Parashat Vayikra 5786

by Rabbi Margie Cella

This week we begin the third book of the Torah, Leviticus. Much of this week’s parashah, as well as the entire book, is concerned with the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle. All of the details of the different types of sacrifices are laid out by God in conversation with Moses. The first word, which is also the name of the book and the parashah, is vayikra, meaning “[God] called.”  We read that God called out to Moses from the Tent of Meeting. The last letter in the word vayikra, an aleph, is written smaller than the other letters in the Torah scroll. Several different midrashim have been offered to explain its diminutive size. Perhaps it is alluding to the fact that God is calling out to Moses from a very small place.  Instead of speaking to Moses from the top of  Mount Sinai, God now calls out to him from the space between the cherubim on the top of the ark inside the Holy of Holies, a very small space indeed.

In our lives, sometimes we find ourselves in a place, or situation, that feels confining and constricting, either mentally or emotionally, if not physically. It is at those times that we sometimes encounter the Divine presence.

This week, I am thinking of the small spaces, the mamadim, the safe rooms in Israeli homes, and the ways in which God’s presence is being felt in them. In addition to sheltering there, people support and strengthen each other, socially and religiously. The Megillah was read in some shelters, Shabbat services have been conducted there, even a wedding took place there.

Oseh Shalom, Maker of Peace, we pray that you will continue to watch over the people of Israel and offer them the security of Your presence for as long as they need to seek the shelter of the mamad.