WELCOMING SHABBAT

Shabbat is more than a day of refraining from worldly activity.

When experienced to its spiritual fullest, its holiness enlightens all other days of the week.

We invite you to enhance your Shabbat with these words of Torah.

 

The Diminutive Aleph

The Diminutive Aleph

Twerski, Rabbi Dr. Abraham
March 18, 2021

“In the Torah scroll, the word for ‘He called,’ vayikra, is written with a diminutive aleph.

 

aleph is a word that means ‘learning.’ The message of the diminutive aleph is that one can learn only when one is humble. There are some very bright people who do not learn much because they think they already know everything….

 

The mountain of the Sinai range where the Torah was given is the lowest in the range. This was to teach the Israelites that one can acquire Torah only if one is humble.

 

…Torah is symbolized by water, and it is pointed out that just as water always flows to the lowest level, so Torah flows to those who think of themselves as least. The greatest acquisition of Torah was by Moses, of whom the Torah says was ‘the most humble of all men on earth’.

 

The diminutive aleph represents both Moses’ profound humility and the lesson that only with humility can one gain knowledge.”