Vayikra ~ Virtual Study

(1) He called to Moses and Ad-nai spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying: (2) Speak to the Israelite people, and say to them: A soul, when s/he presents an offering to Ad-nai, from the herd or from the flock you will offer your offering. (3) If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall make his offering a male without blemish; he shall bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, for acceptance in his behalf before Ad-nai. (4) He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, that it may be acceptable in his behalf, in expiation for him.

AND [he] CALLED MOSES — All oral communications to Moses whether they are introduced by דבר or by אמר or by צו were preceded by a call (to prepare him for the forthcoming address) (cf Sifra, Vayikra Dibbura d'Nedavah, Chapter 1 1-2). It is a way of expressing affection, the mode used by the ministering angels when addressing each other, as it is said (Isaiah 6:3) “And one called unto another [and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts]”. To the prophets of the nations of the world, however, God revealed himself in a manner which Scripture describes by an expression ordinarily used for denoting events of a casual character and of impurity, as it is said, (Numbers 23:4) “and God happened to meet (ויקר) Balaam”.

R. Menachem Nachum Twersky of Chernobyl (Ukraine 1730-1787)

And He called to Moshe, and Ad-nai spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, etc - we need to understand why in the beginning of the verse there is simply the verse "he called" without denoting who called, and that after it explains that "Ad-nai spoke to him". The idea is that the Blessed Name took us out of Egypt, and immediately gave us the mitzvot of Pesach and circumcision, and then opened the sea for us, and then guided us through the desert with a pillar of fire during the day and with a pillar of cloud at night, and afterward gave us the Torah, and then commanded us to make the Mishkan [Tabernacle] as it says "and they will make Me a Mikdash and I will dwell among them" (Ex. 25:8), 'inside it' it is not written, etc. - all this can be understood with an allegory. If a person who was always in a dark place, and has never seen light in all his/her life is brought suddenly to the outside, s/he could not stand the light. Therefore, it would be necessary to reveal light in stages, in the beginning we would make a small crack from which the person could see a little bit of light, and the we would expand the crack until it becomes a window, and then we would take him out to the world and show the light. So too Israel, in Egypt, were sunken into fifty levels/gates of tum'ah (spiritual impurity) and if He had shown them all the flowing of the Shechinah they would not be able to stand, and therefore they needed the stages described above, and the core of the project was "and they make Me a Mikdash so I will dwell among them."

And behold, our sages said (Berakhot 28b): “one who walks through a dangerous place prays a short prayer ... in all transitions may their needs be in front of You.” And this is how it is explained in the Gemara: even when they go after a transgression, may their needs be revealed before You. The idea is that the Blessed Creator exists in condensed form [metzumtzam] near every Jewish person, even near a greatly evil one, the Blessed Creator is with that person also. And the proof is that every evil person feels thoughts of teshuvah, which is the Holy Blessed One calling to that person individually and saying ‘come back to Me’. The only thing is that the person does not understand that the Holy Name is calling!

And this is why “and He called Moshe” is written with a small aleph: the Blessed Name is the Master [ALUF, written with aleph] of the World is found with every Jew in a constricted form, and calls to her/him to return, which is through thoughts of teshuvah that come to people, just that people do not understand that who calls them is the Blessed Name - and that is why the verb is not clear about who calls. But when a person understands that the One calling is the Blessed Name, to return from bad ways and one responds to the Creator, then “and Ad-nai called to him from the tent of meeting, saying” - that is, when the person tries to do a transgression and the Holy One of Blessing prevents her/him through some reason that makes the transgression not happen, this is as if God is saying ‘return to Me, until when are you going to keep running after your emptiness?!’ And this is “shortened prayer” [tefilah ketzarah] - a prayer that will diminish [liktzor] the hardened husks [kelipot]: ‘Save, O Ad-nai, Your people the remnant of Israel. In every time they go after a transgression may their needs be before You. Blessed are You, O Ad-nai, who hears prayer.’

R. Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (Poland 1740 - Ukraine 1810)

“He called to Moshe;” the fact that ‎the letter aleph is small is explained ‎by something we had discussed in Exodus 24:1 “and to Moshe He had said: ‘ascend towards Ad-nai.’” When a person performs one of God’s ‎commandments this makes an impression Above and helps to stir in that person the desire to do God’s will in this mitzvah. It had been Moses’ will to always do God’s ‎will and to continue to ascend ever higher and come ‎closer to Ad-nai as stated by the Zohar when ‎explaining the line: ‎“and Moses had ‎ascended towards God,” (Exodus 19:3). And we find that this, that he wanted to always ascend to God, was always stirring within him the desire to ascend to God. And this is the explanations of the verse "And to Moshe He said: 'Go up to Ad-nai'" (Ex. 24:1) - since it was his desire to go up to God, He said "go up to Ad-nai". And this is the hint given in the small aleph: since regarding Moshe our teacher, peace be upon him, his midah [character trait] was that he was more humble than anyone, the small aleph hints to that middah. ...