Vayikra 5775:            Not So Fast

By Rabbi Joshua (patiently known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

 

Parshas Vayikra begins with God calling out to Moshe from the Ohel Moed, the Tent of Meeting, and then speaking to him, rather than speaking to him without first calling out. The midrash derives from this fact, that even though Moshe was the father of wisdom and of prophecy, eager to learn from God, he did not enter the inner sanctum to learn until he was called, to teach us that any Torah scholar who lacks derech eretz, or proper behavior traits, is on a lower level than a neveilah, the carcass of an animal that was not properly slaughtered. What is the meaning behind the imagery? Why does improper behavior resemble an animal carcass?

 

Rav Aharon Kotler, in his Mishnas Rav Aharon, explains that Torah is meant to elevate a person above his basic level of being a human being created in the image of God. First, however, a person must act in accordance with the basic dictates of human decency, of proper comportment. Once that requirement has been satisfied, he studies Torah to elevate and sanctify himself, and come closer to God.  Without first displaying basic derech eretz, however, he has not moved beyond his bare physical being, and, in that sense, is no more developed than the body of an animal.

 

This teaching of the midrash is particularly appropriate in connection with the beginning of the book of Vayikra, which teaches us of the laws of sacrifices. Ramban says that when one brings a sacrifice to atone for a sin, he should imagine that it is really himself who is being brought. This symbolic sacrifice, then, is a means of elevating one’s physical body after the commission of a sin. In this context, it is important to keep in perspective the need to develop one’s basic human character, and, only after that has been done, move onto the higher level. Otherwise, the bare animal carcass, as the midrash says, is on a higher level, perhaps in the sense that it fulfills its purpose, as a more physical entity, to a greater extent than the human being without derech eretz fulfills his purpose, as my teacher Rav Aharon Soloveitchik, zt”l, once explained in the name of Maharal of Prague. Moshe, by waiting until he was called before entering to learn, taught us this important lesson in human behavior.