A thought on Parshas Vayikra

"..VaYikra el Moshe..." "...and He called to Moshe..." (1:1) Our verse opens up this new book of the Torah by telling that HaShem called out to Moshe. At the close of last week's parsha, at the end of Sefer Sh'mos, we read about how the Mishkan was the shrine where HaShem's Presence was most fully sensed, and now this following passage begins with how HaShem communicated with Moshe from within that consecrated place. This week, the Gan takes a more homiletic or midrashic approach, which he tells us that he heard from Rav Nosson ben Rav Yosef (I have not been able to identify who this scholar was. I did find that there was a contemporary named Rav Yosef ben Rav Nosson who was famous for his disputations with the French clergy, but the Gan uses the reverse names here so we just don't know to whom he refers). Rav Nosson ben Rav Yosef contrasted our verse, which depicts the communication between HaShem and Moshe as "calling to", whereas with Bilaam (Bamidbar 22:9) we find the Torah writes "va'yavo Elokim el Bilaam" - and The Lord came to Bilaam. How do we understand the difference between the two expressions? The metaphor would be about a king sitting in his palace who needs to confer with a leper. The king walks to the entrance of his palace to address that contaminated man, not wanting him to enter the palace and put others at risk or bring disease into the royal residence. When the king needs to confer with one of his trusted officers, however, he invites him into those royal chambers. So too, when the Torah writes (see last week's Parsha Thought) that the glory of HaShem filled the Mishkan (Shmos 40:35), we would understand that at that moment, Moshe would feel unable to venture in to this awesome chamber. This is why our verse now says "and He called to Moshe" - HaShem beckoned to Moshe to commune with His Presence, which was virtually entering the Palace. Bilaam, in contrast, was never invited in to attain that level of closeness. Rather, the Torah portrays his encounter with the Divine in what can now be understood as if there was a "Divine condescension". This is also how we are meant to understand the scene at Sinai. The Torah tells us that the Cloud of Glory covered the mountain. There too we have the passage (24:16) telling us that "HaShem called to Moshe from within the Cloud." This also gives us the image of HaShem beckoning to Moshe that he is welcome to draw near even where and when others may not tread. The Gan observes that the above explanation can be supported by the fact that our verse does not say "and HaShem called to Moshe" but rather "and He called to Moshe." From the fact that there is no proper noun mentioning HaShem explicitly, we are meant to understand that our verse is a continuation of last week's parsha. It was HaShem calling out from that place where His Glory filled the Mishkan. The calling out was an invitation expressly to Moshe. He was welcome and secure with a level of communion which lesser people could never attain. Good Shabbos and Rosh Chodesh Tov. D Fox