvot (Commandments) and, no doubt the Romans decided to call this Leviticus due to the number of “laws” it contains.
Humility & Moses
If you look closely at the Torah Scroll you will notice that the word Vayikra contains a "small aleph". (Lev. 1:1) Without that aleph the word would be Vayikar which means “He happened upon him,” a rather defamatory term used when God spoke to the villainous Bilaam (Num. 23:4). So, what is going on? The sages tell us that because of the humility of Moses he wanted to use the word vayikar in regard to how G-d spoke to him. But, G-d commanded him to write vayikra, Moses wrote a diminutive or small aleph.
It should be noted that when G-d gave the Torah to Moses at Sinai G-d called out to Moses several times (Ex. 19:3 - 20) and Moses wrote the word vayikra without a diminutive aleph. Why the difference?
When G-d called to Moses at Sinai, it was in the presence of the entire congregation of Israelites. To have asserted his diminutive status before the eyes of everyone at that time would have been flaunting his humility, which is vanity rather than humility. Moses, therefore, did not make any pretense of humility. When he was called to the, the Tent of Meeting, however, no one but Moses heard the call (Rashi). Here the expression of humility was genuine and sincere.
There are people who try to impress others with their humility. This affected humility is the polar opposite of true humility.
The Lesson
The message of the diminutive aleph is that one can learn only when one is humble. There are some very bright people who do not learn much because they think they already know everything. Vanity is an obstacle to learning.
Interestingly, the mountain of the Sinai range where the Torah was given is the lowest in the range. This was to teach the Israelites that one can acquire Torah only if one is humble.
Repeatedly in Torah literature, Torah is symbolized by water, and it is pointed out that just as water always flows to the lowest level, so Torah flows to those who think of themselves as least. The greatest acquisition of Torah was by Moses, of whom the Torah says was “the most humble of all men on earth” (Num. 12:3)
The diminutive aleph represents both Moses' profound humility and the lesson that only with humility can one gain knowledge.
Thank you for reading, hope to see you soon and Shabbat Shalom!
Comments