Questions and Commentary
on Parashat Vayyiqra
1. The name of this week's Torah portion is derived from
its opening word Vayyiqra, which
means "And (God) called (Moses)." In the Torah, the last letter of this word is
written with a small aleph. Why? What does it teach us about Moses and godly
character in general?
Rabbi Jason Sobel
The reason the last
letter of the opening word of this week's parasha - Vayyiqra - is
written with a small alef is to due to Moses' great humility. Tradition
tells us that as Moses did not want to begin the third book of the Torah with
the word, Vayyiqra, which means "And (God) called (Moses)," because he
felt it afforded him too much honor and distinction. He was reluctant to have
it recorded for all time that God directly called him alone to be the first
person to enter the newly completed Mishkan "Tabernacle" which contained
the glory of God (Tosafot). As a testimony to Moses' humility, God
allowed him to write the letter alef in a smaller case.
The letter alef is
the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Being the first letter, the alef
is the "lead" or "chief" letter of the 22 letter Hebrew alphabet. This is
alluded to by the etymological relationship of the letter to alef to the
word aluf, which means "chief" or "leader." This hints at the fact that
although Moses was one of Israel's
greatest leaders and regularly spoke with God fact to face, he never thought of
himself as greater than any other Jew, despite numerous suggestions to the
contrary.
His request to reduce the
alef is clearly meant to demonstrate to us that Moses humbled himself
and made himself small in both the sight of God and Israel.
It is precisely for this reason that Moses was chosen by God to redeem Israel
from Egypt with
miraculous signs and transmit the Torah to Israel. As Midrash Rabbah states,
Hillel used to say: ‘My self-abasement is my exaltation, my
self-exaltation is my abasement.' What is the proof? You find that when the
blessed Holy One revealed himself to Moses from the midst of the thorn-bush,
Moses hid his face from God, as it is said, "And Moses hid his face, etc."
(Exodus 3:6). Because of this the blessed Holy One said to him, "Come now
therefore, and I will send you unto Pharaoh" (Exodus 3:10). At the Red Sea he [i.e.
Moses] stood aside, and the blessed Holy One said to him, "Lift up your rod,
and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it" (Exodus 14:15), as if to
say: ‘If you will not divide it, no one else will divide it.' At Sinai, as
well, Moses stood aside; when God said to him, "Come up unto the Lord" (Exodus
24:1), as if to say: ‘If you will not come up, no one else will come up.' In
the Tent of Meeting he stood aside, but the blessed Holy One said to him: ‘How
long will you abase and lower yourself? The hour waits but for you!' The proof
is as follows, out of all the people the divine word called none but Moses, [as
it is written], AND THE LORD CALLED UNTO MOSES.
The Torah itself speaks
of Moses great humility when is says, "Now the man Moses was very humble, more
than all men who were on the face of the earth."
All of us should follow
Moses' example and strive to be humble people for humility is a necessary for
godliness and is a prerequisite for spirit empowered leadership. But what does
Moses-like humility look like? It means being humble in both thought and
deed.
Being humble in thought
means 1) not thinking too highly of oneself; 2) not thinking one is especially
deserving of praise and honor; 3) esteeming others as greater them oneself
(Philippians 2:3). According to Rabbi Moses Chaim Luzzatto (the Ramchal)
humility of thought is cultivated through: 1) conducting oneself with
lowliness; 2) bearing insults; 3) not desiring positions of authority and
fleeing honor; 4) showing honor to all people.
Moses and Messiah Yeshua
embodied the essence of humility in thought, word, and deed. They constantly
put others' needs and honor before their own. Let each of us strive to follow
their example and by so doing reach greater levels of spirituality and
leadership.
2. The closing section of Parashat Vayyiqra details the sacrifice which must be offered when
someone "sins and commits a trespass against the LORD by dealing deceitfully
with his fellow" (Leviticus 5:20).
What is this pattern of restitution? What spiritual principles can we learn
from it?
Rabbi Jonathan
Kaplan
The opening parasha
of Leviticus - Vayyiqra - details the various offerings which are to be
brought before God: the burnt-offering, the meal-offering, the peace-offering,
the sin-offering and the guilt-offering. In the last of these sections, the
Torah details the conditions upon which someone is required to bring an 'asham
(traditionally rendered as "guilt-offering"). The 'asham is offered in
three cases: (1) when one unknowingly fails to perform a sacrificial responsibility
(Leviticus 5:15-16), (2) when one
unknowingly violates one of the negative commandments of the LORD (Leviticus 5:17-19), and (3) when one deals deceitful
with his or her neighbor in business, through fraud, through robbery, or by
lying about found property ('asham gezilut).
First, what is
interesting in this last case - the 'asham gezilut - is that the Torah
understands our trespass against our neighbor as "trespass against the LORD"
(Leviticus 5:20). Sin in the
relational world of our community impairs our relationship with God. The
Torah's response to this spiritual reality is commanding that one must first
seek restitution with one's neighbor in these situations of deceit, robbery,
lying, and fraud before one brings an offering to God. Our sages in the Mishna
understood the importance of making restitution with our neighbor.
