The Tiny Aleph and the Holy Face
Vayikra 5784 - Can we see b'tzelem Elohim on the face of another?
I am Holy - Netanel Goldberg
This week we start a new book of the Torah, Vayikra. In the first verse we read:
וַיִּקְרָ
אאֶל־מֹשֶׁה וַיְדַבֵּר ה׳ אֵלָיו מֵאֹהֶל מוֹעֵד לֵאמֹר׃And God called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying (Vayikra 1:1)
I don’t know if it worked on this platform in the Hebrew but the letter aleph in the Torah is in a much smaller font. There are a few tiny letters in the Torah, and our sages teach that each one of these scribal changes is intentional. Here they say that Moses wanted to write just vayikar (ויקר) which means “happened upon” or “encountered” like it is written with God’s encounter with Bala’am - as if God only chanced upon Moses. But the Holy One specified to add the letter aleph, so Moses wrote it in a smaller font. But the aleph’s presence in this word teaches us that this was a holy, intentional, encounter!
There are some teachings I come across or have been taught that are so beautiful or so powerful that I can’t get them out of my mind. They pop up at unexpected times or places and I remember where I was when I first learned them and how they originally made me feel. The teaching that follows is one of those, and it all starts with that very same aleph. I learned it from my friend and teacher Rabbi Matt Shapiro, and to me it is just the perfect explanation of how and why we should walk through the world experiencing and interacting with every other human being as if they are b’tzelem Elohim, made in the Divine Image. Here is the teaching:
The Zera Kodesh, Rabbi Naftali Tziv Horowitz (1760-1827) wrote: My teacher, Rabbi Mendl of Rymanov taught that at Sinai, we heard nothing from the mouth of God other than the letter aleph of the first utterance “I am the Lord your God.” (Exodus 20:2) [The first letter of the first word is aleph]…
We learn that the awesome name of God, the four-letter name of yod, hey, vav and hey, itself actually hints at the letter aleph. For the letter aleph itself is constructed of two letters yods (whose numerical equivalent is 10) with the letter vav (numerical equivalent of 6) joining them in the middle, making a total of 26. The four letter name of God also totals 26.
We also know that there is a divine light surrounding every person, and this is the reason we are bidden to continually keep the image of God ever before our faces.
This, in turn, hints at the face of a human being. The two eyes resemble two letter yods, and a nose between them looks like a letter vav! In other words, on every human face, there is a letter aleph! And this is the meaning of Genesis 1:27: “in the image of God, God created the first human.” And this facial aleph, engraved on every person’s face, has the numerical equivalent of God’s most awesome name!
א י ו י
We also know that there is a divine light surrounding every person, and this is the reason we are bidden to continually keep the image of God ever before our faces. Indeed, the seal of the Holy One is literally on our faces, evoking the shape of the Name of the Creator… When we were worthy to stand at Mount Sinai and heard the voice issuing the letter aleph, there was revealed to us the shape of the letter aleph. As we read in Exodus 20:15, “all the people saw the thunder.” In other words, they saw what was heard! We saw the form of the letter aleph, itself evoking the Name of God. And at that moment, they all saw and understood that this was also the form of their own faces! This, then, is the reason that we read just after the revelation at Sinai (Exodus 20:17), “Do not be afraid- for God has come only to test you, so that the awe of God may always be with you so that you do not go astray.” When a person continually keeps this idea that God is in the face of every other human being in the forefront of their mind, then they will not easily be inclined to go astray.
How beautiful to look across at the face of another, even and especially someone who frustrates or angers you, and to see immediately the divinity and holiness in that person.
I love this visualization. Every single person is holy and every single person has the Divine Aleph of the first word of the ten commandments, the aleph of Anochi, of “I am Your God” literally inscribed on their faces. How beautiful to look across at the face of another, even and especially someone who frustrates or angers you, and to see immediately the divinity and holiness in that person.
Can we take this message to heart and live it in practice?
Shabbat Shalom,
Josh
Thank you so much for these teachings.
It took me four times for me to really read and understand the teaching behind “26”, but I knew I had to ‘get it’.
From that another lesson emerged. Sometimes we don’t always get the message that is calling to us. Focusing on the little aleph may make a difference on how we see what is unfolding around us, the universe, and God. Perhaps, if we can just listen, we will better hear what is calling us.