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Matthew 11:29
“… I am meek and lowly in heart: …” The Hebrew text of Scriptures has several letters that differ in size, some bigger than the overall text, some smaller. As such, the last letter of the first word of the Book of Leviticus, ‘Vayikra’ is smaller than the rest of the text. The extreme scrutiny under which this text has been copied and recopied over the millennia forbids us to assume a scribal error. Why then would Moses have diminished the ‘aleph’ in the word ‘vayikra’: ‘And He called’? The Oracles Moses wrote down cannot just be read as a chronological string of words giving instructions. Repetitions have their value in emphasis as well as the placement of certain commands within the text. The choice of certain words and their lexical root also tell us much about the underlying meaning. We are not used to pay such attention to these things but this is part of the cultural context of the text, and sad to say, many of these vital details are lost in translation. We do not really have a satisfying answer concerning the diminishing of the aleph in the first word of the Book of Leviticus ‘Vayikra’, but since Torah students hate a vacuum, here is the most widely accepted reason for it. The word ‘vayikra’ means ‘And He (God) called … (Leviticus 1:1)’. Moses whom God defined as the humblest of all men did not think himself worthy of being singled out and called by God, so he originally wrote ‘Vayikar’, a much more impersonal inflection of the verb which is also the one used in the Torah when the Angel of the Lord met with the idolatrous prophet Balaam. God disapproved of the comparison, so Moses reluctantly acquiesced and wrote that last aleph, but smaller. Of course this story is not true, but thus being so, it has it does have its own homiletic value. The sages here describe Moses, the man blessed with the highest form of divine revelation one could ever be blessed with, as a person who did not even feel worthy of his calling. This sets Moses, the greatest of the teachers and prophets of Israel, as a trend setter, a blue-print for teachers and would-be prophets. There is a dictum in Judaism which was also used by Yeshua, ‘ With the same measure that a man uses, it will be measured to him’ (Matthew 7:2). It is believed that because Moses humbled himself, God also humbled Himself and called Moses from the Tabernacle. In a certain sense, God did humble Himself in sending Yeshua, as the ‘prophet’ like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:18), who , being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, … (Philippians 2:8). Many desire to be teachers and prophets. May we never forget the blue-print of self-effacement and humility that is to be the earmark for all those who are to be used by God in the capacity of teaching and leading His flock. That is the standard that should be used by, not eloquence, depth, or intelligence, but the spirit of utter humility because, He dwells in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite (Isaiah 57:15).
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1Peter 5:5
Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." When the Children of Israel entered Canaan, their Almighty God asked them to sanctify the land from all forms of idolatry. They were to ruthlessly and zealously destroy temples, shrines and groves; even sacred trees were to be cut down and burned. If there is anything God is intolerant of, it is idolatry. He is indeed a jealous God who does not allow us to have divided loyalties. It is important to notice though that this commandment specifies ‘In the Land’ and ‘in that place’ (Deuteronomy 12:1-3). It is therefore not incumbent on us to start destroying and defacing idolatrous structures that are not in Israel The only other place where it is pertinent for us to rid ourselves of idols and idolatrous practices is our hearts, and by extension, our homes. The difficulty with that is that it is often much easier to see the idolatry on others that it is in ourselves. Our nature is such that we have a natural tendency to mercifully analyze and rationalize ourselves to ourselves. To see our own lifestyle in its proper perspective requires the same instrument as the one we use to see if our face is clean: a mirror. And in the case of our lifestyle, the ‘mirror’ is the Torah (James 1:23-24). Religion defined by Torah lifestyle is clean from idolatry, but religion away from Torah becomes idolatrous. The other problem is that Torah today is in the form of a written text. One’s culture usually defines his worldview and perspective, which in turn defines his understanding of any written text. To see ourselves as we truly are therefore takes the ‘mirror’ of Torah, but in the form of a brother or a sister (Proverbs 27:17). This brother or sister whom the Holy Spirit will use and speak through in the same manner it spoke through Balaam’s donkey (Numbers 22:28) is usually someone just like ourselves who sees the wrong in us more than in himself. This alls makes for a perfect match because it also requires us to learn submissive humility, which in itself is a pertinent exercise against stubborn and prideful and therefore idolatrous rebellion (1 Samuel 15:23). Many of us don’t mind if God descends from His Great Place to talk to us in a vision or a dream about our problems (that actually feeds our pride), but He usually doesn’t do that; most of the time, He likes to use the agency of an imperfect brother or sister. This reminds me of Naaman, the leprous Syrian general. First, his wife’s young Jewish slave advised him to seek healing from Elisha, the prophet in enemy country. When he arrived there (having first tried to see the king), Elisha would not even see him; he just sent his servant to tell him to go bathe in the dirty Jordan River. Proud Naaman took offense to the whole thing. It is again his own servant who had to bring him to his senses (2 Kings 5). May we learn to look in the Torah in our brothers and sisters. May we, as the apostle says, ‘be quick to hear, slow to speak (James 1:19). |
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