Vayikra
Do you hear the call?
Reflection by Rabbi Dorothy Richman:
"`Vayikra` is the name of this week’s Torah portion and the third book of the Torah in Hebrew. Rabbi Menachem M. Shneerson (z”l) reminds us that the name of a Torah portion matters.
`Names are not accidents in the Torah. We find in many places that the name of a person or a thing tells us about its nature. And the same is true of the Torah portions. The names they bear are a cue to their content. `
So what is the name Vayikra clue-ing us into for this week’s portion and—more expansively— for the entire book it introduces? Let’s look closely at the opening verse.
וַיִּקְרָ֖א אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֑ה וַיְדַבֵּ֤ר יה אֵלָ֔יו מֵאֹ֥הֶל מוֹעֵ֖ד לֵאמֹֽר׃
`And ( ) called to Moses and the Lord spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying…` (Lev. 1:1)
This verse has a strange grammatical feature: The subject of the first verb (called) is missing and is only introduced after the second verb (spoke). Robert Alter comments, `According to normative usage, one would have expected, `And the Lord called to Moses and He (sic) spoke to him.` Alter asks whether delaying God’s appearance as a subject in the verse is a way to emphasize the experience of the call itself and to separate it from the speaking of laws that will follow.
So, in this understanding: God called Moses. Full stop. And then, God spoke to him.
I love this idea of God’s call being separate from language and law. It allows me to imagine what God’s call to Moses felt like. If the call wasn’t in words, was it in sound? More like a whisper or a shofar call? Or was it like an itch on his cheek? Or a breeze passing through his hair? A vibration in his chest? The taste of honey? Or is hearing God’s call more like a heightened attentiveness to regular experience?
Separating out God’s call as something real yet without description keeps it mysterious and open.
The end of our verse tells us that once God did speak to Moses, the place where his voice came from was the Tent of Meeting. Perhaps the idea of God’s call as central to this book of the Torah is to remind us to pause and wait to listen for the Divine Call before we act. This is a skill we can practice. To wait. To take a pause. To listen with all of our senses. To know that our actions are in call and response to the Divine. And to know that this very moment is the Tent of Meeting.
What do you know from your own experience about hearing a call? When has this happened to you? Have you heard a voice or words? Or did you feel you had received a sign? Have you developed a sense of knowing? How does it work?"