Parashat Vayikra - The Torah Again

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The opening of this Parasha - which begins Sefer Vayikra, the Book of Leviticus - is very odd. It opens with the phrase, "And he called to Moshe...". Then, after the pause, which is clearly marked by the cantillation in the middle of the verse, it resumes, "and G-d spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying:" There are several odd variant readings available.

First, we recognize that this verse comes immediately on the heels of the final verses of Sefer Shemot, which ends with the statement: "For the cloud of G-d is on the Mishkan by day, and fire will be by night thereon, before the eyes of all Beit Israel in all their journeys." Then immediately: "And [he / it] called to Moshe" - pause - "and G-d spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting." A continuous reading might seem to state it is the Cloud of G-d that is speaking, rather than G-d's self: that the Cloud somehow calls out to Moshe, whereupon G-d turns and addresses him.

If you think this reading is forced and excessively whimsical, consider the question arising from G-d's language in Parashat Ki Tissa. At Shemot 33:14, after much haranguing on the part of Moshe, G-d relents and says, "My face will go and give you rest." This is interpreted as G-d relenting from G-d's decision of a moment before to abandon the People to Moshe's sole guidance. Still, it is a distinctive difference from the definitive statements G-d made when we were in Mizraim, statements we read each year at the Passover Seder: "Ani velo mal'ach" - I, and not an angel. "Ani, velo shaliach" - I, and not a messenger. "Ani - Hashem." - I, G-d. (or: I am G-d).

"Panai" - my face - the word G-d uses in Ki Tissa, is not equivalent to the definitive "anochi" or "ani" - two forms of the word for "I". More: G-d then goes on to accede to Moshe's request at 33:18, "Show me please your glory." G-d grants Moshe's request, but cautions that Moshe shall only see G-d's "back", or perhaps "wake" - the after-effect of G-d's passing, like the wind behind a hurtling train, the wake in the water after a mighty ship passes. "For no human can see my face and live."

So: The Face of G-d will accompany us on our journeys; Moshe will see the Back of G-d - or perhaps only what remains after G-d has passed by - because seeing G-d's Face means death. And, to top it all off, G-d tells Moshe at 33:19 - "and I will give rest to whom I choose; and I shall be merciful to whom I choose." This appears to be a slightly different statement from the promise exacted by Moshe, when G-d said "My face will go with you and give you rest" - the text uses the same word in both places. It appears that G-d is becoming fragmented. Like the stone tablets that Moshe has shattered, now G-d, too, must be pieced back together again, for what has shattered is not merely two pieces of stone, but the very relationship between G-d and Israel. And, through it, between G-d and humanity. Between G-d and all Creation.

And so Sefer Vayikra opens with a tentative reaching-out. Now that the Mishkan has finally been set up, the Mishkan whose task it is to bring mercy, to atone for the sins of Israel, past, present and future. Now, G-d only permits a small part of G-d's outward manifestation to reach out. Perhaps it really is the Cloud that calls out, that first gets Moshe's attention. And, once it recognizes that Moshe is listening - that he is the same reliable Moshe; that, despite the shattering of the Luchot and the carving of a new set, this time written by Moshe's own hand, the fundamental relationship iks still intact - that Moshe is still "'Eved ne'eman" - the Faithful Servant - now, with a sigh of relief, G-d resumes the dialogue.

It is not for nothing that Moshe has not been able to enter the Tent, that all contact with G-d has been cut off.

On a parallel level: the story of creating and establishing the Mishkan is seen as a re-telling of Creation. And, indeed, the Mishkan is finally set up with the same word - "vaychal Moshe" as the word used to put closure to G-d's first act of Creation in Sefer Bereshit: "vayechullu hashamayim veha'aretz" - and it was completed. And, if the Mishkan is Creation, then at the end of the Ma'aseh - the Act of Creation - comes Shabbat, and so G-d and Moshe and all Israel spend a time in forced rest, symbolized at least partly by Moshe's inability to "use" the Tent, which is, in certain measure, Moshe's own particular "work".

One finally point: the title of this Parashah, and of the entire Sefer, is "Vayikra". This word means "And he called." It also means "And he read." Let us remember the first Midrash, which says that G-d looked into Torah and created the World. Let us recall the four fundamental acts of Creation: And G-d SAID ("Let there be light"), And G-d SAW ("... The Light, that it was good"), And G-d SEPARATED ("... Between the Light and the Darkness") And G-d CALLED / READ ALOUD ("... To the Light 'Day', and to the Darkness, [G-d] CALLED / READ ALOUD 'Night'")

Following the metaphor from the Midrash, G-d is going down the checklist, reading from the Torah, as it were, even as G-d goes through the step-by-step process of Creation. The act of Reading Aloud is the capstone of the creative process. In it, G-d actualizes and concretizes the elements created through the first three steps, those of Speech, Regarding, and Differentiating.

Speech in itself is the mere first notion of thought, equivalent perhaps to the notion of Chochmah - Wisdom / Flash of Insight - as used in the concept of ChaBaD.

Seeing - the act of Beholding - is G-d's equivalent of Binah - Understanding - the process by which the flash of inspiration becomes clad with the flesh of Thought, where vision becomes concept and the process of turning inspiration into reality begins.

Separation, the act of differentiating, is the ultimate mystery and miracle of existence. Why do the same agglomeration of molecules turn, in one configuration, into you, in another into me? Why do the same mass of quarks and nuons jumble up to become an ape, a human, a rock, a rocket? The ultimate mystery and wondrous miracle of G-d's universe is Differentiation. It is, perhaps, the crux of Creation. In our paradigm, if we make Differentiation correspond to Da'at (from the ChaBaD parallel) we see this as the final step, the step whereby the flash of inspiration is finally and firmly concretized. It is a neat package.

Why, then, the fourth step?

The fourth step is Torah. The message which, when read aloud into our ears - as Moshe does immediately before we receive it at Sinai - begins to penetrate our being and brings us into contact with G-d. Perhaps our senses, our intellect, our egos, our very natures limit us. Perhaps we can not fathom all of G-d. It may be that we can only glimpse a little bit of G-d. The knot of the tefillin at the back of G-d's head, as the Midrash says. Or may be even nothing more than the wind created by G-d's passing.

Yet, the Torah gives us the ability to dwell in G-d's wake. As we launch into Sefer Vayikra, it is as though the Torah is being given afresh. We are about to receive an enormous laundry list of laws - rules and regulations - and does Rashi tell us, at the very beginning of Bereshit, that this is actually the purpose of Torah - to serve as a book of Laws?

Perhaps now we are ready.

Perhaps.

Yours for a better world.

Shabbat shalom