Although the book of Vayikra, Leviticus, is perhaps the most challenging book in the Torah in terms of its content, with Torah portions filled with descriptions of sacrificial procedures and treatments for various bodily emissions and impurities, it deserves credit for beginning with an attention-grabber. The first verse of the book and of the Torah portion (both of which are called “Vayikra”) begins with the word “ויקרא,” “vayikra,” “and [God] called,” but the Hebrew letter aleph at the end of the word is noticeably smaller than the rest of the letters. There are, of course, practical explanations for the aleph. Rabbi Shmuel David Luzzato (the Shadal), a 19th-century scholar, wrote that the small aleph is a useful way for scribes to distinguish the aleph at the end of “vayikra” with the next word in the verse, which begins with an aleph. A small aleph at the end of “vayikra” ensures that neither aleph is accidentally deleted in the process of writing.
Others, however, prefer to take a less prosaic view of the small aleph. Perhaps the most prominent midrashic explanation is that the size of the letter was due to a decision made by Moses while writing the Torah. According to this midrash (which is based on the understanding that God dictated the Torah to Moses), Moses’ humility would not allow him to write that God called him, as if he were someone special. Instead, Moses asked God to write the word without the aleph, as “ויקר,” “and [God] happened,” as if God began speaking to Moses by chance. God insisted that Moses write the aleph, and so Moses wrote it smaller than the other letters.
Centuries later, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, connected the small aleph of “vayikra” with another (less commented-upon) moment in the Bible in which an aleph is enlarged. 1 Chronicles, which begins at the very beginning of the family tree of humanity, starts with the name Adam. And the aleph at the beginning of Adam’s name is larger than the other letters. Rabbi Schneerson sees this large aleph as a sign of arrogance characterizing Adam and his approach to the world. The small aleph in “vayikra” is Moses compensating for the arrogance of the first man.
Taken together, these midrashic understandings are fascinating, not necessarily because of the story itself, or whether a particular aleph is big or small, but because of how they view the process of writing the Torah and the relationships within it. While some facts may be immutable–God dictates the Torah, and what God says must be written is what must be written–there is nonetheless room for humanity and for human expression within the Torah. Before God, and within the foundational text of the people, Moshe can express his opposition, even to God’s wording. And in writing that small aleph, Moshe can commit, in writing, to doing better now than was done in the past. If the former aleph was large and bombastic, arrogantly invading the Torah’s space, Moshe responds by inserting an aleph that leaves more space for the letters around it. It prompts us to question, and empowers us to insert our own voices into the text and beyond.
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Rabbi Rachel Druck, originally from the United States and currently living in Israel, was ordained at Hebrew Union College (HUC). After several years of serving as a congregational rabbi, she now works at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. She holds a bachelor's degree in Yiddish literature and continues to study Jewish history and the story of our people up to the present day. She is a member of "Rabbis for Human Rights."