Hebrew Word Study – He Called – Vayikra – Vav Yod Qop Resh Aleph

Leviticus 1:1, “The lord called unto Moses, and spoke unto him out of the tent of meeting, saying…”  

Rabbi Ysroel Ben Eliezer lived in the early 18th century in the area which is now know as the Ukraine.  He was a devout orthodox rabbi who claimed to have unlocked the mysteries of Divine healing hidden in Leviticus 1:1. There following is a story which illustrates his application of Leviticus 1:1.

There was a young family that was very poor.  They had just one child, a daughter who suddenly became paralyzed.  They took her to a few local doctors but none could even diagnose the problem, let alone suggest a cure.  In their despair they heard that the famous Rabbi Ysroel Ben Eliezer would be passing through a nearby town.  They knew this was the Rabbi who had unlocked the mysteries of Divine healing from the Torah. So placing their paralyzed daughter in their wagon they journeyed to this town hoping to gain an audience with the Rabbi who could give a blessing for their daughter.

Arriving at the inn where the Rabbi was staying they found a long line  of people winding up the stairs.  All were seeking a healing from the rabbi.  As more and more people went into the rabbi’s room and came out restored, the young family, for the first time in many months, started to have hope.  When their turn came they carried their paralyzed daughter into the room and  handed the Rabbi a kivitel (a note asking for a complete healing). The rabbi took the note, read it and said: “I will give the healing if you pay me 1 ruble (100 kopeks).  The family was so poor they did not have a ruble.  They offered the rabbi all that they had, 39 kopecks.  The rabbi shook his head and said he would not give the healing unless he had 1 ruble.  The desperate parents begged and pleaded with the rabbi explaining they were poor and this was all the money in the world that they had. The rabbi shook his head, picked up the 39 kopecks walked to the door and told them he would not give their daughter a healing unless they gave him 1 ruble and now he had others waiting and they must leave.  With that, he took the 39 kopecks and threw them down the stairs.  The heartbroken parents, filled with disgust for the greedy rabbi stared at their money rolling down the stairs.  All of a sudden, their daughter jumped up, ran to the bottom of the stairs and began to pick up the money.  She was completely healed. The parents joined their daughter in gathering up the money and the father said: “Quick, let’s get out of here before that rabbi thinks he healed her.”   Looking out the window and watching the family leave, the rabbi smiled and turned to his bewildered students.  He simply said: “They had to know that it was their faith in God alone that healed their daughter, not me.”  

Do you see the key in Leviticus 1:1.  No?  Look at the verse closely, in your Hebrew Bible.   Look very closely at that first word vayikra (call).  There is something very odd about that word.  It is not a misprint for it is the same in every Hebrew Bible in every Torah scroll.  Scribes have copied it this way since the time Moses himself pinned it.   Do you see it now?  Meditate on it, ask yourself why? 

This verse, although contextually clear, is linguistically uneven and obscure.  All our English translations will say the “the Lord called” or “Jehovah called.”  Actually in the Hebrew it does not say who called, no name is given.  It is obvious it is God, but linguistically a mystery as to why God’s name is not used.  Another oddity of this verse is that the Aleph in the word for vayikra (call) is reduced in size.   This is in contrast to the Aleph in I Chronicles 1:1 where the Aleph in the word Adam is increased in size.  This was done intentionally by the writers. There is only one way to explain this and maintain the integrity of the Word of God and that is to look at the Hebrew esoterically.  Liberal Jews who deny the inspiration of Scripture say that a scribe accidentally left out the Aleph in one of their copies and had to squeeze it in.  This, of course, goes against what we learned of how precise the Scribes were in their copies.  If we hold to the inspiration of Scripture then we must assume that the writer had some intent behind the reduction in size of the Aleph.

At least to Rabbi Ysroel Ben Eliezer the meaning was so significant he believed he discovered one of the secrets to Divine healing in the size of the Aleph in Leviticus 1:1 and felt he had a whole string of miracles to prove it.  To Rabbi Eliezer, the reduction in size of the Aleph was a representation of the heart of Moses who penned Leviticus 1:1.  Among the multitude of people that God could have called from the tent of meetings He chose to call Moses specifically.  Moses was so overwhelmed, so humble that he could not even mention God Jehovah’s name and when he wrote the word vayikra (call) he reduced the size of the Aleph which expresses a unity and oneness with God to show how unworthy he was be chosen by God. The Scriptures tell us that Moses was the humblest of all men.

Was this humility of Moses the key to divine healing?  Who can say, maybe, perhaps not. But there is no doubt that this humility found a special place in God’s heart. There are times in my silent meditations and prayer that God allows me to enter His quiet room, His weeping room and in that room I see Him holding a heart, weeping over that heart, but holding it like it was a precious treasure. I rarely meet the person to whom the heart belongs in this world but when I do I find that they turn out  to be just a humble person, no big name, no great ministries just someone in unfortunate circumstances to whom God is vayikra (calling). If I need someone to pray for me, those are the people I want praying for me. Those are the ones who can meditate upon Leviticus 1:1 and the more they meditate on the reduced Aleph the smaller and  humbler they get and the bigger God gets.

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