Vayikra: the small aleph

The first word of this week’s parsha,א וַיִּקְרָ֖Vayikra, has a small aleph.  The parchment scrolls, the conservers of the tradition, in which no deviations are tolerated, have this unusual font. This typography emphasizes that the word ,וַיִּקָּ֥ר ,vayakor, meaning to “chance upon” is contained within Vayikra, which we translate as “and he called”  This is an invitation to  examine the word, and the text that follows, in terms of the  phonemes within the words.

Vayakor, וַיִּקָּ֥ר, brings us to the next book of the Bible, Bamidbar, and the story of Balaam. Balaam was a prophet for hire, commissioned by Balak, king of Moab, to battle the Israelites through mysterious spiritual forces.  To that end, animal sacrifices were brought.  These Gentile rituals were effective. After each,  the one Gd of the Torah would deliver a message to Balaam. The messages did not  convey the negative sentiments that Balak and Balaam had hoped for, but the offerings did bring the meetings, which, in the case of Balaam, are characterized as וַיִּקָּ֥ר, vayakor, no aleph, not even a little one.

The contrast between Moshe and Balaam is emphasized by the parallelism of the sacrificial rites. Balaam’s oblations are intended to set a meeting with Gd. In this week’s parsha, the sacrificial rite is outlined immediately after the erection of the mishkan, also called the “Tent of Meeting.”  These blood services are invitations, requests for meetings with Gd. They are not unique to the Hebrews, they are universally available.

 Cain and Abel brought sacrifices, and it seems to have led to murder. Noah brought sacrifices and thereby made a treaty with Gd to refrain from universal destruction.  Abraham erred in his understanding of Gd’s request and attempted to slaughter his son. These rituals can be productive, but they are dangerous.

The specifically Israelite rituals are outlined in this week’s parsha. The public knowledge of the activities involved in the sacrificial rite removes the occult.  It removes magic; it prevents an aspect of idolatry. The occult is part of the appeal of idolatry and necessary for its preservation. The hidden aspect prevents the exposure of the underlying errors and base motivations.

Knowing the details of the dismemberment of the carcasses does not remove the strangeness of these activities to the modern person.  The believer cleaves to the eccentricity as a proof of faith. We study these  rituals annually as an acknowledgement of our limited comprehension of the world and the conviction that they contain some great value… that we do not understand.

Mainstream Jews abandoned these rituals almost two thousand years ago. A tent of meeting became a pre-requisite for us, and the Temple was destroyed. What we have left is the words.

Having explored removing the aleph from Vayikra, I am tempted to look at the next level.  יִּקְרָ֖, yakar, which can be understood to mean precious, valuable. Rashi seems to draw on this meaning for the opening word of our parsha. Gd was addressing Moshe as wonderful. Rashi contrast that with the וַיִּקָּ֥ר, vayakar of Balaam, which he derives from מִקְרֶה , mikrah, which denotes “chance”, “occurrence”. There is a connection. Rare things are precious , an element of chance encounter is part of the value of gem.

The next sentence is a festival of the two-letter pair קְרָ֖, kar.

דַּבֵּ֞ר אֶל־בְּנֵ֤י יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ וְאָמַרְתָּ֣ אֲלֵהֶ֔ם אָדָ֗ם כִּֽי־יַקְרִ֥יב מִכֶּ֛ם קׇרְבָּ֖ן לַֽי

מִן־הַבְּהֵמָ֗ה מִן־הַבָּקָר֙ וּמִן־הַצֹּ֔אן תַּקְרִ֖יבוּ אֶת־קׇרְבַּנְכֶֽם׃

Speak to the children of Yisra᾽el, and say to them, If any man of you bring an offering to the Lord, of the cattle shall you bring your offering, of the herd, and of the flock.

This sentence emphasizes the verb יַקְרִ֥יב, yakriv, related to קׇרְבָּ֖ן, korban, sacrifice. Here, it could be translated as bring an offering. Yakriv, outside the context of sacrifices, means to approach, from karov, meaning close. Does the korban, the offering, bring one close? It seems to do that for Balaam and for the Israelites in the Tent of meeting.  Kar, the first two letter of karov, can mean “cold” or it can mean a”wall” The approach means confronting the possibility of rejection: a cold, stone wall. The sacrifice opens the door to the warm interior.

Sacrifices have various roles. Some are celebratory. There are special rituals for holidays. The shlomim sacrifice was primarily a feast to rejoice over a stroke of good fortune. Daily sacrifices were recognitions of the Divine role in everyday life.  This week’s chapter ends with sacrifices of expiation. Various transgressions required a sacrifice for Divine forbearance.  Transgressions, whether they involve the temple ritual or hurting other people, alienate the sinner from the Divine. They set up the cold wall. Somehow, the sacrifice re-established communication.

In the 17^th century, there was a recognition that “real” numbers, all the fractions and numbers that could not be expressed as fractions ( pi, e, etc) did not suffice to cover all possibilities. Complex numbers, a+bi were invented to deal with the problem of square roots of negative numbers. In most situations, the bi component, the imaginary component, of a number can be ignored. But it is out there, it is available if necessary.  The bi is a recognition of an unfamiliar world, but on some level, it exists. To me, that is where the sacrificial rite lives.