One who robs his neighbor of a peruta's worth (the smallest Hebrew coin), and takes an oath on it
shall follow him to make it good, even as far as Media (in modern day Iran,
a distance of several weeks travel at the time).
m. Bava Kamma
9:5
Yom Kippur atones for offences between a person and God. Yom
Kippur does not atone for offences between a person and his or her neighbor
until a person has appeased his or her neighbor.
m. Yoma 6:9
Yeshua extends the
priority of making restitution with one's neighbor before making an offering to
God to all offerings.
If, when you bring your offering to the altar, you suddenly
remember that your brother has a grievance against you, leave your gift where
it is before the altar. First, go make your peace with your brother, and only
then come back and offer your offering.
Matthew 5:23f
Second, in addition to
placing a priority on making restitution with one's neighbor before making
restitution with God, the Torah also places a priority on making restitution
immediately upon recognizing one's guilt. The Torah is emphatic that the person
is supposed to make restitution beyom 'ashmato "on the day he realizes
his guilt" (Leviticus 5:25).
Finally, restitution is
not merely in the form of an apology or the return of the item stolen but
entails the offending party making restitution plus an additional fifth. From
our perspective, we would understand this as being 120% of what was stolen or
defrauded. The sages read the additional fifth as one fifth of the amount being
restored not the amount being stolen. This means that the amount of restitution
is 125% of the original amount stolen or defrauded (Sifra Parashat Vayyiqra
Dibura DeHata'ot Parashta 13). If the math seems a bit complex, you
nevertheless understand that restitution bears a cost. It is not just a simple
apology but must be carried swiftly in recognition of how the trespass has
affected our relationship with God and the cost which our neighbor has
incurred.
Jon David
Matthew 14:12-33 - Removing our Masks
As a young boy I always
struggled with the depiction of Israel
as they were led out of Egypt.
It seemed farcical that a people could continually doubt God in the face of
miracle upon miracle.
Now, as I look at the
story of Yeshua walking on water it is becoming apparent that this "farce" is
actually part of the normative human interaction with the Divine. Peter was
already walking on water then, and only then, did he start to sink. Israel
waited at the base of Sinai in the presence and voice of God and what do they
do? They make a golden calf to worship.
The question I want to
ask is, how is unbelief possible even in the presence of God?
How do we answer this? Do
we say that it was the destiny of those who didn't believe to not believe? Do
we say that it was because they had lived in bondage for so long that they
where not yet ready to believe? Do we say that Peter had not yet come to full
belief in Yeshua or that Israel
had not yet come to full belief in God? If we agree with any of these
statements or others like them then we have a problem that we have to deal with
because in reality we are saying them about ourselves.
When was the last time
you struggled to believe God for something. Maybe you lost a job and were
worried about how you would be taken care of. Maybe it was something bigger.
The point is, we create a
myth of spiritual superiority when we think things like, if I were there I
would have believed, or, if it were me, I wouldn't have doubted. Because, if we
are honest with ourselves, we have all had those times when we questioned God -
when we doubted.
Why do we create this
myth then when in reality we are guilty of many types of unbelief?
Perhaps there is
something systemic in our religious institutions that fill us with the belief
that we are different than "they." Perhaps it is more endemic than that. Is it
our culture or is it beyond culture - even universal to human experience?
We just had Purim where
one of the traditions is to wear a mask in order to hide our true identity from
others. This year I came to the realization that when we hide our true identity
from others we also hide ourselves from the true identity of others. My
challenge to you all this week is to find those masks in yourself, in your
congregations, in society - wherever they are and remove them. Let us not
create any more myths about who we are but instead live in the reality of who
we are trying to become and where we actually are in that process. We cannot
effectively live as children of the light if we can't honestly assess
ourselves. Sometimes we start to sink and other times we keep on walking but
each step forward we take is a step forward for the Kingdom
of Heaven.
Parashat Vayyiqra
1. The name of this week's Torah portion is derived
from its opening word Vayyiqra, which means "And (God) called (Moses)."
In the Torah, the last letter of this word is written with a small aleph. Why?
What does it teach us about Moses and godly character in general?
2. The closing section of Parashat Vayyiqra details the
sacrifice which must be offered when someone "sins and commits a trespass
against the LORD by dealing deceitfully with his fellow" (Leviticus 5:20). What is this pattern of restitution?
What spiritual principles can we learn from it?
NEXT WEEK'S READINGS
- PARASHAT TSAV-SHABBAT HACHODESH
Leviticus
6:1-8:36
Malachi
3:4-3:24
Luke
9:18-36
UPCOMING YACHAD NETWORK EVENTS
3rd Annual Young Leaders Shabbaton
Beverly
Hills, CA ● June 8-9, 2007
6th Annual Young Messianic Jewish
Scholars Conference
Beverly
Hills, CA ● June 10-11, 2007
Learning 
