You don’t have to be “fixed” to reach out.

I almost didn't call. I didn't think I was worth anyone's time. We hear that all too often, and it breaks my heart. Because that feeling that someone is too broken, too small to matter, is the most dangerous lie in the world. And Parshas Vayikra answers it directly. The very first word, Vayikra, is written in the Torah with a small aleph. Moshe Rabbeinu did not want to write the full word. He wanted it to read Vayikar, meaning a chance encounter. Like the way Hashem spoke to Bilam. Moshe felt, "Who am I to say Hashem called me personally?" >> [music] >> So, he made the aleph small. And Hashem said, "No. The aleph stays. Because I did call you, and I meant it." The Baal Shem Tov teaches us that the word korban, [music] which we translate as sacrifice, doesn't mean sacrifice at all. It actually comes from the root word karov, to draw near. "A korban isn't about punishment," he would say. "It isn't about earning your way back. It is one step toward Hashem. You show up, broken, carrying whatever you're carrying, but showing up is what brings you closer." Oprah Winfrey was born into poverty. She suffered abuse as a child. At 14, she gave birth to a premature baby who didn't survive. She was fired from her first television job, and she was told, and I quote, "You're unfit for TV." Unfit for TV? She would go on to build the most powerful media empire in history. This woman who sat for 25 years across the most broken, most hurting people in the world made every one of them feel seen. She didn't overcome her past by pretending it didn't happen. She overcame it by taking one step, and then another, and then another. Every person watching this who feels too small, too broken, too far from home to reach out, the aleph is still there. You don't have to arrive fixed. You just have to come one step closer. That is your korban. That is enough. I've been doing this work for over 20 years, and I can tell you, the people who make it through are not the ones who suffered the least. They are the ones who had someone. Someone who refused to look away. Someone who picked up the phone at 2:00 [music] in the morning and said, "I'm here." Don't let the person next to you go through this alone. That one decision to show up can save a life. This is turning the wheel, because the road to healing isn't straight, but no one should have to travel it alone. Wishing you a wonderful Shabbos.