Leviticus 1:1-5:26 | Isaiah 42:21-44:23 | Matthew 14:12-33

This week's edition of The Set Table contains:

Questions and Commentary on Shabbat Vayyiqra
Chayyei Yeshua - A Devotional Commentary on the Besora Reading
Looking Ahead

Questions & 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 alef. 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 letters 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 that 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 that 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 (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 ('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). 

Jon David

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 whom 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.

NEXT WEEK'S READINGS - PARASHAT TSAV

Leviticus 6:1-8:36
Malachi 3:4-24
Luke 9:18-36