This Week in the World’s Oldest Book Club: The Small Call

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Congrats on being a member of the world’s oldest book club, meeting weekly for 2,500 years and counting! On paper we read the same book each year—but because we ourselves are different each time, the text becomes different too. This week’s reading opens us to one of Torah’s most subtle but powerful invitations: to listen for the quiet voice of Spirit calling within.

Our “book” is divided into five volumes, and this week we start the third volume. The title of this week’s reading is also the title of the whole third volume: Vatikra/And She* Called, because this volume—and the section we read this week—begins with the verse:

וַתִּקְרָ֖א אֶל־מֹשָׁ֑ה וַתְּדַבֵּ֤ר תְהֹוָה֙ אֵלֶ֔יהָ מֵאֹ֥הֶל מוֹעֵ֖ד לֵאמֹֽר׃

Vatikra el Moshah, vatidabeir Tehova aileha mai’ohel moed, laimor.

And She* called to Moshah and the Divine/Tehova spoke to her from the Tent of Meeting.

Substack doesn’t let me do it, but the final letter in this first Hebrew word (remember to read from right to left)—an aleph—in only this particular sentence, is always written smaller than the rest.

Why?

Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Aleph has no sound. It is a silent letter, a glottal stop. Aleph is also the number one.

The mystics say this particular aleph, or “one,” is small because the call is quiet—and it’s not only Moses who is called. Everyone’s soul contains a spark of Spirit. It is always there, calling out to us: Vatikra – and She called.

This little call is not flashy . It’s just a still small voice, an inner aleph, a pause, a stop. It can feel like a lurch within our heart. Or a moment of silent awe where we catch a glimpse of the eternal. Or a flash of suffering that sends a small shudder of space through the world.

We can dismiss this quickly. We can say: it’s just a surge of biochemicals. It’s just one tiny feeling. It has no significance.

Or we can follow its call.

If we turn towards the aleph, if we follow that inner calling, then we can arrive at the second half of the sentence: vatidabeir Tehova aileha. Following the small personal calling, aleph to aleph, one step to one step to one step more, can bring us to a face-to-face encounter with the Divine Herself.

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Let’s say we want to listen to the call, follow it to encounter Spirit, but we’re not hearing the call. Where can we seek it out? The verse tell us:

Vatikra el Moshah, vatidabeir Tehova aileha mai’ohel moed, laimor.

And She called to Moshah and the Divine spoke to her from the Tent of Meeting.

Great Spirit can be reliably found in tents of meeting, in containers of relationship: Human relationship. Relationship with the self. Relationship with nature. Relationship with the Divine.

Relationship is the base unit of reality.

Relationship is where we can best hear the still small voice.

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Have you had a small call in your life?

Have you had a small call in your day today?

What happens if you bring attention to that little pull?

What happens when you sit with it with curiosity, honoring it, despite its small size?

Does something unfold for you?

Can you use your courage and clarity to remain present with that unfolding?

Does the process offer you access to something larger than yourself?

*

Jorge Luis Borges explores the meaning of the aleph in his famous short story “The Aleph.” In it, riffing on an ancient mystical idea, Borges’ describes an aleph that contains everything within itself, a portal to the entirety of the universe simultaneously.

A lot of us these days are feeling something like the entirety of the universe simultaneously—but not in a good way! A chaotic global consciousness is emerging in social media, mostly crying out in pain, and on any given day each one of us has access to more social experiences than most previous humans ever had to digest in a lifetime. How are we supposed to be in relationship to that cascade of information?

The aleph holds the key.

Find that still small voice.

Attune your consciousness to it.

Listen for the call.

If you can’t hear it, go to the tent of meeting until you do.

Follow the call to connection with something larger than yourself, taking action one step at a time. Pick your path through the chaos.

Then you will find yourself in the grace of Great Spirit, despite and amidst the chaos.

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When I was a sixteen years old ultra-Orthodox rebel I was sent off to a school in Jerusalem that usually catered to older female penitents. There I had one class that I loved, a class on the mystical meaning of the ancient Hebrew alphabet. My teacher taught me that the aleph represents the balance each of us contains of the angelic—symbolized by the aleph’s line on the upper right (a yud, a symbol of Divinity)—and the animal—symbolized by the aleph’s leg on the lower left, feet on the earth. The aleph’s slanted line between these two expresses the truth that none of us are full angel or full animal. Every one of us is a combination of forces.

The compassion and spaciousness in this teaching hit me so deep, later when I got my first tattoo it was of an aleph. That shape sits on my right wrist and reminds me every day of the mystery and wonder and challenge of being a material and spiritual being simultaneously. And the aleph reminds me that in the midst of any chaos, the entry point is always the one—the meeting of my unique self with another's. It reminds me to pause and listen for the still voice in myself, in others, and in the world.

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This week, may we have the presence to hear the small aleph calls in our daily lives.

May we have the capacity to follow where those calls take us.

May we build a better world for ourselves and each other through this practice.

Ken teheye ritzona

May it be Her will

*There are two prophetic expressions of the book, the mainstream male one, Toratoh, and the lesser known but essential female one, Toratah. This week I’m using Toratah. For more info go to beittoratah.org