Parshat Vayikra  7 Nissan 5761, 31 March 2001

By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel -

"And the Lord summoned Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting saying:" (Leviticus 1:1)

The Book of Leviticus opens with the verse "And the Lord summoned Moses," the first word being the Hebrew "Vayikra," which means, "and He summoned or "called out to;" it is fascinating that a small "aleph" is the masoretic, traditional way of writing the Hebrew VYKRA, so that the text actually states "Vayiker, and He chanced upon, " as if by accident. Rashi comments: "The word VaYiKRA precedes all (Divine) commandments and statements, which is a term of endearment used by the heavenly angels...; however, G-d appeared to the prophets of the idolatrous nations of the world with a temporary and impure expression, as it is written 'And He chanced upon (Va Yiker) Balaam'". Apparently, when Moses was writing the Torah dictated by G-d, he was too humble to accept for himself the more exalted and even angelic Divine charge of VaYiKRA; therefore, he wrote the less complimentary VaYiker relating to himself, retaining his faithfulness to G-d's actual word VaYiKRA ("And He Summoned") by appending a small aleph to the word VaYiKR.

The midrash goes one step further. It poignantly, if albeit naively, pictures the heavenly scene of Moses, having completed his writing of the Five Books, being left with a small portion of unused Divine ink; after all, the Almighty had dictated VaYiKRA and Moses had only written VYiKR A,, rendering the ink which should have been used for the regular size aleph as surplus. The midrash concludes that the Almighty Himself, as it were, took that extra ink and lovingly placed it on Moses' forehead; that is what gave rise to Moses "rays of splendor."

Behind this seemingly simplistic but beautiful description lies a world of profound thought. Moses did not transfer all of the Divine ink to the Torah parchment; obviously not, if we understand the ink to be the symbol of G-d's words, because there was much behind the actual letters of Torah which Moses understood, but which was too profound for him to successfully communicate to others. As Maimonides explains in his Guide for the Perplexed, Moses was on the highest level of the ladder of prophecy; only he - and none other of his contemporaries - were able to fully comprehend the Divine will. Moses wrote down and explained (the Oral Law) as much as he felt could be understood at least by Joshua and the elders; the rest, he retained within his mind and within his soul. The aspects of Torah which Moses retained within himself but did not write or speak is graphically expressed by the midrash as the extra ink placed upon his forehead.

Most people are less than they appear to be - or, at least, are less than what they would like us to think they are. They immediately try to impress us with what and whom they know, dropping names and terms which imply that they are far more knowing and knowledgeable than they actually are. As another midrash describes it, they are like the pig who extends his cloven hoof as if to advertise, "You see how Kosher I am, you see how Kosher I am". If we look more deeply at the pig, however, one will readily discern that he is not Kosher all, because he lacks a double digestive tract. Based upon this midrashic image, Yiddish folklore refers to any individual who tries to impress others at a first meeting with how much he knows when he really knows very little, as "chazir fissel kosher" (the pig's hoof only appears to be kosher).

Most people are less than they appear to be - and wear artificial masks as cover-ups in order to make a false impression; indeed persona, the base word for personality, is the Greek word for mask. There are however, those rare individuals who are more than they appear to be, who have much more knowledge, insight and sensitivity than they would ever wish to, or feel that they are able to, communicate to others. It is that inner wisdom, hidden from the outside world of externals, which causes a charismatic glow of radiance to emanate from the countenance of such people. In the case of Moses, his concealed depths of spiritual and intellectual understanding were of such a highly charged nature that they emanated rays of splendor which necessitated him to wear a mask - not to exaggerate who he was, but rather to minimize the Divine sparks which his inner self naturally and automatically projected (Exodus 34:33).

Once we understand that the Torah which Moses received from G-d contained much more, eternally more, than he ever communicated in either written or oral formulations, we may begin to understand the powerful source for an unending and constantly regenerating Oral Tradition. Indeed, "whatever creative interpretation a learned and devoted scholar - student may expound was originally given to Moses at Sinai." And at the same time, we now understand the real source of charismatic rays of splendor.

Shabbat Shalom.

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