Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Vayikra
- Vayikra
The Torah study is dedicatedin the memory of
Simha bat Hana
In his humility, Moshe did not want to write a word that suggested that Gd regularly called to him. He wanted to appear as merely an occasional recipient of Gd’s call – Vayikar. When Gd insisted that the aleph be included, Moshe inserted the aleph, but he made it smaller than the rest of the word.
None of us is a Moshe, but each of us is bidden to hear the call of Gd embedded within His Torah. We might think –might even wish! – that this call is only occasional - Vayikar . Not so. Gd calls us through Vayikra - with a healthy, full-sized aleph.
Gd has provided us with special listening devices to enable us to hear His call. Through Torah study we can enter, however tentatively, the Divine Mind of Gd. Through prayer, we enable Gd to enter into our hearts and souls. Gemilut chasadim, deeds of kindness, is another "hearing aid" by which the echo of Gd resounds in our actions. And each of the 613 mitzvot constitutes a distinctive modality of Gd’s call. Together they combine to make us the recipients of Gd’s full Vayikra.
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Gd can be heard anywhere, but primarily on the soil of Eretz Yisrael is His call heard most clearly, minus the foreign static that is endemic to the Diaspora. Although Israel is often cacophonous, one can hear the call of Gd here as in no other place.
In this Land, it is Vayikra, not Vayikar.
Rabbi Emanuel Feldman, retired editor of Tradition and formerly rabbi in Atlanta, has just published his eighth book, "Biblical Questions, Spiritual Journeys."
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part I
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Our King on Rosh Hashana, Our Father on Yom Kippur.
Based on Aroch Siach, p. 221 (Rav Shaul Yisraeli)
