Parshas Vayikra Divrei Torah and Insights 5780

בּ“ה

Parshas Vayikra

This edition of Shabbos Sparks is dedicated as a zechus for a Refuah Shleimah mi’heira

to anybody infected with the coronavirus, and for Hashem to “halt the plague” very speedily,

and not let anyone else catch it.

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‘And He [Hashem] called to Moshe -- ויקרא אל משה’ (Vayikra 1:1)

In a Torah Scroll, the letter א in the word ויקרא is written small. Many incredible lessons are derived from this. Among them are:

1) ----- The Seforim explain that this comes to hint to us that Torah study (alluded to by the letter אלף spelled out -- see Iyov 33:33) will not endure except in someone who “makes themselves small” i.e. humble. (Maayanah Shel Torah; Vayikra)

2) ----- The Yismach Yisroel {the second Aleksander Rebbe -- Rebbe Yerachmiel Yisroel Yitzchok Danziger zt”l} says that the small א in the word ויקרא teaches us that every single thing in life -- no matter how “small” it might seem -- is Hashem calling us (like the meaning of the word ויקרא). (Torah Wellsprings)

3) ----- The word אלף can mean to teach (see above). The Torah thus teaches us that we must teach ourselves to be small, i.e. humble. . .(Degel Machaneh Ephraim)

4) ----- Some people mistakenly think that the people who look so great and boast of their riches, greatness, etc. are the great and successful people -- that is what greatness must be! And this is how they can show others that they are great as well!

But this is not the truth: With the small א here, the holy Torah teaches us that, you know what a great person is (symbolized by the א, the first letter in the Aleph-Beis)? Someone who is modest and humble, and not always trying to show off. That is a true א person! (Tal U’Matar)

5) ----- The Ramban zt”l explains the matter of a Korban as an atonement for sin in this manner: While all the services are being performed on the animal -- the slaughter, sprinkling of the blood, burning, etc. -- the one who brought it should come to think about how terrible it is that they sinned against Hashem, and really they deserve to have all this done to them, but out of Hashem’s kindness, this animal goes in their place.

Based upon this, HaRav Yaakov Neiman zt”l suggests another lesson from the small א: If this person really takes these thoughts to heart, they will surely become humbled and return in complete Teshuva. Therefore, we begin the portion of the Torah that deals a lot with Korbanos (offerings) with a small א, to teach us that the first principle in bringing a Korban is acquiring the trait of humility. . . (Darkei Mussar; see also Lechem Yehuda)

In summary: Many, many lessons and things are derived from the small א -- we only brought some! But overall, one of the big lessons we learn from the small א is how much can be derived from every last detail in the Torah: From one letter -- a small one even! -- there are so, so many insights and lessons to be gleaned. Just imagine one word, or sentence! Indeed, the holy Torah is endlessly deep.

(Tal U’Matar)

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‘When a person from you will bring an offering to Hashem, from the animals. . .’ (Vayikra 1:2)

The verse, although translated this way, has a very interesting sequence in the Hebrew text: “אדם כי יקריב מכם” -- which would literally mean something more like, ‘A man, when he will bring from you’.

The Sforno zt”l picks up on this and explains that when one brings a Korban, it mustn’t just be the animal. You must bring from yourself with it. I.e. the sacrifice must be accompanied by confession, Teshuva, and humility. Hashem doesn’t desire an offering brought with no repentance or improvement accompanying it.

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In a slightly different vein, the Apter Rebbe, HaRav Avraham Yehoshua Heschel zt”l elucidates the verse like this: If we offer from ourselves -- meaning, if we are ready to act with much self-sacrifice for the sake of Hashem, then that is truly an ‘offering to Hashem’, and it is considered as such!

(Parperaos LaTorah cited in Peninei HaTorah)

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‘When a person from you will bring an offering to Hashem, from the animals. . .’ (Vayikra 1:2)

Tells us Rebbe Shlomo of Radomsk zt”l: Just as with a simple animal, when a Jewish person says over it “Korban” (“Offering”), immediately it is sanctified with a high level of holiness, so much so that its blood is sprinkled in the Sanctuary, kal vachomer (all the more so) if a person accepts upon themselves and declares: “From today and onwards I will try to be holy to Hashem!” then certainly, immediately, great holiness is rested upon them.

(As quoted in Vi’karasa L’Shabbos Oneg)

Somewhat similarly, the Alter of Kelm, HaRav Simcha Zissel Ziv zt”l says that we learn from the fact that an animal can become sanctified as a holy Korban through verbal designation, how incredible the power of speech is! Hashem has given us such an incredible gift and power in speech -- and when we speak, our words are not just “mere words”, but rather, potentially powerful and incredible things.

(Ateres HaMikra; Vayikra)

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The Sfas Emes zt”l notes another wonderful thing about Korbanos: There are four types of creations: #1, A domeim -- something that is completely not alive; #2, a tzameiach -- something that grows, and is thus alive in some way; #3, a chai -- which is like an animal; and #4, a midaber -- which refers to a human being.

When someone brings an offering, it would often be an animal or a bird (chai), accompanied by a Mincha-offering, which included things that originally grew from the ground, such as the olive oil (tzameiach), and of course, as we learn in this Parsha, it had to include salt (domeim). And when the person (midaber) brought this offering, they brought all four kinds together!

(Heard from my Rebbe, HaRav Moshe Shulman shlit”a)

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‘If his Offering is an Olah. . .’ (Vayikra 1:3)

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We are taught that one of the things that an Olah-offering could be brought for was to atone for a sinful thought.

