Parshas Pekudei: 🤯 RAV SHACH REVEALS THE SECRET! The Tiny Alef That Changes EVERYTHING!

A single miniature letter in the Torah scroll holds a revolutionary lesson about spiritual growth. The first word of Leviticus contains a mysteriously tiny aleph—a scribal tradition dating back to Moses himself. But why? The classic explanation tells us Moses, in his humility, couldn't bear receiving greater honor than others when God called to him. Yet there's something deeper happening.

Rav Elazar Menachem Man Shach offers a profound insight that transforms how we view spiritual development. He asks why Moses employed this small-letter strategy only here, when "Vayikra" appears throughout the Torah. His answer? Moses wasn't naturally humble from birth—he fought a daily battle against pride, just as we all struggle with our inclinations. The miniature aleph represents a specific tactical response to that day's unique spiritual challenge.

This perspective aligns perfectly with the Talmudic concept of being "shrewd in your fear of Heaven." Spiritual growth isn't about brute-force willpower but about developing increasingly sophisticated strategies against our internal adversary. The yetzer hara (evil inclination) fights dirty—attacking when we're vulnerable and constantly shifting tactics. Our response must be equally strategic.

Whether scheduling morning study sessions to ensure we wake up for prayers, finding accountability partners, or creating personal boundaries before temptation arises, these represent our own "small aleph" approaches. The path to growth isn't simply trying harder; it's outsmarting our internal adversary through creative solutions tailored to our unique challenges.

As you reflect on that tiny letter in this week's Torah portion, consider: What clever strategies are you developing in your spiritual life? If Moses needed daily tactical innovations to maintain his legendary humility, how much more do we need to be vigilant and creative in our own journeys? What's your "small aleph" going to be today?

Chapters

• 0:00 The Mystery of Torah's Special Letters
• 3:12 The Little Aleph of Vayikra Explained
• 8:15 Rav Shach's Revolutionary Insight
• 15:15 Being Shrewd in Your Fear of Heaven
• 21:14 Writing Our Own Small Alephs Today
• 25:54 Practical Strategies for Spiritual Growth

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Out of all of the 304,805 letters inside of the Sefer Torah, a handful of them are created just different, that is to say some are miniature, some are larger and some are just regular size. And this week we have one of the prime examples of a smaller letter inside of the Torah by Yikra el-Moysheh v'idaber Hashem el-Avm, one of the circumstances, the novelties, the rarities that one will find inside of a Sefer Torah, where one of its letters inside of a verse is created smaller or, like we find in other places, large. There's certain halachos of how the scribe is to transcribe the Torah, as he the sofer, is engaging in the Hilchos Ksivas Esefer Torah, the Rambam codifies in his Mishnah Torah. There's a tradition that goes back from scribe until scribe, until the very first scribe, moshe Rabbeinu, as to how the Savior Torah must be written and to the size of each letter. And lurking mysteriously behind each one of these novelties, the small letters and the large letters, are certain hidden meanings, there to be dredged, there to be drawn from the ever-deepening waters of the Torah. Some of the most famous examples will begin all the way back in, say, for Brachios, behibarra'am, the famous small hay inside of the word that Hashem created, behibarra'am.

Speaker 1: 2:02

We have that famous large yud maybe you're aware of from when Moshe Rabbeinu was davening after the 10 spies debacle, when he said Hashem yigdal be great. Trying to reference an attribute of Hashem. And the large yud is there for us to ponder. And how about? Who could forget the large, the enlarged, the ginormous ayin and dalid of Shema Yisrael, hashem Elikinu, hashem Echad, with the enlarged ayin at the end of Shema and the large dalid at the end of Echad. Together they actually spell and reference, maybe something that we can come up with as aid, because kriya Shema, there's a witnessing and a testimony, or maybe it's da like knowledge, that one should know the sovereignty of the Almighty and accept it.

Speaker 1: 2:52

But today's conversation is that curious, tiny, inconspicuous and unassuming letter aleph, at the end of the first word of Sefer Vayikra. Spoiler alert that's this week's Parsha. The little Aleph. Why, why should the scribe write it this way? Because it's a halacha. But why did the Almighty organize the Torah to be written this way? Well, obviously Torah means instruction, it's obviously instructing, something, telling us a message.

