Moshe Burt

Our Parsha Vayikra, being read on Shabbos Zachor in Adar Sheini (the second Adar in a "leap year")marks a flowing together of both Jewish history & Spirituality
and the senseless, mindless, blindly hateful, ill-thought out attempt to expel Jews from parts of our divine inheritance and legacy -- Eretz Yisrael.

The first word of our parsha; Vayikra begs discussion of why the small "aleph" in Vayikra, and what it indicates regarding Moshe Rabbeinu's level of principle, integrity and standard of leadership of B'nei Yisrael.

We are told how Hashem, Kav'yochal, would call gently, affectionately "Moshe, Moshe" in a voice for Moshe Rabbeinu's ears only and Moshe would respond "Here I am." (Rashi on Perek 1, posuk 1 Metsuda Linear Chumash & Rashi with footnotes)  Moshe, always shirking honor, kavod, special treatment, or the perception of special treatment, would fight "tooth to nail" that this first word, which would typify Hashem's greeting when he wanted to speak privately with him in the Mishkan, should read "Vayikar" as when Hashem "happened to meet Bila'am" (Rashi on Perek 1, posuk 1) later, in Parsha Balak.

But Hashem's wish for "Vayikra" carried the day, although he made the concession of the small "aleph."  This dialogue speaks volumes about the Dar'chim of humility, modesty and selflessness of Moshe Rabbeinu, his dedication to Hashem and to the people he leads, the B'nei Yisrael.

I hold that it is against the meaning and background of the very first word of our Parsha, that later in the Parsha, Torah comments, "If the King commits a sin by unintentionally violating one of Hashem's Commandments which he should not have done ..." (Vayikra Perek 4, posuk 22) and which Rabbi Pliskin in "Growth Through Torah" (page 238) comments "When in a position of power, have the courage to admit your mistakes."

Rabbi Pliskin adds the comment that "the king was a person with much power, and power gives a person such high feelings about himself that he is unlikely to admit that he has done anything wrong.  For this reason, when the king with unlimited power admits that he erred and regrets what he has done, it is fortunate for his generation." (Attributed to Maskil Ledovid.)

Rabbi Pliskin then adds that "People who are power-hungry have a ... tendency to deny making mistakes.  When such a person is in a position of authority, he is likely to consider himself so perfect that whatever he does and says must be correct."  The more power one has, the more compelling is the importance of possessing intellectual honesty and to admitting one's error. ("Growth Through Torah", page 238)

When a leader can be sooo colored, in his decisions and actions, by his own self-interest that he will do anything and everything and at all costs -- including bribery, graft, surrendering to blackmail while turning his back in perfidy on the constituency who were the backbone of his entire previous political career in attaining office, in order to maintain his office, his title, his personal prestige and self-enrichment, how can we not question the true motivations of that leader at every step of his ill-gotten career?  How can we not wonder what evil lurks behind every step of his military/political career?  How can we not wonder what cynical Sinat Chinom lurks behind this total divorce from Torah, from his roots in Eretz Yisrael?  How can this leader who once, in recent years, feigned a verbal wish that he had more fully "learned the sources" now share with the previous opposing political party the lust to, as Shem Mishmuel put it, defile Klal Yisrael both in the physical and spiritual sense? (Shem Mishmuel, Parsha Zachor, page 159) 

How can this leader, of a nation who, with Hashem's help, has utterly defeated an  enemy of vastly superior numbers in five previous wars, now be complicit with an Amalek-like enemy, both by not fighting Arab terror to a decisive, absolute, final defeat and by attempting to destroy the very physical and spiritual fabric of Jewish unity and the Jewish people?   And is this seemingly willful complicity, in the name of blind Sinat Chinom toward anything Jewish, with Amalek-like Arab Terror by way of Kassam Missiles and Islamikazi Suicide bombers, in and of itself not Amalek-like in its attempt at defilement?   Are we not, by reading Parsha Zachor, mandated "to wipe out the memory of Amalek and ... to remember their evil deeds and their ambush, in order to inspire hatred of them?" (Artscroll Chumash , Devarim -- Rashi Commentary on Zachor, page 1066) 

In the merit of B'Ezrat Hashem, our collective unity -- "Adat B'nai Yisrael", our emunah and actions, and the proper motivations for them, may we ALL be zocha to have our Tefillah reach Shemayim, unimpeded, ungarbled.  As Rabbi Moshe Ungar would say each Thursday evening at his Gemara Shiur back in Philadelphia, in "the old country", B'Ezrat Hashem, may we be zocha to demand, to compel Hashem to do "what he wants to do, to bring us the Moshiach and the Ge'ula  Shlaima, "bimhayro b'yameinu -- speedily, in our time." 

May we see an end to low, dirty politics, political equivocation, perfidy and false cheshbonot; freedom and long life in Eretz Yisrael for Jonathan Pollard and special merit for our brethren currently subject to police harrassment, political interrogation and political persecution. 

And IY'H, may it be that come this Rosh Hashana, that we pray thanks to Hashem for keeping our Brethren in Gush Katif and the Shomron in their homes and neighborhoods and away from the horror and Chillul Hashem of expulsion.
 
May we see the "Yom Hashem Al Kol HaGoyim" Achshav -- Immediately, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of the Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.