The Lord Called
Yael Eckstein | March 15, 2017
Moses stood outside the Tabernacle.
The camp was quiet behind him.
Tents.
Fires.
Children waking.
Women grinding grain.
Men preparing for the day’s work.
Before him stood the place where God’s presence dwelled.
Moses did not yet go inside.
He did not speak.
He just stood there.
Waiting.
Listening.
Then the voice came.
Not thunder.
Not fire.
Not the glory of Sinai.
Just, “Moses.”
His name carried from within the Tabernacle.
Morning remained morning.
The wilderness remained the wilderness.
But something had changed.
Moses had been called.
Leviticus 1:1
The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him…
With today’s Bible verse, we begin the Book of Leviticus. These words—“Vayikra” in Hebrew—contain a strange phrase: “The Lord called to Moses.”
Now, God spoke to Moses hundreds of times throughout the Bible, and in nearly every other instance, God’s words are prefaced with, “and God spoke to Moses, saying…” But, that’s not the case here. In today’s verse, God’s words to Moses begin with, “The Lord called.”
Why is that?
This question is asked by many of our sages, and many different answers are given. But I’m drawn by the words of my mentor and teacher, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory.
Looking at this verse, Rabbi Sacks explains how God’s “call” is relevant to us in our own lives. I’ll share his teaching with you today:
“When we see a wrong to be righted, a sickness to be healed, a need to be met, and we feel it speaking to us, that is when we come as close as we can in a post-prophetic age to hearing Vayikra, God’s call. And why does the word appear here, at the beginning of the third and central book of the Torah? Because the book of Vayikra is about sacrifices, and a vocation is about sacrifices. We are willing to make sacrifices when we feel they are part of the task we are called on to do.
“From the perspective of eternity, we may sometimes be overwhelmed by a sense of our own insignificance. We are no more than a wave in the ocean, a grain of sand on the sea shore, a speck of dust on the surface of infinity. Yet we are here because God wanted us to be, because there is a task He wants us to perform. The search for meaning is the quest for this task.
“Each of us is unique. Even genetically identical twins are different. There are things only we can do, we who are what we are, in this time, this place, and these circumstances. For each of us God has a task: work to perform, a kindness to show, a gift to give, love to share, loneliness to ease, pain to heal, or broken lives to help mend. Discerning that task, hearing Vayikra, God’s call, is one of the great spiritual challenges for each of us. How do we know what it is? For me: Where what we want to do meets what needs to be done, that is where God wants us to be.”
I think of Rabbi Sacks’ words often, as I lead The Fellowship. I know that we do what needs to be done, and I know that this is where God wants me to be.
And, my friends, I pray that each one of you hears God’s call, and find where He wants you to be.
