<I>Vayikra</I>-<i>Zachor</I>: The Search for Aleph - Judaism

Zachor. Remember. Amalek. Haman. The murder of eight pure young men studying Torah, in a great yeshiva, in the holy city. Remember? How could we possibly forget?

We struggle to understand G-d's ways, then - and now. We want to believe in a just G-d, in an all-seeing, all-

We struggle to understand G-d's ways, then - and now.

powerful Being, but it can be so hard to keep our spiritual footing. And so, a thought for this parshat Zachor.

Our parsha begins with the word, Vayikra. The word ends with a small aleph, so that it almost seems to read, Vayikar. Why? What message is there here for us?

G-d has many names. In fact, say chazal, the whole Torah is actually made up of letters forming the different names of G-d.

When Moshe first encounters HaShem, he asks Him, "By what name shall I refer to You?"

G-d answers, "Ehyeh asher Ehyeh (I shall be what I shall be). Tell the people that Ehyeh has sent you to them."

"Ehyeh" is a code-name, signifying G-d's attribute of fulfilling his promises. At that moment, as Bnei Yisrael stood mired in the quicksand of slavery, G-d tells them, "I promised to free you; now, you shall see it happen."

The alef also is a code name for HaShem: it stands for Elokim, or Ad-nai Echad, G-d is One. That is, He is the same G-d throughout history; He has always been with us and will always be with us. But sometimes, alas, the alef is small; sometimes HaShem's presence in this world looms small and cannot easily be discerned.

At those times, the word Vayikra - "And He called out" - appears as Vayikar, "He just happened" (to be there). G-d's manifest presence - when any seeing person can recognize that He exists and is active in history - is replaced

Why do beautiful, holy young children die at the hands of Amalek?

by a feeling of randomness, happenstance, doubt: Do things occur in the Universe by design, by the choice of a directing force, a G-d in charge; or do things happen by chance, at random, with no rhyme or religious reason?

The challenge of faith is to affirm our belief in the One G-d even - perhaps especially - when He can barely be seen, when the Alef is tiny. To believe that things don't "just happen," but that they have a cosmic force behind them.

Why do beautiful, holy young children die at the hands of Amalek? If I knew that, I'd be sitting up there in Heaven and not down here with mere mortals.

But I can tell you that it is precisely in moments of our greatest adversity, when Amalek is ascendant, that we need to search for - and hopefully find - HaShem Echad.

Judaism	4 Tammuz 5768, July 7, '08

Judaism

Vayikra-Zachor: The Search for Aleph