On the Torah’s first verse, Rashi makes the
following comment: “Rabbi Yitzhak said: ‘The
Torah should have started with ‘this month
will be for you the first of the months,’
because this was the first mitzvah commanded
to Israel.” In essence Rabbi Yitzchak seems
to be stating that the Torah should not have
begun with the creation story, but with the
story of the Jewish people as they received
their first mitzvah and, in so doing,
“officially” became a nation. Since the
purpose of the Torah is to give instruction
(the word “Torah” stems from the Hebrew root
meaning “to instruct”), Rabbi Yitzchak is
proposing that it should have started with
the first mitzvah given to the Jewish people
and not the account of creation. Rashi
explains that the Torah did in fact begin
with the creation account in order to teach
the nations of the world that God has the
right to give the Land of Israel to whatever
nation he wishes. The same God who created
heaven and earth decided to take the Land of
Israel from its former inhabitants and give
it to the Jewish people in perpetuity. Thus
the Torah ultimately begins with the account
of creation so that no one can claim that
the children of Israel stole the Land.
Rashi’s explanation solves the apparent
dichotomy between the Torah’s beginning with
the universal creation story and continuing
with the particular story of the Jewish
people. Furthermore, in light of the
Talmudic opinion that the world was not
actually created until Rosh Chodesh Nisan,
both the universal act of creation and the
particular birth of the Jewish people
occurred on the very same day. This
confluence profoundly alludes to a very deep
truth: Israel’s birth as a nation is
intrinsically connected to the creation of
the world. This understanding is explicitly
voiced by the Midrash which reports that
when God “thought” to create the world “the
thought of Israel arose first” (Bereishit
Rabbah 1:4).
This correspondence between creation and
Israel’s birth and redemption is also
unveiled in other ways by the mystical
tradition. Israel’s slavery in Egypt (a
country whose name in Hebrew connotes a
sense of narrowness or constriction) is
analogous to the tzimtzum preceding
creation, while the exodus corresponds to
the primordial ray of light piercing the
void (see “The Small Alef in Vayikra”
above). Israel’s redemption begins on Rosh
Chodesh Nisan and finds its ultimate
expression on Shavuot with the Giving of the
Torah and the Ten Commandments. The Ten
Commandments are themselves intrinsically
linked to the ten utterances of creation,
thus an even deeper fundamental connection
between “the day of the ten crowns” – the
day that God invites Moses to enter the
Tabernacle and gives Israel its first
mitzvah – and creation is manifest.
The alef, written especially small in the
word “vayikra” in
traditional Torah scrolls, also connects
creation and Israel’s birth, as mentioned in
the first section of Vayikra. However, it
furthermore alludes to the fact that Moses,
who originally felt inadequate to fulfill
the mission of redeeming Israel, was truly
humble, so much so that the Torah testifies
that Moses was “the most humble person on
the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3).
According to the Midrash, when God told
Moses to write the word “vayikra,” Moses
objected to God couching his invitation in
endearing language and asked that the word
be written without an alef, so that it
implied that God only by happenstance
invited Moses. God told him that this was
impossible as the heathen prophet Balaam
would later be addressed in the Torah in
that manner. A compromise of sorts was
reached and God allowed Moses to write the
word with a small alef, to illustrate his
humbleness (Tosafot Harosh).
In some deeper sense, the small alef also
alludes to God’s humility; for when God
invited Moses to enter the Tabernacle, he
could not because God’s glory filled the
entire structure. God, as it were, humbly
contracted His infinite presence – alluded
to by the small alef – to allow Moses to
enter. This contraction on God’s part to
permit Moses to enter the Tabernacle mirrors
God’s initial act of tzimtzum which created
space for finite reality to come into
existence. For this reason the Talmud
states: “In every place you find God’s
greatness there you will see His humility” (Megillah
31a).
The paradox of the small alef, as discussed
throughout this portion, is in fact related
to all of the mitzvot, each of which allows
us to experience God’s infiniteness within
finite time and space. It is as if every
mitzvah contains a contraction of God’s
infinite essence into a time and space bound
action. One who performs a mitzvah with a
pure heart and proper intent thus connects
not only to God but to the very purpose of
creation.
