In Hebrew, the book of Leviticus is called Vayikra,
which means “and He called.” The book of Leviticus begins with the word
“vayikra,” as God calls to Moses from the Tabernacle inviting him to initiate
the Tabernacle service, the model or template for all future Divine service.
God’s call to Moses on Rosh Chodesh Nisan (the first day of Nisan) is related
to the Sage’s statement, “Who is the wise one? One who sees that which is born”
(Tamid 32a). In context, the answer refers to one who comprehends
the birth of the new moon, but in a broader sense, it refers to one who
discerns what consequences an initial act may lead to.
The Midrash calls Rosh
Chodesh Nisan “the day of the ten crowns,” a phrase alluding to the ten
rituals that were performed for the first time on this day, for it was on this
day that Moses erected the Tabernacle in the desert and the cohanim began
performing the Tabernacle service on Israel’s behalf (Bereishit Rabbah 3:12).
Parenthetically, this service was also performed in the Temple and even became
the basis for synagogue prayer after both Temples were destroyed. (For
further elaboration, see “The Tabernacle, the Temple, and the
Synagogue.”)
Rosh Chodesh Nisan is also
significant for several other reasons. The first mitzvah the Jewish people
received as a nation was to establish Nisan as the year’s first month and to
set up the Jewish calendar according to the secrets that God taught Moses. This
first mitzvah is publicly recited once a year before Rosh Chodesh
Nisan as part of Parashat Hachodesh one of the four special portions
read between the new moon of Adar, the last month of the year, and Pesach,
which occurs in the first month of the year, in Nisan. We learned above that
the ability to become masters of time, signified by being in tune with and
realizing the deep secrets contained in the calendar, was a prerequisite to the
redemption from Egypt. (See “Four Perspectives on Time and the Mastery of
Time.”)
Rosh Chodesh
Nisan is also one of Judaism’s four New Year’s days. Kings in the biblical era
would count their reigns from this day. Furthermore, according to one rabbinic
tradition the world was created on this day (this will be discussed at greater
length in the next section). And, finally, the cycle of the three major
Pilgrimage Festivals of Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot begins in this month. Rosh
Chodesh Nisan obviously manifests its importance in many different ways, and
therefore we must attempt to determine how all the various aspects of this
auspicious day are connected.
A hint to this
connection may be discovered in the letter alef being written
especially small in the word “vayikra” in traditional Torah scrolls. The
mystical tradition teaches that the 600,000 men between the ages of twenty and
sixty who left Egypt represent the archetypal root soul sparks of the entire
Jewish nation. As the introduction to this book discusses, these souls are
further connected to the 600,000 letters of the Torah, as each Jewish soul
spark has its own letter, its very own unique gate or pathway to understanding
the Torah. Thus, one might suggest the following: Who is the wise one? One who
sees the whole Torah shining through every portion, verse, word, and even
letter in the Torah. Rosh Chodesh Nisan, the day on which Moses was called with
a small alef, possesses great significance for each individual Jew
in every generation, as the small alef represents the service
of God to which all Jews ultimately aspire. Furthermore, the small alef, as
we will see, alludes to the process of creation, its purpose, and the prospect
of human beings relating to an Infinite Creator within the temporal parameters
of a finite world.
The Zohar (2:161b)
teaches that “God looked into the Torah and created the world.” The
Torah’s depiction of the seven days of creation not only recounts the unfolding
of the Divine creative process, but also is the very blueprint that God
employed before speaking the world into existence. Just as scientists designate atoms,
particles, molecules, and elements as the building blocks of energy and
creation, Jewish tradition relates to the Hebrew letters as prototypes of
spiritual energy, the building blocks through which the world is constructed
and maintained. As we learned in the portion of Bereishit (“Blessed
is the One Who Spoke”), God’s speaking the world into existence teaches us the
connection between Divine speech and the creative process.
The first letter
in the Torah, a beit, is written especially large in our Torah
scrolls, and has the numerical value of two. This is a remez,
a hint, to the dualistic nature of the world: infinite and finite, spiritual
and physical, soul and body, life and death, day and night, man and woman, sun
and moon, and so forth. The question naturally arises: why does the Torah begin
with the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, beit, and
not the first letter, alef?
The Zohar answers
with the following parable or derash (Introduction to the Zohar,
23). When God decided to create the world, all the letters came to
Him asking for the merit of being the first letter in the Torah. Each letter,
beginning from the end of the alphabet, came before God and argued that it
should be first since a certain word with positive connotations started with
it. God countered these arguments one by one by explaining that certain words
with negative connotations also started with these letters. God disqualified
all the letters until the letter beit successfully argued that
the people of the world would praise their Creator with the word baruch (blessed).
Since the first letter of the alphabet, alef, had still not made
its case, God now offered it a chance to argue, even though He had already
accepted the beit. The alef, instead of
complaining that it had not been given a proper chance, answered that since the beit was
already chosen, it would forego making an argument. God replied that since the alef displayed
such humbleness, it would merit becoming the first letter of “anochi,” the
first word in the Ten Commandments.
The two tablets
containing the Ten Commandments were kept in the ark in the Tabernacle’s Holy
of Holies, and later in the Temple’s Holy of Holies in Jerusalem. Even before
Moses inaugurated the Tabernacle, God had told him that He would speak to him
from between the two cherubs on top of the ark. The Holy of Holies in the
Temple represents the central point, the spiritual vortex, around which the
entire world revolves. Alluding to the alef’s crucial role, God
calls (“vayikra”) Moses on Rosh Chodesh Nisan from this place. The alef instead
of appearing at the beginning of the Torah, as the first letter of creation,
adopts a central role on this day in the holiest of places.
The alef being
written especially small in the word “vayikra” also
alludes to the great secret of tzimtzum revealed by the Kabbalah. When God
“thought” of creating the world, an existential problem became immediately
apparent. Since no reality can exist beyond (or outside) the infiniteness of
God, where could a finite, “independent” world possibly find “space” to exist?
The Arizal explains that God “contracted” Himself, as it were, in order to
create, a “vacuum” or womb-like space in which a finite world could then be
created. Into the “vacuum” God shone a ray of light and the world came into
being. The letter alef, which has the numerical value of one,
represents the oneness and unity of God, while the second letter of the Hebrew
alphabet, beit, signifies the duality of the world and God’s
seeming act of contraction to make “space” for the world. (See “One Becomes Two
in Order to Become One” above.)
The act of tzimtzum,
which allowed the world to come into existence, is the sod, the
foundational secret, of the Temple in Jerusalem. Just as God contracted Himself
in order to allow the world to come into existence, He likewise contracted His infinite presence, as it were, in order to allow
the Jewish people (and the world) to perceive Him in a finite place. The small alef alludes
to our ability to actually experience and comprehend this paradox.
In a
sense, we spend our lives trying to live within the paradoxical context of God
both revealing and hiding Himself in the world. Jacob called the ladder –
stretching from the earth to the heavens, in the very place where the Temple
was eventually built – the “gate to heaven” (Genesis 28:10-17). A Jew must
constantly be a ladder between eternal and temporal time, between infinite and
finite space. “Who is the wise one? One who sees that which is born.” The small alef,
representing the paradox of creation, beckons us to connect ourselves to the
mystery of all life.
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