No One Saw That, Parshat Vayikra

Welcome back to another episode of Shabbat News. I'm back, but I think my Jacob did an awesome job and I think you might be hearing from my Zachary very soon as well. There was a little gorale between the two of them and Jacob Juan. So, he recorded last week Vayak Pic. Stay tuned for another Ammon recording in on the horizon guys. New book, new safer parhat vikra. This para is really all about the corbanote. But there's one puk from in this para that shapes the way we are meant to serve hashem. The puk is when a person from among you brings an offering from you. Mikm from you. So, Hashem is saying bring corbanod, bring from all types of animals and and different types of ton and bakar and it's it's going into so much detail, but that one word mikm from you is what we're really going to focus on. And with focusing on this one pok, this one word of giving a to hashem from you. Let's dive into what that really means. There's something called lip service where you could just open up a tahillim and just start davening or put up a sitter and just stand there and shuckle and shul but your mind is scattered. You're disconnected. You're not connecting. You don't know what's going on. And that's not really a service. That's not really an avod. That's not really a corban. So what Hashem is saying is yes, give me the corbanote, but give it from you. So we're going to connect this to the very first word of parhat vaikra. The very first word of safer vayikra starts with the word vayikra and hashem called tamosha. But everybody here if if you've been following long enough you probably heard the drussa the concept that the word vikra is spelled all in big fonts except for the alf at the end. The little alf at the end is a very fascinating amazing story. Hashem called to Moshe. Hashem was so in love with Moshe and it was it's a term of endearment and he called. But Moshe being the greatest human and force who ever lived and the paradigm of anav of of humility. He didn't want for him to write in the Torah such a word of intimacy and closeness and cavod from Hashem. He it was too honoring for Hashem to call to Moshe. So Moshe argued with Hashem and said, "I don't want to write the word vayikra. I want to write the word vikar." And he called upon him. It's a little more casual, a little less connected, a little less intimate. But Hashem said, "No, and I called to you." And it went back and forth until finally Moshe agreed and he wrote the word vayikra but he shrunk down the last olive to represent his humility because he he didn't feel comfortable getting that recognition and kavot from hashem. So to connect the concept of giving a corban and this beautiful idea of the small olive there's a story that really resonated with me. Um it's a true story about a woman a young woman who had moved to a new community right after she got married. She quickly became very popular and very loved. Um, people saw that she's very capable and with it and cool and stylish and she just had a lot going on for her. So, they asked her to help out with a very large women's event and she was excellent, like the perfect party planner. She worked tirelessly late nights, uh, endless details. She had a flare for design and for organization and she was doing everything behind the scenes. But quietly a thought formed in her mind. She thought, "Wow, this is my my foray into this new community. Maybe this is going to gain me some recognition. Maybe they'll know that kind of a big deal." And the night of the event came and everything was beautiful. She walked in scanning for her seats. She sees the front seats are reserved. The middle is full. Organizers tables all taken. And she looks around and she sees there's no seat for her. Nothing. She planned this entire event. She handled all the details meticulously, executing everything to perfection. The place looked spectacular, but there was no place for her to sit. And then someone called out from the very, very back, "Hi, there's a seat over here. Come." And she thought to herself, me, I I made this. This is my event. Am I actually going to go and sit in the back of the room with the normal people? And she began to to walk towards the back. And inside she was really hurting. She kept thinking, "For everything I did, this is where I sit." And people would have said, "She's right. She should have been sitting in the front." But then a different thought entered her mind. She said, "Who did I do this for? Did I do this for me, for cavode, for honor, for applause, for praise, for recognition? Or did I do this for Hashem?" And right then in the back of that room, she made a decision. No acknowledgement, no validation, no recognition. And from in her heart, she said, "Hashem, this is my corban to you. This is going to be my lishma gift. I don't want recognition. I don't want applause. I don't want anything. And then later on, she said, "In that moment, I felt closer to Hashem than I ever had before." So sometimes in life, my friends, Hashem moves us to the back of the room, but that's where we could finally feel close to him. When we want to show Hashem that we want to give a corban to him, we want to be close to him. the word corban and kov close they're so connected we want to give something to hashem so what do we have to do we got to go back to the first word of the para vikra we got to look at that last letter of the olive shrink ourselves down to make more space for hashem this is the ultimate corban we can give make a little olive so you can make big space in your world for Hashem's shina to dwell and for hashem's to shine. So for this week's spiritual homework, we are going to do something very fun. We are going to do we're going to work hard not for anyone to say, "Ah, you're so amazing. You're super mom. You're super wife. You're superwoman. You're the best cook. Your hala is amazing." We are going to absolutely not look for applause. We're going to absolutely not look for kavot or recognition. And we're going to do it as our corban to Hashem from us from our hearts directly to Hashem. And seeing as how this week we usher in Nisan and this is the month of Gaul want to give everybody a braha that may we as we're watching this may the chauffear blow and may we relocate from our dining room tables to the front of the beta mikdash with the coming of Mashiach. Amen. I love you guys. Wishing you a wonderful, happy, healthy Shabbat shalom.