Our reading begins, “And He [G-d] called to Moshe, and Hashem spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying…” [1:1]
The first word of this book, that which identifies the Sefer as “Vayikra,” is traditionally written with an unusally small letter Aleph at the end of the word – as if the word were spelled “VAYIKRa.” This continues a practice that began, our Sages say, with Moshe himself.
It was Moshe who finished with that small Aleph, when Hashem told him to write Vayikra. When G-d called to Bila’am, the prophet whom Balak, King of Moav, hired to curse the Jews, Hashem called to him with “Vayikar,” without the Aleph. Rashi describes “Vayikar” as an off-hand and denigrating call. Moshe was so humble that he did not want to make himself greater than even the evil Bila’am.
If an off-hand Vayikar was enough for Bila’am, then Moshe thought that it was enough for him as well. But our Kabbalah says that G-d gave Moshe the shining beams which radiated from his face – the very symbol of his greatness – in exchange for the ink which Moshe left over in his humility. By playing himself and his importance down, he gained an elevated stature that everyone could see.
There was once a man who (reportedly) put it this way: “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” That man was President Harry S. Truman.
Personally, a rabbi advised me a number of years ago to engineer a project in such a way that other people “led” in front, with me working in a supportive role. It turned out that involving many people enabled the program to grow much faster, and it was much more successful than had any one person, much less me, been claiming the credit. I had the opportunity to see this lesson play out in practice.
Anyone who gets involved with any sort of business or project will run into situations where “who gets the credit” becomes a question. What we learn from Moshe is not merely a Kabbalistic insight into how he received beams of light shining from his face, but a real-world, practical lesson into the best way to acquire acclaim: to avoid honor, even when others are trying to grandstand or take credit for work that others have done. As the truth comes out, it will become clear who should bask in the light.
