Parashat Vayikra

Shiny Happy People – How Moshe Rabbenu’s humility led to his radiant complexion

(From the teachings of Maran Rabbenu Ovadia Yosef ztvk”l)(written by his grandson HaRav Yaakov Sasson Shlit”a)(translated by our dear friend Rav Daniel Levy Shlit”a, Leeds United Kingdom)

Parashat Vayikra

Our Parashah opens with the Pasuk, “Hashem called to Moshe, speaking to him from the Communion Tent saying”” (Vayikra 1:1).

In Parashat Ki Tissa it states, “Moshe came down from Mt. Sinai with the two Tablets of the Testimony in his hand. As Moshe descended from the mountain, he did not realise that the skin of his face had become luminous when [Hashem] had spoken to him. When Aharon and all of Yisrael saw that the skin of Moshe’s face was shining with a brilliant light, they were afraid to come close to him.” (Shemot 34:29-30). Moshe Rabbenu’s face transformed into flames, like the face of an angel. Am Yisrael were afraid to draw near to him lest they become burnt from his facial flames.

Our Chachamim ask in the Midrash, from where did Moshe merit to a radiant complexion. They explain that when Moshe Rabbenu ascended Mt Sinai, HaKadosh Baruch Hu was dictating to him what to write in the Torah and Moshe would write, as all of the Torah was written by Moshe as Hashem told him. When Moshe finished the Torah he reached the final words, “…before all the eyes of Yisrael” (Devarim 34:12), however, a small amount of ink remained on his quill. Taking from this holy and unique ink (understandably there are deep aspects connected to this), HaKadosh Baruch Hu rubbed it on Moshe’s head, and from here his face had a radiant complexion. [See Ba’al HaTurim ad loc. (Rabbi Yaakov ben Asher z”l 1270-1340).]

However it begs the question, when a person dips their quill in the ink ready to write, they are unable to take the exact amount of ink that they require to write the letter. So, there is always a small amount of ink remaining. In contrast, HaKadosh Baruch Hu knows precisely what is in the Torah and He knows exactly how much ink is required for the quill, if so, how was it that a small amount of ink remained on the quill.

Rather it was Moshe who was “guilty” as it were. Moshe was extremely modest, as it states in the Torah, “…Moshe was very humble” (Bamidbar 12:3), so when HaKadosh Baruch Hu told him to write, “Hashem called to Moshe”, with such an endearing terminology that Hashem called him, like it says with angels, “And one would call to another and say” (Yeshayahu 6:3), Moshe said to himself how may I write about myself such an important phrase? He preferred to write that “Hashem chanced upon Moshe,” like it says with Bilam, “Hashem chanced upon Bilam,” (Bamidbar 23:4). [This is because the Hebrew word for “he chanced” – “Vayikar” is almost the same as the Hebrew word “he called” – “Vayikra”, with the exception of the last latter which is the letter “aleph”, which isn’t required for the Hebrew of “he chanced”.] However, since Moshe wasn’t allowed to change what Hashem had told him to scribe, therefore he diminished the size of the letter “aleph” in the Hebrew word for “he called”, so that people wouldn’t notice it when they are further from the Sefer Torah and it would only then look like it states, “he chanced…”.

Since Moshe reduced the size of the letter “aleph” due to his humility, a small amount remained of ink remained from the letter “aleph” on his quill, and from this ink Moshe merited to a radiant complexion.

Shabbat Shalom!

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