Explains Rabbeinu Bachya zt”l: The Olah-offering is listed before the rest of the offerings in the parsha. And by way of the simple interpretation, it is because thought comes before everything, and a sin of thoughts about something bad comes before the actual sin in action.

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‘And they shall sprinkle the blood upon the Altar all around’ (Vayikra 1:5)

Interestingly, in the laws of the sprinkling of the blood of offerings, the blood of an animal Olah-offering is sprinkled lower down on the Mizbeach, whereas with an animal Sin-offering, it is sprinkled higher up. And just the opposite is the case with bird offerings: With an Olah, the blood is sprinkled higher up, but with a Chatas (sin-offering), it is sprinkled lower down. What is the significance of this?

HaRav Meir Shapiro zt”l elucidates the matter: A wealthier person, when they bring an Olah-offering voluntarily, they are liable to become quite haughty and prideful when they think about how big and important their Korban is. Therefore, to combat these feelings, the Torah commands that the blood of this offering be sprinkled on the lower part of the Mizbeach. But if a wealthier person sins, and therefore has to bring a sin-offering, their heart is already broken, and thus they are certainly not feeling haughty right now, so the blood of their offering can be sprinkled higher up on the Mizbeach.

With the sin-offering of a poor person, who could probably only afford a bird, there is nothing unusual with this offering from their others, so the blood gets sprinkled lower down. . . However, with the voluntary Olah-offering of a poor person, when they bring their bird, even though it is not such a huge Korban, just the act itself of someone of limited means voluntarily bringing something from their meager possessions as an offering is worthy to be emphasized and praised, so therefore, the blood of the bird is sprinkled on the upper part of the Mizbeach.

(Nitzotzei Ohr HaMeir, brought in Lekach Tov)

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‘If a person will sin. . . from any of the commandments of Hashem that may not be done, and he did one of them’ (Vayikra 4:2)

The phraseology of this verse is quite interesting. And the Kedushas Levi, Rebbe Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev zt”l, explains a great lesson from it:

It is known that the more one serves Hashem, and the higher level they reach, the more they realize their own lowliness and the inadequacy of their current service.

But if a person does a Mitzvah, and they think that they did it perfectly, and that they are truly serving Hashem as properly as they should, then this is not good at all. This is implied by our passuk: ‘If a person will sin’ -- what is their sin? ‘From any of the commandments of Hashem that are not done, and they did’ -- that they think that they did their Mitzvah perfectly and on the highest level, even though they really didn’t. . . There is always room to improve.

(Kedushas Levi al HaTorah)

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~ Maasim Tovim ~

‘ויקרא’ (Vayikra 1:1)

Chazal say that one who flees from honor, honor will pursue them, but one who chases after honor, honor will run away from them.

I heard from my Rebbe, HaRav Moshe Shulman shlit”a, a funny analogy on this concept: Honor is very fast -- much quicker than us. If you chase after it, you won’t catch it. And if you truly flee from it, it will catch up to you.

A man once came to see Rebbe Simcha Bunim of Peshischa zt”l and asked him: “I am always fleeing from honor, and even so, honor does not chase after me! So where is the truth in the words of our Sages?”

The Rebbe Reb Bunim replied, “From your question it implies that when you flee from honor, you turn to look behind you from time to time, to see if the honor is chasing you. And automatically, when the honor sees that you are turning towards it, it thinks that you are intending to chase after it, and so it immediately turns around and flees from you. . .”

What the Rebbe was trying to say, of course, is that someone who pretends to be humble, and flees from honor in order that honor will pursue them, is really chasing after it.

(Maayanah shel Torah; Vayikra p. 9-10)

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‘When a person will bring close. . . to Hashem, from the animals’ (Vayikra 1:2)

There was once a young man who had, let’s say, taken an “alternate route” to end up in Yeshiva: He had left his home in Brooklyn many years earlier to move out West, and explore Native American culture.

For many years, he lived amongst Native Americans in Montana, and had essentially become one of them. However, when he met with one of their elders, who was said to possess the deepest of wisdoms, she encouraged him to return home and pursue Judaism!

Feeling very disheartened and confused, he made his way back home, and somehow -- through Divine Providence -- ended up knocking on HaRav Shlomo Freifeld zt”l’s door. Rav Freifeld listened to the young man's story and was genuinely fascinated! He asked the young man what his greatest interest was, and the man said he is very interested in horses.

They conversed about various types of horses for a while, and then Rav Freifeld had to go, but invited his young guest to meet him again at his office the next day. The young man was impressed by Rav Freifeld’s willingness to speak with him about horses, so the next day he returned, and again began to speak about his interest in wildlife and nature for quite some time.

Their daily meetings continued on for some time, until one day, Rav Freifeld had to leave his office to tend to an urgent matter. The young man was waiting in the office for a few minutes when he saw out of the corner of his eye some books lying on the floor behind Rav Freifeld’s desk. The young man knew enough to know that Jewish books are holy and shouldn’t be left lying on the floor, so he bent down to pick them up and put them on the desk.

However, when he bent down to pick up the books, he saw that these were actually not Jewish books. . . they were books about horses from the library! It turns out that Rav Freifeld went to the library and took out several books on horses to read, in order to familiarize himself with the topic to be able to maintain a conversation with this young man.

Needless to say, this young man was deeply moved and overwhelmed by Rav Freifeld’s effort to connect with him, and it made a lasting impression upon him.

(Related in a Dvar Torah of my Rebbe, HaRav Binyomin Goldstein

shlit”a. For the unabridged version, see the book ‘Reb Shlomo’)

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Gut and meaningful Shabbos to all!

Torah, Mussar, Chassidus, Stories, and More! - בּ"ה

Friday, March 27, 2020