Parshas Vayikra's Lesson: Innovation and the Power of a Small Aleph

Rav Shach began his talk with the following shocking statement. He said Ve'aim er lachem, I'm going to tell you now, dov'ar she'u'lai ain any yachal maybe I am not right for telling it to you ve'a'i any rashaila da'aberu l'hovenkach, and maybe I'm already incorrect for saying it and even thinking it. So you know we're about to get something good. And oh, do we get something good. Listen to this pearl of wisdom for the great Panavichur, rosh Hashiva's Reinal of Rakhah. He begins by pointing out to us that Vayikra el-Mayshe, the very beginning of our safer, the very beginning of our parshah. It begins with Hashem calling out to Moshe and then he continues to tell Moshe, after the calling, all of the details of the sacrifices and offerings. But the aleph in the word Vayikra is tiny. It's an aleph ze'ira. It's written smaller in the Torah scroll than all of the other surrounding and other letters. Why? There are many answers, but perhaps the most famous is the Balaturim.

Rav Shah points to the Balaturim who explains to us because, moshe Rabbeinu, he did not want to even write an aleph at all, because Vayikra is a very impressive way of being paged and called by Hashem. It's the way that the top dog, the real great sages and honorable menches. They get called by that word, vayikra, when Hashem wants to speak to them. But Moshe being the ultimate humble individual, so bashful un-of-Mikol-adam, the most humble man of all time, he didn't want to write Vayikra, he wanted to take out the aleph, so it became Vayikar, a much more subdued calling, so it wouldn't be so grand of a paging. But Hashem said no. But Amr al-Lakhar al-Shbahr, who luchtov gama aleph, write that aleph Vayikra. So Moshe wrote it small so that he could fulfill his obligation.

But Rav Shah then asks surely you're aware that this isn't the first Vayikra in the Torah? All of a sudden, moshe is a little bit uncomfortable because Hashem called to him in a very proud way, impressive way. This isn't the first time that Vayikra's mentioned. So why now? And oh, here comes the idea, cesar of Shah, that you think that Moshe Rabbeinu just shechted and destroyed his Yehtsahara, as if now he is totally humble and there isn't a struggle.

Cesar of Shah, no, the Chayvah's halavovis tells us that the Yehtsahara is stitched into the fiber of your being, shaiyetsah and Emaniah. Adam Clally never leaves you alone, otherwise you'd be six feet under. And Moshe Rabbeinu was no different. He was a mortal man that had a beating heart and the Yehtsahara had told him on this day wow, look how impressive you are.

And Moshe Rabbeinu and his Milchamas Hayetser said I have an idea. I'm going to write a small aleph, I have a new way to fight back. I'm going to keep myself humble by writing Vayikar that was his way of fighting the Yehtsahara and Cesar of Shah that Moshe Rabbeinu didn't come up with this new insight and tactic to fight the evil inclination until Vayikar. Before this, he hadn't had this idea. That's why only now is Vayikar with a small aleph, our battle. It never ends, not even for the greatest ones. But that is what life's about, that you keep coming up with new tactics, never just on autopilot, but constantly filling your gas tank with energy to fight back, with new schemes, new charts, new stepping stones to get by the traps of the Yehtsahara. That's why we have the small aleph, because of Moshe Rabbeinu's Cesar-less fight against the Yehtsahara, to constantly stay humble and become a total Everashen.