Shabbat Parashat Vayikra - 5785

Shabbat Parashat Vayikra - 5785

Rabbi Hal Miller

  He called to Moshe and God spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying. [Vayikra 1:1]

This short first verse of the third book of the Torah leaves us with questions. Who called to Moshe and why? When two people are near each other, the practice is to begin speaking, not to first call the intended listener unless there are many other potential listeners around. Written in an ordinary fashion, this verse would read, God called to Moshe and spoke to him. As it appears in the Torah, it could mean that someone else called Moshe and then God spoke, or that Moshe was in a crowd and God wanted everyone to know to whom His upcoming words were directed.

As to this last point, Or HaChayim says that God's voice was loud, but only Moshe could hear it, and Rav Moshe Feinstein gives other proofs to this. Therefore Moshe was not "in a crowd" where the speaker had to specify the intended listener.

Who called Moshe? It might appear that it was God, but the verse does not actually say this. If we look to the subject of the previous thoughts in the end of Shemot, it might seem that Betzalel was the one calling, but in context that doesn't follow. In Bereishit [22:11] the verse says "an angel of God called to him from heaven and said, Avraham, Avraham" and then in 22:15, "the angel of God called to Avraham a second time". In Bereshit [3:9], it says "and Hashem God called to the man". Thus, 'callings' from heaven might possibly come from different specified sources, directed to a single listener where nobody else hears the voice. In context with Avraham it seems that, perhaps through the 'mouth' of an angel, it is God speaking to Avraham. We could potentially differentiate that one from our verse in that the Torah there specified "an angel of God", where here it does not, but it does not explain why with Adam, the Torah specifies that it was God Who called, and in that case there wasn't any other human around it could have been from or directed to.

Why was there a call to Moshe preceding God's speaking? Rashi and others say that "calling preceded every statement and every saying and every command", which they explain as "the language of affection". Torah Temimah cites Yoma [4b] that it is to teach derech eretz, the proper way to behave, that one should not speak to someone until sure they have the listener's attention. Ramban gives examples of where God spoke to Moshe without a prior calling thus disagreeing with Rashi.

Rashbam sees the calling as necessary. In Shemot [40:35] Moshe was not able to enter the Mishkan, and earlier he was told that God would speak to him from the Cheruvim on the Ark inside the Mishkan. According to this, Moshe had to be called to enter in order to have a conversation with God. Or, as Rashbam says, God spoke to Moshe from the tent, and had to make sure Moshe knew Who was speaking, even though he was outside among others who could not hear. Sforno concurs with this, that God had previously been speaking out of the cloud, so this was a change and He needed to inform Moshe. This also seems to be what Ramban is saying.

Malbim points out that the text says "vayikra el moshe" and says that if someone were calling out to draw near the intended listener, the wording should be "vayikra l'moshe" and that our verse "is merely courtesy to invite him to listen" and thus God and Moshe were actually already together.

Onkelos changes the wording of the verse slightly, that "God spoke with him" instead of "to him". This is to separate Moshe from the other prophets that God spoke to in dreams, typically calling with vayakar, that here it was a two-way conversation. Rav Hirsch takes this a step farther, that our verse is to defeat the argument of the anti-Torah people that he was familiar with in his day that Moshe was just another prophet who had a vision or dream. Although the 'calling' could have been in a vision or dream, here we see that after the calling from whover called, God then held a conversation directly with Moshe.