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Photo: Yossi Zeliger, Emunah
Liora Minka
Photo: Yossi Zeliger, Emunah

Weekly Torah Portion: Vayikra

In the Torah scroll, the last letter of the first word "Vayikra" is written in a smaller font. This is not the only unusual letter in the Torah. The first word of the book of Chronicles also has an unusual alef in the word Adam, referring to the first man. In this instance, it is written in a larger font. Most of the letters in the Torah are of a uniform size. For our purposes, we consider them as medium sized – neither too big nor too small.

 

The Lubavitch Rabbi put forward the following idea: the Torah tells us that man's general mission is to be on a medium level, that is to be aware of his faults on the one hand, and his virtues on the other hand, but not to overemphasize either. The large alef in Chronicles comes to describe the greatness of Adam– about whose wisdom G-d Himself testified was greater than the wisdom of the ministering angels. The small alef in our portion hints at the humility of Moshe, who despite his many virtues, was "more humble than any man on earth" (Numbers 12, 3).

 

Adam also represents the fall of man due to the sin of eating from the tree of knowledge. This teaches us that one must not exaggerate the value of self knowledge of one's good and important virtues. Every person has both positive and negative traits. This also applies to Moshe. With all his feelings of humility, he was also aware of his good qualities. "And He called to Moshe", opens our portion, and thus expresses the affection with which G-d summoned him. Moshe knows that he was the one to receive the Torah at Sinai, and is aware that his spiritual powers, which made him deserving of receiving the Torah, cannot be underestimated.

 

Each and every Jew has a portion of Adam's spirit and also a spark from Moshe's soul. Thus, it is clear that everyone must be aware of his own worth, his abilities, his uniqueness and his good qualities. One should also take advantage of them, to aspire to greater heights, but not to overreach oneself and not to boast. Conversely, man must remember "from whence he came, and to where he is going and before Whom he will be obliged to give an account". It is not a case of "my strength and the power of my hand".

 

Therefore, he must be humble and modest in his own eyes. With humility and with the concept of the average between the undersized alef and the oversized alef, man may reach true perfection whereby he will deserve and merit to be summoned with affection, just like G-d summons Moshe at the beginning of the portion.

 

Written by Liora Minka, chairperson of Emunah

 


פרסום ראשון: 03.27.09, 09:19
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