<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Next week's portion begins with "<i>Vayikra el Moshe</i>" -- "And He called to Moses..."<div>This is the only time the word <i>Vayikra</i> is neither followed by <i>Hashem</i>, nor has its antecedent.</div><div>It is true that the first three words are followed by "<i>vay'da-ber Hashem</i>..." but that's for another</div><div>lesson. It still doesn't explain why "<i>Vayikra</i>" is alone, so to speak.</div><div><br></div><div>The word "<i>vayikra</i>" appears 90 times throughout the Torah and 14 of those times it refers to</div><div>God and of the 14 times, this is the only time it appears by itself. In addition, this is the only</div><div>time the last letter of "<i>vayikra</i>" [<i>aleph</i>] is in miniature. Several reasons have been put forward,</div><div>but I wish to propose a new reason. The letter "<i>aleph</i>" can refer to God. In fact, the <i>aleph</i> has </div><div>a <i>yud</i> on top, a v<i>ov</i> in the middle, and a <i>yud</i> underneath the <i>vov</i>. The gematria of those letters </div><div>is 26, corresponding to the gematria of the 4 letter word, <i>Hashem</i> (the tetragrammaton). </div><div><br></div><div>In the entire Book of Esther, the name of God never appears even once. This is not by accident. The</div><div>absence is a deafening silence. It shows God at work, even when not apparent. The miniature</div><div><i>aleph</i> in this case also shows God's contraction (<i>tzimtzum</i>). Rashi points out that <i>the call came </i></div><div><i>exclusively to Moshe. God's voice is powerful enough to shatter trees and be heard throughout the</i></div><div><i>whole world, but it was the Divine will that it be heard only by Moshe</i>. </div><div><br></div><div>Now here comes the fun part: The gematria of "vayikra" is 317. The following phrase has an exact </div><div>gematria of 317: "<i>Ani Hashem </i><i>Elokechem. Ani Hashem y'chida</i>." "I am the Lord Your God. I am the Lord alone." </div><div><br></div><div>Who Says There Are No Coincidences?</div></body></html>