The inspiring ideas of this beautiful Torah thought in Shemos Ki Sisa (34:
29-35), where Moshe Rabbinu received the Divine radiance is found in the
drashas of the Casam Sofar brought from the Yalkut Reuvani and additional
kidushim by one of the Rosh Hayashivot before the 2nd World War. In-order to give us a greater appreciation
of the preciousness of the thought for the general reader, I have expanded and
elaborated on them .
There is a fascinating Midrash that informs us of one of the explanations
of how Moshe Rabbinu received the illuminating Divine radiance. When Moshe
finished writing the entire Sefer Torah, as he moved his hand back to his right
side as the ink pen (kulmus) came close to his forehead the holiness of the
remaining few drops (dio) gave Moshe the shine of the Divine radiance.
Since Hashem knows preciously how
many atoms are needed to create the universe and exactly how much ink is
necessary to write a Sefer Torah, it is asked why were there a few drops left
over on the ink quill?
Even though this Midrash tells how
Moshe received the shine on his forehead but there is still to ask what Moshe
did to deserve this Divine radiance lights? An possible answer to this question is found
in the Midrash which informs us that upon hearing that he, Moshe, was to write
about himself that he was ‘the humblest man on the face of earth’ (Bamidbar -Beha’aloscha
12:3), Moshe requested of H. to extract this pasuk from. Even though H.
understood that Moshe didn’t want such a praiseworthy accolade written about
him, the Creator, no doubt, answered him that there are seventy reasons for
everything in the Torah and therefore it was necessary to write this pasuk but
in deference to Moshe’s request the word for humblest – anav – could be written
without a yud (and still maintain its full purpose within the Torah). The
implication thereby being that if the word
anav is missing (kaser) a letter, the Torah is merely expressing the
fact of Moshe’s status without indicating an aspect of arrogance in his own
writing of these words. Therefore every Sefer Torah is thus written without a yud
in the word anav, however the pronunciation – Crea – of the word is as if it
were written with a yud.
We find another place in the
Torah where Moshe would want to modify a word in the Torah. The third Sefer in
the Chumash is named and starts out with the word – ‘Viekra’ – ‘And He called…’
(Vayikra 1:1) This was the Creator’s calling to Moshe from the Tent of Meeting.
In all Sefer Torahs that alef of the word Viekra is written small. The Sages
explain that here also Moshe, no doubt requested of G-d that the word ‘called’ – ‘Viekra’
– be written without an alef, thereby indicting a lesser degree of Moshe’s
importance in being called at the Tent of Meeting, but Hashem said there are
seventy reasons for each thing in the Torah and this word needs an alef at the
end but out of deference for your sincere humility, the alef can forever be
written small.
With this informative information
we can now put the seemingly disparate pieces together into a beautiful mosaic
of rich Torah haskafa. The amount of ink saved by writing the Sefer Torah
without a yud and with only a small alef was the exact amount of dio remaining
on the kalmus of Moshe Rabbinu. Since these drops were ‘left over’ because of
Moshe’s sincere effort to maintain his sincere humility, Hashem used
specifically these drops of dio to anoint Moshe’s –metach- forehead as a sign
of greatness and honor of the shine of the Divine radiance. This then helps to
explain a statement of the Sages: “That one who – barach – flees away from – coved – honor, – coved – honor will
– rodaf – pursue after him.” Moshe, our Shepard, teacher and leader, deflected
at every opportunity the receiving of coved and thereby merited having – coved
– greatness and honor imbue him with the shine of the Divine radiance.
May we merit to learn to
emulate this attribute of sincere humility thereby meriting the final geula
soon in our days.
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