Vayikra, the third volume of Torah, is the most difficult, filled with technical details of offerings and sacrifices. Yet children begin their studies right here. To teach the young child that there is always a way to do teshuva, and to ensure that Torah is seen as a life manual, not as a history book.
The way we can communicate more effectively is to employ emotion when speaking. Too often words are used intellectually but without feeling. When feeling is injected into the conversation the words penetrate more deeply and significantly.
The verb introducing this week’s Sedra, “Vayikra El Moshe”, “He called Moshe”, has in the Hebrew language a sense of intimacy, as opposed to Vayomer LeMoshe – “He said to Moshe”, or Vayedaber el Moshe- “He spoke to Moshe”. I suspect that during this conversation G-d did not have a distracting smartphone next to him…
The first word of the Parsha has a small Alef, the final letter of the parsha’s name – Vayikra. Since every aspect of shape and sound of the letters of the Torah is an inflection of the shape and meaning of creation and the cosmos, the Midrash needs to explain the seeming diminution of status…
