The Calling
Vayikra—5767
Shmuel Herzfeld
I was once talking with a rebbe of mine and I was telling him that I wasn’t sure what I should do with my life. I told him I enjoyed academia and I was thinking about pursuing that as a career. But I also enjoyed teaching Torah and I was thinking of entering the rabbinate. He asked me a very simple question, “For which one do you hear a calling?”
This week’s parsha is often mistakenly called Leviticus, but it really is Vayikra, “He called.” Or more specifically, “Vayikra el Moshe, God called to Moshe.” Rashi explains, “Hakol holekh u-magiah le-aznav ve-khol yisrael lo shomin.”
The call was a powerful call. It went straight from God to Moshe’s ears. And it was a very personal call. Only Moshe could hear it. The children of Israel could not hear it; Aaron and Miriam could not hear it; only Moshe could hear it.
But the call was a summons. It was a summons by God to do the will of God. Lucky for us Moshe heard the call of Hashem.
As many commentators have noticed the word vayikra (“He called”) appears with a little aleph. The last letter of the word, the aleph is written much smaller than the other letters. Why?
It is often assumed that Jews believe that Moshe was the greatest prophet of all time. This is not exactly true. We say in the Yigdalprayer, “Lo kam beyisrael ke-moshe od, no one will arise from amongst the Jews who will be a greater prophet than Moshe.” And many understand that to mean that there was an even greater prophet than Moshe, but he was not from amongst the Jews. That greater prophet was Bilam.
Bilam was the prophet who set out to curse the Jewish people, but ended up blessing them against his will. If he was such a great prophet, then how come we don’t have his teachings as our guide in life?
Bilam’s problem was not his ability to prophesize but his inability to hear the call of God. When Bilam met with Hashem it says, “Va-yikar Elokim el Bilam.” And God appeared to Bilam.
Vayikar versus Vayikra. The only difference between the two words is a little, tiny aleph. The aleph is so small that it doesn’t even have a sound. And its smallness is magnified by the Torah writing it even smaller.
Sometimes the difference between something “happening” and a “call” is so imperceptible that we do not even notice.
But we must notice. It is the difference between Moshe and Bilam. Moshe heard the call (Vayikra) and he understood he had a specific mission to lead the Jewish people. Bilam had a prophecy “happen” to him; he didn’t have a specific mission. He didn’t hear the call and so his talent was wasted.
Our responsibility is to listen for the call. We must ask ourselves, “Is this the voice of Hashem calling us in life? The difference between the life of greatness (Moshe) and a wasted life (Bilam) depends only upon a small aleph—a calling versus a happening.
Let me give you a more modern example. The first Rosh Yeshiva and President of Yeshiva University was Rabbi Dr. Bernard Revel. His impact upon American Jewry and specifically on Modern Orthodoxy was enormous. He put YeshivaUniversity on a path that trained thousands of rabbis over the last century. Can you imagine if he had decided not to become a rabbi? Well it almost happened. In 1906 a young Bernard Revel came to America unsure of what he would do. There was no YeshivaUniversity then and it was certainly far from clear that a person with his skills could have a home in the Jewish community. In 1909 he decided to enroll in law school. However according to Wikipedia, he “eventually decided that law was not his calling.” Instead he decided to pursue a doctorate in philosophy. In 1915 he was invited to head up what would eventually become YeshivaUniversity.
I am sure he would have made a good lawyer, I’m sure even a great lawyer. But I thank Hashem that he heard the call and pursued his calling.
Of course, that brings us to the obvious question: How do we know if the calling is correct? How can we be sure?
This is a very difficult question to answer, but I want to offer a suggestion.
Let us look at the content of this specific call from Hashem to Moshe. “Adam ki yakriv me-kem karban la-hashem, when a person will offer from amongst you an offering to Hashem.” The world for offering or sacrifice is karban.
The origin of this word is K-R-V, or to come close. As Nachmanides explains the word korban connotes “krivah o achdut,” drawing close to Hashem or uniting with Hashem.
When we analyze a feeling to see if it is indeed a calling, the question we should ask ourselves is, “Does this bring me closer to Hashem? Does this calling capitalize on the uniqueness of my talents? Is this what Hashem created me to do?” The purpose of the calling is to bring us closer to Hashem and to allow others to feel that closeness. The calling must be linked to Karban.
The calling can come at any age and at any time. But one must listen for it intently. One must be willing to live their life in response to that calling. And one must recognize that we should not tarry in our response.
There was another call in Jewish history—a famous call.
Two weeks from today we will read Shir Ha-Shirim, the Song of Songs. It is the story of two lovers. It tells of their initial love and later on their longing for each other.
Perhaps the most dramatic scene occurs in chapter five. The beautiful Shulamite lies in her bed, when she hears from outside a sound; it is the call of her beloved, kol dodi dofek, the sound of her beloved is knocking at the door. He wants to reunite with her. He beseeches her, “Pitchi li, open up the door for me, my beloved.”
And she hesitates. She says, “Pashatati et kutanti, I’ve just take off my coat. How can I now go and get dressed? Rachaztiet ragli eichacha atanfem, I have just washed my feet, how can I go and get them dirty?”
When she finally decides to get up, he has already left. The moment has passed and she struggles to find him again. She wanders though the night looking for him. But she is beaten and scorned. She has lost a great opportunity and it will take enormous effort to regain what she once had.
She hesitated when she heard the call and thus she lost the moment.
We must hear the call – a call that brings us closer to Hashem – and when we do we cannot hesitate.