Rabbi's Sermons

Shabat Shalom!

We begin reading a new book, Leviticus - Vayikra, which begins in its first verse: “And called (Vayikra) the Lord unto Moshe, and spoke unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation”. Very few people notice that the letter ALEF at the end of the word VAYIKRA is written in a very small superscript form. This is not normal but there is an explanation for this.

Rabbi Samuel David Luzzatto (known by the acronym Shadal) from 19^th century Italy explained that when the Torah text was received, it was originally written as a huge chain of 304,805 letters, with no spaces in between, no vowels, no exclamation signs of any kind: question marks, exclamation points, commas... nothing, just an immense string of letters, which provides with a very large number of options on how the Hebrew text can be read, which in turn, may rise an unimaginable number of interpretations of the texts. There are cases in Hebrew, when when the last letter of a word is the same first letter of the next word, as for example in English "Michael loves" has a double "L" at the end of “Michael” and the beginning of “loves”. This occurs in this verse. In the word VAYIKRA, the last letter is Aleph, and Aleph is the first letter of the word EL - God. In this case only ONE Aleph letter was written.

Centuries later in the 10^th century of the common era, the Geonim (sages) established the FINAL form in a single text. This explains the differences found in several words, when comparing the current Torah with the Ethiopian or Yemenite version that remained without changes. This is in fact the current version that we know now and that became the official one, in order to avoid copying errors in days when the printing press did not exist yet and the Kitvei Yad (manuscripts) were the only way to write the Torah from generation to generation. The Masoretes, Jewish scholars who lived in Tiberias, Israel, during the early medieval period approximately 7^th to 10^th centuries common era, were the rabbis who developed with great wisdom the use of written vowels, symbols of music (Taamei Mikra) and most importantly, they placed the spaces between the letters that would separate words for an easy reading and avoid multiple "unofficial interpretations” according to their views. It was then when they saw the need to ADD the letter Aleph to the text, which by the way, was not in the original, in order to convert both words into legible words. To make this added Aleph noticeable, it was written in a smaller form than normal text.

There is another reason found in a midrash from the Baal Haturim which explains that Moshe, when receiving the text, refused to write VAYIKRA - “And He called” because it would give too much importance to Moshe… how could it be that the creator of the Universe himself was looking for Moshe to ask for his attention? Moshe wrote VAYIKAR without the Aleph, which provides another concept from the Hebrew root MIKRE (an event), a way to explain the moment God spoke with Moshe, so the text would read: "And it happened that Adonay spoke to Moshe..." etc. But the Eternal one, realizing it, subtly corrected him and Moshe in his great humility wrote the letter Aleph, but smaller than the normal text.

There is a third interpretation in Torat Am, where Rab Menachem Cohen explains that the little Aleph letter, comes to remind us that in order to understand all the vast knowledge of the Torah we must start in small steps... little by little... I still remember as if it were in these moments, my very dear Rabbi Samuel Simcha Lerer of blessed memory, when he showed me the first Hebrew book and he said to me... "Look David... this symbol is called Aleph...".

In the same Torat Am, Rabbi Israel Marozhin also explains in Hebrew “small” is called “Zeirá - זעירה” with the letter AYIN, but it should be read as “Zehirá - זהירה” with the letter HEI - which comes from the word "to be careful or to warn". This tiny Aleph is a wake-up call to those rabbis or personalities, who ostentatiously declare that they are closer to God than Klal Israel (the people of Israel) or who claim to have a higher level of spirituality, or who have such closeness to divinity, which can influence miracles or, as has been recently common, “liberate the people of Israel” from this terrible war that affects the entire Middle East. Rabbi Marozhin explains that in their pride these people alienate Shechina - the divine presence.

The Talmud Pesachim 66b reinforces this idea: "Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: Everyone who is boastful, if he is wise loses his wisdom, if he is a prophet loses his prophecy". In the Talmud period, even great Geonim (wise men) used to add the word HAKATAN (the little one) in their signatures and nobody believed them because they were great in knowledge! Today, I have been shocked and saddened to see how some rabbis add extended and stunning titles - almost noble - before their name giving them a special greatness: ‘The Admur” (Adonenu Morenu verabenu - Our Lord, Master and Rab), or “Rab Hagadol” (the great Rabbi), “Hamekubal” (the one accepted by all), “Harishon Letzion” (The first in Sion), “Hagaon” (The sage) and others. Curiously, in doing so, they achieve precisely the opposite reaction in a large part of the population in Israel, at least half of it who are secular, who do not believe in them, nor accept them at all.

Perhaps it is worth remembering Rabbi Kuk of blessed memory, teacher of my teacher Rabbi Lerer. Rav Kuk, who was the Chief Rabbi of Israel used to put in his signature: “Eved LeAm kodesh al admat kodesh - servant of the holy people in the holy land” and he signed without any title, not even as a rabbi! simply with his name: "Abraham Itzhak Hacohen Kuk". It is impressive to recognize how only a tiny letter in the Torah can teach us so much about humility, modesty, and closeness to the creator of the Universe. Let us humbly acknowledge in a minuscule "Zeirá - זעירה" form... our dependence on divine mercy, and on the other hand in an important "Zehirá - זהירה" warning way, before the immensity and grandeur of all his creation.

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi David Laor

April 4^th, 2025