Adina Roth – Director of Jewish Life

What the world needs now is love sweet love – Vayikra 2024

And just like that, we begin the third book of the Torah, Vayikra or Leviticus, known as the most obscure of the books for its discussions about animal sacrifices and laws to do with the Temple and the Priests. But before we cancel the book for its ancient and possibly non-relatable rites, the book opens like this: Vayikra el Moshe, and God called to Moses.

Rashi, the 11^th century interpreter of Torah says a beautiful thing. The language of calling, known in Hebrew as Vayikra is the language of affection and love. God didn’t just speak to Moses and list off all the rules of the sacrifices, God cooed to Moses. I like to think of it as a Romeo and Juliet balcony scene moment…. ‘Moses.’

It turns out that God is not the first person to ‘call’ in love. In a fascinating Midrash (our ancient interpretations or fan-fiction of the Torah), there is a wild suggestion that God learned to love from someone else. But before I reveal more, let’s do a re-cap of the basics: When Moses was a baby, his mother hides him in the Nile. He is discovered there by Pharaoh’s daughter, known as Batya in our tradition, who adopts him as her own, names him Moses and raises him in the palace of the king. Here’s the incredible part. When she names him it says, “Vatikra et Shemo Moshe, she called him Moshe.” The Midrash picks up on the overlap of these words, Batya called his name Moses (vatikra), while God called (Vayikra) to Moses. A Year 9 student astutely turned to me today and said, “Does that mean that Moshe’s name is actually Egyptian?” She is correct. Our greatest prophet assumes the name bestowed to him by his Egyptian adoptive mother. Our tradition is not blasé about this. The Midrash makes the point that God chose to name our greatest prophet using the name given to him by his Egyptian mother, because Batya called him Moses with ‘love’. The Midrash imagines God saying to Moses: “I God could have called you by any name, but I am calling to you Moshe with love.” Just as the daughter of Pharaoh loved Moses, saved his life and called him Moses, so does God call to Moses with love and tenderness. This ancient midrash expresses a radical idea: God calls Moses by his Egyptian name, because this was the love name he had been given by Batya, Princess of Egypt. Let’s put this a little differently: God learns to love Moses by watching Batya love Moses.

Like a wine that is layered with notes of other fruits and flowers, the opening word of the third book of the Torah, ‘Vayikra’ invites us to hear an earlier call, the call of Pharaoh’s daughter and her moment of Vatikra, when she loved Moses and called him Moses. Sometimes a task might be drudge and dreariness, but if we can build connections with people and call to them ‘in love,’ it can somehow transform whatever we are doing into a moment of connection. This is surely a great truth for all teachers!

These days we may feel as if our world is smaller, we have moments where we don’t always feel comfortable expressing who we are in the outside world and it might feel safer to be among Jewish people and stick with our own. But this week’s Parsha doesn’t just remind us to call to each other in love. It reminds us that our God learned to love Moses from Batya a non-Jewish, Egyptian princess. The Jewish path has always straddled a beautiful line between inside and outside, seeking wisdom where it is found in many places.

A group of Jewish artists in South Africa recently made a video of Jackie DeShannon’s classic ‘What the world needs now is love.’ It made me cry. This week’s parsha reminds us that above and beyond the laws and rites, above and beyond our in-groups and out-groups, there is LOVE. This shabbat, let’s call to each other, regardless of the task and the context, with love, kindness and affection. We all surely know that right now, ‘what the world needs now, is love sweet love.’