Speaker 1: 3:35

And we are not left groping in the dark trying to discover the MS, because the great Rebbe Yaakov Ben Usher, who you may know of as the Holy Arbaturim, the author of the most important halachic book of all time. Maybe you know of Rebbe Yaakov Ben Usher from his summarization of his father's Pesachim the Rush when he wrote the Kitzer Pesach HaRosh, or maybe you're familiar with his Pirish Al-Hatorah. Either way, what you need to know is that the Baal HaTurim, reb Yaakov ben Usher, also wrote the Rimzei Baal HaTurim, the Pirish Al-Hatorah. That is kind of short appetizers to warm you up for his commentaries that often use gematrias, acronyms, other kind of peculiar findings inside of the Torah, sofei, tevos, numerical values that all show a deeper level of Torah. And the balaturim explains to us right on the point, right on the dot. He raises the curtain on the literal Aleph and says what's going on here is that there is a bit of a conundrum that Moshe Rabbeinu finds himself in, because Hashem is now calling to the prophet and about to introduce the laws of Karbonos.

Speaker 1: 5:08

And before one calls someone, before one educates them, they call them, they summon them. I'd like to speak with you and, as Rashi points out to us, when you call somebody with a Vayikra, that is a very significant calling. It is one of pride, one of glory and prestige. But when you call someone with a Vayikar, without an Aleph. It's the way that God spoke to Bilaam without an aleph, it's the way that God spoke to Balaam. That kind of signifies and typifies a encountering Not a glorious here he, here he, but just a happens, chance, happens, stance. Oh, just bumped into you. Good to see you, balaam, but probably won't see you again and definitely wasn't calling you. Good to see you, balaam, but probably won't see you again and definitely wasn't calling you. Hence Vayikra is the word here. Hashem is calling Moshe and it's a very prestigious calling.

Speaker 1: 6:18

But Moshe Rabbeinu says Rashi and, as the Balaturum will explain, he felt it to be awkward, he felt it to be too much prestige to write Vayikra in a way that everyone who learns the Torah hereafter will know that God called me, god called Moshe, in this honorable way. Moshe Rabbeinu did not want to write the Aleph. He wanted to ditch the Aleph and just write Vayikar, because the prophet of Israel was so humble that he would rather be without the Aleph and be called the same way that the wretched Bilaam was called. In order to find peace, to make shalom, moshe Rabbeinu made a pshara, he settled and he decided he would write the Aleph, but he would write it small. Zoktabala Turim, aleph devayikra za'ira Shem Moshe hayagadol v'anov. Moshe was great and he was. He wanted to just write. It was just a chance. Put the Aleph in the Torah, make it known that it's a Vayikra El Moshe. What did Moshe do? The Kasva Katana? He wrote it miniature. He wrote it small In an act of anti-pride seeking, in an act of another humility.

Speaker 1: 8:10

It's already remarkable to see Moshe Rabbeinu's humility and how he cares very little about how he's addressed. I know that sometimes I get a little bit of a pit in my stomach if somebody will address their wedding invitation to my house and sometimes just write Mike Brook, sometimes write Rabbi, the great Rabbi, michal Brook I like it when they write that and sometimes they just write Mr Brook. But it's interesting that we care how we're called. And Moshe Rabbeinu he would like to be called the same way that Bilaam was referred to and summoned. And summoned speaks to Moshe's unbelievable unassumingness and humility. We also see another takeaway from the Bala Turim that Moshe Rabbeinu, in an effort to stay humble, he didn't just internalize a mindset, but he actually did an action, a writing of a small letter. It's kind of funny how that makes someone humble, but we see that actions. This was definitely a tahbula, something that he did to remain humble, and we see that acting humble does seemingly bring to continued humility. But that's not today's topic.

Speaker 1: 9:17

Today's topic is one Incredible talks the kudos points ever delivered, and it came from the mouth of the great Rebbe Lozer, menachem man Shach, the great Haredi Rav, the Gadol Hadar, the leader of the Jewish people and the leader of the free world from the early 1970s until his death. He was chairman of all of the Council of the Sages and one of the three co-Roshi Yeshivas of the Panovich Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. Rav Shach, with literally hundreds of thousands of hours of Amelos Bat Toira under his belt, connected to God in a way that few have, and in his Sefer, machsheves Moser, which is the Moser discourses on the Parsha that he gave in Yeshiva, that his Talmidim transcribed. He asks the following question. He begins by saying why is it that Moshe chose to write the small aleph here, the aleph Zair and the word Vayikra? In order to remain humble, says Rabshach. Fantastic, but this isn't the only time that Vayikra is stated in regards to being called to Moshe from the Almighty. Why, punked here, in this situation, does Moshe say small aleph? What about the later instances or the earlier instances of a small aleph. And I'll tell you something that perhaps I am unable to and I am not fitting to, and I maybe shouldn't even be thinking this, but Baruch Hashem, rav Shach tells us, continues Rav Shach to say that we think that when the Torah says that Moshe Rabbeinu was an ish on of Mikol Odom, he is the most humble of all men on the earth, that he was born that way, that he never had a struggle in his life, that he was the perfect person from the womb and that his humility was well kind of natural and kind of grew, based on his incredible netios, his DNA.

