THE SHINE OF MOSHE’S FACE WAS RADIANT – PARSHA KI SISA

                                                                                                                   
B.S.D.

        The inspiring ideas of this
beautiful Torah thought in Pasuk 34: 29-35, is found in the drashas of the
Casam Sofar brought from the Yalkut Reuvani and additional kidushim by one of
the Rosh Hayashivot before World War 2.  
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 .  

         The Midrash informs us that
one of the explanations of how Moshe Rabbinu received the (keren hod)
illuminating Divine radiance was that Hashem Yisbarach had commanded Moshe to
write a Sefer Torah. Moshe preceded to transcribe the Torah onto a (clopf)
parchment, beginning with the words – ‘Berasihis bara Elokim’ … ‘In the
beginning G-d created …’ and proceeded until he reached the lasts words of the Sefer
Torah which are – ‘…l’einey kol Israel’ – ‘…before the eyes of all Israel’.

             The Midrash tells us
that upon writing the final lamed of the word Israel there still remained a few
drops of (dio) ink on the (klumos) quill. The obvious question is why there
remained a few drops of ink ‘left over’, since Hashem, who created the entire
universe, knows preciously how many atoms are needed to create the universe, so
He also certainly knows exactly how much ink is necessary to write a Sefer
Torah, therefore why was there a few drops left over on the quill? To this the
Midrash informs us that when Moshe finished writing, he passed his hand with
the (kulmos) quill close enough to his forehead that the supernal holiness that
lay in these drops of dio imprinted on Moshe Rabannu a spiritual Divine shining
radiance.

             Fine, this is how Moshe
received the (keren hod) Divine shine on his forehead but there is still to ask
what he said or did that merited these lights of holiness? Since the keren hod
is a sign and symbol of greatness and honor, let us try to discover what
special quality was exemplified to Moshe Rabbanu.  The Torah itself testifies when he was
commanded by    G-d that Moshe was the
‘the humblest man on the face of earth’, that he requested due to his sincere
humility to leave this pasuk out of the Torah. The Creator answered him that
since there are many reasons for everything written in the Torah it was
necessary to write this pasuk but in deference to Moshe’s request the word stating
that he was the humblest – anav – could be written without a vov. However the
pronunciation – Crea – of the word is as if it were written with a vov.

                   We find another
place in the Torah where Moshe requests Hashem 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…’ 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 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 (hasgafa) insight. The amount of ink saved by
writing the Sefer Torah without a vov and with only a small alef was the exact
amount of dio remaining on the kalmus of Mosh 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
with the splendor of greatest 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 – keren hod –
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.

All articles appearing on this blog are copyrighted by Rabbi Yehoshua Binyamin Falk. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share/download/copy this information as long as it is accompanied by the copyright. Separately authored/copyrighted materia

Leave a Reply