Vayikra 5774: From the Heart
By Rabbi Joshua (fondly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
Parshas Vayikra begins by telling us that God called to Moshe from the tent of meeting and spoke to him (Vayikra 1:11). Rashi, citing the Toras Kohanim, says that the word “vayikra,” and He called, is an expression of love that is used before all statements and commands. Rabbi Kolonymous Kalmish Shapiro, in his Eish Kodesh, asks why Rashi chose to explain this expression here, in regard to the laws of sacrifices. After all, the expression is used when God spoke to Moshe at the burning bush, and when He gave him the Torah, as well, but Rashi did not explain the expression in those instances. What is so significant about the laws of sacrifices that led Rashi, following the Toras Kohanim to explain the expression of “vayikra” specifically in this regard?
Among Rabbi Shapiro’s answers is that since animal sacrifices represent, symbolically, the offering up of the person himself to God, as the Ramban teaches, they also represent the suffering that a person goes through in the course of his life. This, he says, is hinted to in the next verse, which says, “When a person from among you brings a sacrifice to God” (Vayikra 1:2). “Mikem,” from among you, can be understood to mean “from the person’s own being”, or from himself. Rabbi Shapiro explains that a person needs to know that the suffering he experiences in life also stems from God’s love, and this is why Rashi explains the term “Vayikra” here.
This answer of Rabbi Shapiro is very fitting for him, as he wrote his work while living in the Warsaw Ghetto, guiding the people there during their travails. We may add to his explanation that on a more basic level, following the remarks of Rav Menachem Kasher in a supplement to his Torah Shelaimah on Parshas Vayikra, that the entire institution of korbanos, of sacrifices, is an expression of one’s love for God and a desire to come close to Him. This idea is really a further development of the Ramban’s teaching that korbanos represent a symbolic offering of the person himself to God.
Perhaps we can add a further explanation for the emphasis on an expression of love in our verse, which, although not given by Rabbi Shapiro, certainly reflects his approach to Torah education, as exhibited in the role of a Rosh Yeshiva who taught adolescents in pre-World War II Poland. Rabbi Zechariah Wallerstein, in a stirring address on Jewish education given at this past year’s Agudath Israel convention, spoke of the need for teachers to endear themselves to their students, following the lead of Boaz, who brought Rus closer to God by calling her “Rus my daughter.” He cited Rav Chaim Yosef Azulai, the Chidah, in his Nachal Kedumin to Vayeitzei, who points out that when God appears to Yaakov in a prophetic dream on his way to Lavan’s home, He identifies Himself as “the God of Avraham your father and the God of Yitzchok (Bereishis 28:13). Why does He refer to Yaakov’s grandfather, Avraham, as his father, and to Yitzchok, who was actually his father, merely as Yitzchok? The Chida answers that when Yaakov was growing up, Avraham was already an older man, and spent a great deal of time teaching Torah to him. While learning with him, he undoubtedly repeatedly called him “Yaakov my son!” Yitzchok, however, spent his time mostly with Eisav, and although we do find that he called Eisav “my son,” the posuk does not record that he called Yaakov in that way as well. This, said Rabbi Wallerstein, is a powerful message to educators regarding the importance of treating their students in a loving manner, showing that they care for them. Perhaps, then, this is another reason why the message of the word “Vayikra”, as an expression of love, is used here in regard to the laws of korbanos. As Rav Yissochor Frand has pointed out, we have here the best teacher in the world, God Himself, and the best student, Moshe, and a topic that is profound and fascinating, and yet, without using an expression of love in the teaching process, the effort will not succeed to its full extent.