Speaker 1: 11:55

It was wired for such a thing. But Rav Shach warns us, he tells us that's not how we believe. We believe that man was given a life, a soul, a body and, as Cholos HaLevovah says, if you're living, the Yetzirah never leaves a person, even for a moment. He's constantly awake and watching you sleep, constantly throwing prideful remarks at you and constantly putting stumbling blocks in front of your growth, constantly putting blockades to inhibit your progress of getting closer to HaKadosh, baruch Hu and his Torah. But when the Torah says that Moshe Rabbeinu was the Ish'anov Mikol Ha'adam, that is to say that he was one of the most hard-working and smart individuals that would constantly come up with new techniques in order to drive home his anava, in order to take him to the next step. Every day was a new challenge. We're told by Shlomo HaMelech that the Yetzir, it, is evil from his youth and every single day, every day, new tricks. He has every day new ways to make you stumble, and if you are to ever emerge victorious, then it's constant game planning, strategizing and scheming to counter his attacks. Zokt Rabshach that when Moshe Rabbeinu got to Parshah's Vayikra, it was a new day in his life and it was a new trick of the Yitzhara. The Yitzhara put into Moshe's head hmm, vayikra, that's fancy. Wow, you really are something special. Prideful remarks from the Yitzhara were being shot like bow and arrows into Moshe Rabbeinu. Marks from the Yitzhahara were being shot like bow and arrows into Moshe Rabbeinu. And Moshe Rabbeinu, with his mochemes ha'yitzer, with his stratagems and game planning.

Speaker 1: 14:16

Today, parshas Vayikar, right when he's putting pen to paper with his godly infused pen, does he come up with a new strategy. He has an idea, a new tachbula I know what I'm going to do to stay humble and he's mechadish. Today, he comes up with this new approach of small aleph. Take that Geitzahara. It's a fight back, because Moshe was human, but Moshe was human. But Moshe succeeded because of he knew how to counterattack the Yitzhahara. And so Rav Shach answers why is it only Vayikra that we find that Moshe came up with the small Aleph and not the other Vayikras? Because that was his newfound counterattack on that day against the Yetzirah. And he maybe came up with different approaches on other days, which is on other days.

Speaker 1: 15:21

What a chiddish from Reb Shach. And when I first saw it it knocked my socks off and my sandals off, or my Echo shoes off, quite literally. But then I thought wait a second, I've heard this somewhere. I heard this from Abaye. Abaye, who is wont to say, accustomed to say, in the habit of saying Abaye was wont to say that a person should always be Arum Beira. What does that mean? What does that mean?

Speaker 1: 16:01

Arum is the same word that the Torah introduces us to the snake in Parshas, barashas, the Nachash was I'm definitely quoting that Pesach wrong, but it definitely says the word Arum there, conniving. It means shrewd Shrewd in your fear of heaven, rashi says To be shrewd in all manners of shrewdness, to be game planning, in all matters of strategic game planning, liras, boro, tefir, hashem. You hear this Shrewdness, Game planning, maybe even a bit of not God forbid cheating, but wiliness, guilefulness, craftiness, maybe a bit of even cunningness should be used to fear Hashem. It actually makes a lot of sense because we know that the Yitzhahara doesn't play fair. I don't know if this to be true, but there are times that when, every once in a while, every couple months, I'll actually be in the mood to sit down and want to learn, then maybe I'll find myself with a stomachache and I'll often ask myself you know, that's not fair. How can the Yitzhahara give me a stomachache on the one day that I now want to learn, and now I can't learn? So I don't know if this is correct, but it definitely seems like the Yates Zahara has his fair or unfair cheap shots. So can't we also conclude that if we aren't a step ahead of the game, if we are not at least counter-attacking him, then we have no shot? If he's staring at us while we're asleep and organizing his attacks to go from the south side, where we're still weak and our armor is leaving us exposed, is leaving us exposed, don't we have to be Arum Be'yira and be great in our scheming to be able to beat him and truly fear Hashem.

