Vayikra / The Calling

Vayikra, וַיִּקְרָא  "And He Called" Leviticus 1:1-5:26

Poetic notes on Parashat Vayikra*

A small Aleph˙*

A large Aleph

A mediating Aleph between

What Aleph is this?

A small Yod above

A larger Yod below

A mediating Vav between

This is the Aleph of revelation

The smallest letter is Yod

The cusp of the Yod is its smallest stroke˙*˙

Yet it reaches to the highest height

So too does the humble spirit of Moshe

Which comes from the soul of Moshiach

Just as the glory of the crowning emanation

Is hidden from all eyes

So the top of the cusp of the Yod

Is hidden in the hidden glory

That which is smallest

May contain that which is greatest

Israel is G-d’s newborn

The newborn is loved with the greatest love

This is the G-dly source

Of the worth of the Jew

Whose holy pride is in the Yod of wisdom

Whose heart is in the Heh of understanding

Whose prayer is in the Vav of revelation

Whose home is in the Heh of the kingdom

Giant Adam named all the animals

Giving joy to all the angels

But when he transgressed

Little Israel was born

To elevate the animal soul

To redeem the angels from the death

Of time and space

And in his latter years

Adam sat himself down at Moshe’s feet

To learn the Torah

Saying to Israel

Surely it is you

Who have inherited the right to my name

*Being a meditation on a Torah class on parashah Vayikra, delivered by Rabbi Baitelman of ChaBaD Richmond, B.C., based on the series, Torah Studies, by Rohr Jewish Learning Institute. Neither Rabbi Baitelman nor the JLI have reviewed or approved of the content of this post. 

˙*  Vayikra  ("And he called") is the opening word in the first verse of Leviticus.  The last letter in the word is an aleph, א.  In Torah scrolls, only at this place, in this word, the letter is written very small in contrast to all other letters, something like this:  ויקרא .  It is held that the reason for this is in recognition of the great humility of Moshe.  In contrast to this small aleph in Leviticus 1:1, in 1st Chronicles 1:1, at the beginning of the name of Adam, the aleph is written twice as large at the other letters, something like this:  אדם.

˙*˙ The letter, vav, is the first Hebrew letter (reading from the right) in the word vayikra, ויקרא . The letter, aleph, the last letter in the Hebrew spelling of the word, vayikra, is itself composed of the letter yod on top and bottom, with a stylized form of the letter vav between the two yods. The letter, yod, is the second Hebrew letter (reading from the right) in the word vayikra, ויקרא .  

The small size of the letter, yod, can be easily seen.  When written in the script of a Torah scroll, the letter, yod, has a cusp at the top of the letter which tapers to a point. In Kabbalistic teaching, the highest attribute to emanate from G-d as He spoke, commanding the creation of the worlds, is Keter, which means "Crown", and is the attribute of His Will. Immediately following this attribute is the attribute of Wisdom, Chochmah. In this understanding, the letter yod is said to represent the attribute of Wisdom, which has the quality of being potentially revealed, even if only to the most spiritual of human perceptions.  The attribute of G-d's will cannot, however, be perceived by self-evidence in any way. It is possible to hear G-d's commandments but not to know His mind. It is said that the cusp and point of the yod reaches up from the attribute of Chochmah, Wisdom, to (and is hidden in) the will of the attribute of the crown, the Will of G-d emanated as an attribute of G-d into creation.