From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 2:35
AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Vayikra,
5765
The
Pity of it All
By
Rabbi Joshua (submissively known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
Special
thanks to Rabbi Chaim Crupar, of Kingsbridge Jewish Center, and Al Gordon, of
Talkline Communications Network, for the suggestions and ideas which they
contributed to this week's Netvort.
This week's parsha, in which
God informs Moshe of the laws of sacrifice in the mishkan, begins with the
words, " And He called to Moshe, and God spoke to him from the tent of meeting
saying" (Vayikra 1:1). The midrash, in Toras Kohanim, notes that whenever God
spoke to Moshe, He first called to him, as an expression of endearment, but it
is only noted in the Torah three times - when God first spoke to Moshe, at the
burning bush (Shemos 2:4), when God spoke to Moshe before the giving of the
Torah at Mt. Sinai (Shemos 19:20), and here, in the Tent of Meeting. Rabbi
Zalman Sorotzkin, in his Oznayim LeTorah, explains that these three times are
singled out, because they constituted, respectively, the first time God spoke
with Moshe, the first time God spoke to both Moshe and Yisroel, and the first
time He spoke to Moshe from the new location of the Tent of Meeting.
Rabbi Sorotzkin also notes that the word for 'and he called' - vayikra -
is written with a small aleph at the end of the word. Many explanations, he
says, have been given for that, but none of them explain why it is only here, of
the three places where the expression of 'vayikra' is used in connection
with God's speaking to Moshe, that the aleph is written in that way. He suggests
several answers to this question, of which I will mention only one. Rabbi
Sorotzkin writes that the aleph is small here as if to indicate that Moshe
barely heard the entire call before he jumped into action, in contrast to the
first time God called to him at the sneh, and bid him to go to Egypt and tell
Pharaoh to let his nation go to the wilderness to serve Him. Moshe saw the
divine reaction to that refusal, and understood that because of it, he lost the
priesthood - the kehunah - and was now giving it over to his brother Aharon and
his sons. That is why he now jumped to action, because he was now implementing
the order which resulted from his initial refusal. This explanation, however,
does not explain why the aleph is not missing when God called to Moshe at Mt.
Sinai. I would therefore like to offer a different explanation of both the
reason for the Torah singling out the three places it did to mention that God
called to Moshe, and through this connection to explain why there is a small
aleph only in this third instance.
The midrash tells us, in parshas
Shemos, that the reason God chose Moshe to be his agent to redeem the nation
from slavery was that when he was leading the flock of his father-in-law Yisro,
one sheep broke loose, looking for water, and Moshe ran after it to find it. The
sheep ran to Mt. Sinai, and it was there that God, seeing the compassion that
Moshe had for the stray lamb, spoke to him, from the burning bush, bidding him
to act as His messenger and lead the Jewish nation out of Egypt and to that
mountain, to receive the Torah. The word for bush - ' sneh' - says the midrash,
cited by Rabbeinu Bachya in his commentary to Shemos, is related to Sinai, and
it was there that God would ultimately give the Torah to His nation through
Moshe. The reason God chose Moshe to lead his people out of Egypt, and to give
them the Torah at Sinai, then, was because he displayed compassion for a lamb,
which God saw as an indication that he would certainly show compassion for his
people. Ramban, in his commentary to parshas Terumah, writes that the main
purpose of the mishkan was to transfer the experience of Sinai to a structure
that would be with the people on a constant basis. With these factors in mind,
we can now offer an explanation of the small aleph in the word 'vayikra' as it
appears in our parsha, and understand why it appears only here, and not in the
other two places that 'vayikra' is mentioned.
Many commentators -
most notably Rabbeinu Ya'akov ben Asher, in both his Ba'al HaTurim and in his
longer Torah commentary - write that the small aleph is an indication of Moshe's
humility. The word 'vayikra' without the aleph can be read as 'vayikar,' which
is an expression of happenstance, or impermanence, the kind of expression used
in connection with God's communications with Bilaam (Bamidbar 23:4). Moshe in
his humility, asked that the word not be written in full. God agreed, in part,
to his request, and had the aleph written as a small letter, as if it were not
there. Perhaps we can offer a variation of this explanation by saying that Moshe
obliterated his own personality in this instance of God's calling. Why did he do
so? As we have seen, he merited prophecy because he showed compassion for a
single sheep, and the prophecy he had at that time was the beginning of a
process that culminated at Sinai. Now, at the tent of meeting, God was calling
him in order to present him with the laws of sacrifices. The sacrificial order
involved the daily slaughtering of animals, and constituted an institution that
a person sensitive to the rights of animals may object to. However, as the
Rambam writes in his Mishneh Torah, at the end of his Laws of Meilah, ultimately
we must view all of the laws of sacrifices as chukim, or laws of God whose
reason is not easily comprehended by us. Even though Moshe merited his prophecy
because he showed compassion to animals, he understood that compassion is in
place as long as it does not contradict the command of God. Therefore, he
did not let his feelings for animals, which were brought out so starkly when he
tended Yisro's flock, come into play now, when God spoke to him in the tent of
Meeting, to give him the laws of the sacrificial service.
By reacting to
God's calling in the way that he did, Moshe avoided the mistake later made
by King Shaul, as recorded in the haftarah reading for this week, that of
parshas Zachor, taken from the first Book of Shmuel. Shmuel, imparting God's
command to Shaul, says, ".. go and strike Amaleik and destroy everything he has,
have no pity on him ; kill man and woman alike, infant and suckling alike, ox
and sheep alike, camel and donkey alike" (Shmuel 1, 15:3). Shaul proceeded to
fight Amaleik, and defeated them, and captured their king, Agag. However, in the
battle that he proceeded to fight, Shaul did not carry out God's command to
destroy all of Amaleik. Rather, as we read, " Shaul and the people took pity on
Agag ; on the best of the sheep and cattle, the fatted bulls and the fatted
sheep…...and they did not destroy them" (15:9). Because Shaul did not carry out
God's command exactly as he had received it, he lost his kingship. He did
not learn from Moshe that one cannot question the command of God, even if that
questioning arises from one's sense of pity and compassion. We need to surrender
our own thoughts of morality to the ultimate wisdom of God, as Moshe did when he
received his calling at the Tent of Meeting. (see also Netvort to parshas
Tetzaveh, 5758, available at Torahheights.com., for more on this theme).
Please
address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following
address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.
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