Parashat Vayikra 5785, 2025: "The Voice from Sinai"

 
Rabbi David Etengoff
 
ה' יעזור וירחם על אחינו כל בני ישראל בארץ ישראל ובכל חלקי הארץ
 
Chamishah Chumshei Torah contain two instances of the phrase, “vayikra Hashem el Moshe—and Hashem called to Moshe.” The first appears in Sefer Shemot 24:16 in the context of Kabbalat HaTorah, and the second in the opening words of our parasha as a prologue to the many and varied laws of korbanot. In his Commentary on the Torah on our pasuk, based on a statement found in Midrash Sifra, Rashi (1040-1105) notes that each time Hashem communicated with Moshe, it was preceded by the Almighty directly calling upon him. In addition, he suggests that the word, “vayikra,” is an expression of abiding affection, since this is precisely the language the Ministering Angels use when they call to one another (“v’karah zeh el zeh,” Sefer Yeshayahu 23:4).
 
Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888) suggests the phrase, “vayikra Hashem el Moshe,” carries singular theological significance. In his view, it teaches us that the Word of Hashem came to Moshe directly from the Creator, rather than through an internally generated voice:

A call came, and then God spoke to Moses. This is probably meant to establish the speeches of God to Moses as the Word of God coming to Moses and to prevent that misused misrepresentation which tries to change the Divine revelation to Moses into some kind of revelation in Moses, and either put it on par with all those imaginary visions of a so-called ecstasy, or simply as an inspiration coming from within a human being. (Sefer Vayikra 1:1, The Pentateuch: Translated and Explained, second edition, page 3, translation from the German, Isaac Levy)
 
Rav Hirsch continues his analysis of our verse and suggests that the expression, “vayikra Hashem el Moshe,” separates Judaism from every other religion that has existed:

[It is certainly not the case that Moses’ Divine revelations were merely self-created ecstatic moments.] This [notion,] of course, relegates Judaism, “the Jewish Religion,” to the nature of all other religious phases which have occurred in human history, to a “contemporary phase in the history of the development of the human mind.” But this is not so, [for as the Torah states:] “Then the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man would speak to his companion…” (Sefer Shemot 33:11, this, and the following Torah translation, The Judaica Press Compete Tanach)  
 
At this juncture, Rav Hirsch recapitulates his first theme, and underscores the exceptional import of Hashem speaking to Moshe “face to face, as a man would speak to his companion:”
 
[This means that just like] speech from one man to another emanates purely and completely from the mind of the speaker, and in no wise whatsoever comes from the mind of the hearer, and nothing from the mind of the hearer brings it about, so was God’s Word to Moses purely and solely the speech of God. Not from within Moses, from without, it came to him, called him out of whatever train of thought he might be in at the moment, to listen to what God wished to say to him. This vayikra, this call preceding God’s speech, does away with that idea of the words of God which He transmitted arising from within Moses himself. (Brackets my own)
 
 
Rav Hirsch’s analysis highlights a crucial principle of Jewish theology, namely, that Hashem spoke directly to Moshe. As the Torah states: “And there was no other prophet who arose in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.” (Sefer Devarim 34:10) Moshe’s encounters with Hashem, and the prophetic experiences they entailed, form the foundation of our entire Torah. The Voice from Sinai continues to shape the nature of our people and our religion, echoing until our own historical moment. We are truly blessed for evermore that “Hashem called to Moshe.”
 
Shabbat Shalom
 
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