Parashat Vayikra: There’s No Aleph in Team

The Book of Leviticus opens with God calling out to Moses from the newly finished Sanctuary: “And He called (Vayikra) to Moses…” (Leviticus 1:1). In a traditional Torah scroll, the very last letter of that first word, the Aleph, is written noticeably smaller than all the other letters. Sages explain that this was Moses’ choice; he didn’t want the word to say “And He called,” which sounds like God was publicly singling out Moses. He wanted it to look like “And He happened upon,” which sounds accidental. The Parsha then dives into the complex world of “Korbanot” (sacrifices), which literally means “to draw close.”

The “Small Aleph” is the ultimate leadership hack. Moses was the most powerful man in the nation, but he insisted on shrinking the “I” in his own story. He understood that the more space he took up, the less space there was for the team, community and mission. In our world of LinkedIn “humble-brags” and constant self-promotion, the “Small Aleph” reminds us that authority is not the same as attention. Real leaders don’t need to shout their titles; they focus on “drawing close” (Korban) to their team and their goals. The goal of a sacrifice wasn’t just killing an animal; and in the same way, we should consider “sacrificing” a piece of our ego to get closer to something bigger than yourself. If you can’t shrink your ego, you’ll never have enough room to grow your impact.