Vayikra – Striving for Humility through the Little Aleph

Rabbi Abittan would often quote the Baal Haturim on theopening word of this week’s portion. “The aleph of Vayikra is written as a small letter because Moshe wanted to write Vayikar (and it happened), the way it is written (when Hashem appears to) Bilaam, which implies Hashem appeared to him only as a chance occurrence. Hashem, however, told Moshe to write the alephwhich indicates His love. Moshe compromised and made the aleph small.”    To illustrate let me share a story told by Dr. Alan Morinis, Founder of The Mussar Institute, who is a leading figure in the contemporary revival of the Mussar movement  When we come to the synagogue and look upon the hechal, andwe see the words above which may vary from Synagogue to Synagogue, But the words we face are meant to remind us to recognize who we are standing in front of or remind us that we should place Hashem in front of us always - this helps us to temper the run-away ego.     I want to share a story I heard yesterday from Rabbi ShlomoLandau. He heard the story directly from the protagonist Rav Chaim, a well know Kiruv speaker in Eretz Yisrael for Arechim – an outreach organization. As you listen to the story, I want you tothink about what you would’ve done along the way