| |
 |
|
|
|
Vayikra The custom in many traditional communities is for children to begin their learning of Chumash from Vayikra, which discusses the sacrifices, rather than from Beraishis and the creation of the world. Among the reasons given are: ¨ The Medrash explains, just as the sacrifices need be pure, so too, are the children. Let those who are pure study what needs to be pure. ¨ The Avnei Azel speaks about the sacrifice of parents. The children come home having studied the sacrifices to remind the parents about the sacrifices needed so that the Jewish education of their children be well grounded. For many this will be financial sacrifice. For others this will refer to a sacrifice of their lifestyle, so that a child does not live with the conflict between what his Jewish studies teach him or her and what happens at home. ¨ Perhaps one could say; We begin from the middle rather than the beginning, so that the child does not come to believe concerning the learning of Torah, you can start at one point and finish at another. The learning of Torah never ends. The letter aleph in the word Vayikra is written smaller than the rest of the word in the Torah. Among the explanations given are: ¨ To remind ourselves - whom we look at as aleph - number one, to keep within ourselves some humility. Moshe despite the fact the Hashem Himself called to him, made of himself a small aleph. ¨ This aleph is a hint towards the responsibility of humility. The Torah does not have a mitzvah commanding humility because then it would be impossible to have any. Each of us would say to ourselves, "In truth I am a great and distinguished individual, but I behave with humility because the Torah so commanded." So the Torah hints towards us - be honestly humble. ¨ Concerning Bilam who was exceedingly arrogant we find the word RQYW, Hashem turned with a coldness towards him. The only difference between Bilam and Moshe was the little aleph - Moshe's humility. R' Dovid of Talna used to say: "Modesty is a very important trait, and each person must indeed be exceedingly humble, however, even modesty has its limits. This I learned from my own experience. "My father was a very great man and hundreds of Chassidim would come to seek his advice about all sorts of matters. As is the custom, they would leave with him sums of money, each according to his ability, for my father to distribute to the poor. and help various charitable causes. "Soon after my father died, a wealthy Chassid of my father came to see me, to seek some counsel and ask for a blessing. As he left he placed a very large sum of money on the table. "I asked him, 'Why are you leaving so much money?" It is the same amount I would leave your father," he replied. "'Indeed,' I said, 'but I do not even begin to approach my father's greatness and deeds." "Without another word he picked up the money and left, never to return. "From this I learned the lesson, that even modesty has its limits in not allowing self-deprecation." The worst of all conceits is the conceit that I am modest and pious. |
