When Smaller Is Bigger
When Smaller Is Bigger
This Dvar Torah was originally published in Torah && Tech, the weekly newsletter I publish together with my good friend Ben Greenberg. To get the weekly issue delivered straight to your inbox click here.
The laws of writing a Torah scroll are very exact. Halachah prescribes every detail of the process, from the ink and parchment used, to the shape of each letter.
While most letters are similar in size, some letters are written either larger or smaller than the surrounding letters.
The Aleph in the first word of this week’s Torah portion, Vayikra (and he called [to Moses]), is one example. It is written smaller than the rest of the letters in the word.
The Ba’al Hatanya (the first Rebbe of the Chabad dynasty, 1745–1812) was asked about that small Aleph by his three-year-old grandson, Menachem Mendel (who would grow to be known by the name of his book, the Tzemach Tzedek, and would go on to become the third Chabad Rebbe, 1789–1866).
The Ba’al Hatanya replied:
“There are two great people mentioned in the Torah. Adam was the first man, created by G-D’s own hand and his wisdom was greater than that of the angels. Adam was aware of his greatness, and he let this greatness get to him. At the end that was the cause of his downfall.
“Moses was also aware of his greatness. He was the only human being who spoke to G-D directly. Unlike Adam, in Moses, this awareness brought about a sense of humility. Moses felt that any greatness that he achieved was because G-D chose him for the task, and had G-D selected someone else and given his abilities to another person, that person would have reached the same hights, if not more.
“That is why,” the Ba’al Hatanya continued, “when the Torah refers to Adam it does so with a large Aleph (Chronicles I 1:1), but when it mentions Moses, it refers to him with a small Aleph.”
Many times in life we are afraid to speak up, to stand up for ourselves or for what’s right, because we’ve been taught to value humility. We feel that calling attention to ourselves and our achievements, or even just being conscious of them, would be considered vain and arrogant.
That mindset can sometimes be as harmful as the truly arrogant mindset we are trying to avoid.
The truth is that humility != low self-esteem or a lack of appreciation for one’s achievements.
The true humility is when someone acknowledges their achievements, but is actively conscious of the privilege that got them there.
Using your position to lend that privilege to others and stand up for what’s right is far from arrogance. It is the ultimate humility and showing Hakarat Hatov (gratitude) to all those who lent their privilege to us and helped us get to where we are today.
Shabbat Shalom,
Yechiel