Speaker 1: 18:32

I thought further, of course. I know that this concept is somewhere deep in my brain. The Gemara says he told his disciples on his deathbed that, my dearest disciples, I give you a blessing on my final day that your fear of heaven should be like your fear of people. To which the bewildered disciples retorted and said Rebbe, how could that be Thus far, and no more. That's all you're going to give us a blessing of that. We should fear God like we fear people. Rebbe Yochanan ben Zakkai responded with a rebuttal to their retort by saying I love I. If only you should fear heaven like you feared people, like you fear people.

Speaker 1: 19:29

I think that's a perfect example of being Arum Begira. You display and understand different mindsets in order to catapult your fear. Understand different mindsets in order to catapult your fear. You are cunning and you realize that I would never get caught red-handed stealing or speaking ill about somebody in front of them, steal from the store in front of the shopkeeper but maybe I would do it behind his back or speak ill gossip if they weren't paying attention or if it was only through text. But Arum Be'yira means you understand and you use your incredible koyach of imagery and imagination to reframe your relationship with Hashem in a way that becomes very real, very tangible. What a brilliant scheme, what a brilliant way to live life.

Speaker 1: 20:27

Speaking from the heart, I'll tell you that when I started the Motivation Congregation, it came up it really came to be because of a scheme, no-transcript. But I did have some clarity that what I like in this world is prestige, or being told that I know rainbow to get to the pot of gold. On the other side of prestige and money, I said, if I make an obligation for myself that I have to teach and people will then listen to what I'm saying, because you can only teach if somebody listens. So then I would force myself daily to have to say something that made sense, because I am putting my pride on the line and sending this Torah video out. So now it has to be good, otherwise someone will say that I am illiterate and dumb. So let's try to work hard and get better and better at it. And I thought, well, maybe if I even do it long enough and I become strong enough in my learning, maybe even someone will want to financially commit to want to learn with me, maybe even try to book a speaking engagement, but all of it it was done in a little bit of a shrewd way and I hope it was approved by God, but it helped me to open the books more times than not.

Speaker 1: 22:33

A tachbula this, gemara, makes me feel better about myself. And this, rashi, that you should use zokt rashi, leharim b'chomine arma to use all types of shrewd calculations, some wily procedures. You asked Boro to come to fear of heaven. People use meditation, people use intense graphs and charts and reward themselves with different things to push their fear of heaven. They tell themselves five more minutes and I won't go there. They'll know that if I do this, then that will lead towards this happening. So they three steps. Before they get near anything. They come up with different schemes as to how they're going to refrain from it and never get close to it.

Speaker 1: 23:30

But today's conclusion is that if Moshe Rabbeinu needed scheming and, as Rav Shach puts, it came up with a new scheme, a new play, a play-action pass when the defense was blitzing, when the Yitzharah wanted Moshe to feel prideful about his connection to Hashem and his position of power, and Moshe came back with a small aleph as the flea flicker as the defense fell right into the trap. And now we get a lesson in humility. And Moshe Rabbeinu came up with it on that day to counterattack the Yitzharah's quick and cheap move. How much more so should we be on the lookout that every day Bechol Yoim, that the Yitzharah is miskaber against us, that we game plan, that we understand, that with tremendous foresight and hashkafa rabbo and tremendous planning, we too can prove triumphant against our formidable foe. Write our own small alephs, if you will.

Speaker 1: 24:44

I want to just conclude with a couple examples of what you could even think of doing. If you struggle to wake up in the morning, why don't you book yourself a chavrusa before shachars? That's arum be'yira. Book it with a rabbi, the rabbi of the shul, and ask him if you'll learn with him for 15 minutes, or he'll learn with you for 15 minutes before shachras, and that may trick yourself into having to wake up.

Speaker 1: 25:10

If you want to have more kavana during Shemona Esrei, don't just tell yourself concentrate, concentrate, think, think.

Speaker 1: 25:16

But tell yourself that I'm going to pray with my finger on the place, or say every word out loud that I'm going to pray with my finger on the place, or say every word out loud. If you want to stay till the end of davening, then think I'm just going to have concentration in one tefillah, or one paragraph for the whole davening, and that's going to be Elenu. And Elenu becomes your new favorite part of davening and, just by coincidence, you happen to be staying for the entire davening. That's how you write your own aleph and that's what Rav Shach told us is how Moshe Rabbeinu continued to reach the top, but he kept coming up with new strategies and he was totally Arum Be'yira. So the challenge awaits, because if Moshe Rabbeinu, he needed certain approaches to beat the Yetzirah and he did, how much more. So that in 2025, we also should be on the lookout, with Ashkafa Rabel and Shikol Adas, to also write our own small Alephs to prove triumphant against our formidable foe.