The Child in Us

Passover is about the children. This includes the child in us. That child is our inner state of purity. Moshiach is about revealing it.

Beginning in the Middle

It is logical to begin at the beginning.

That might be true for most things, but not for the study of Torah.

According to the Midrash, it is proper to commence Torah study with a child, with the Book of Vayikra (Leviticus) and not with Bereishis (Genesis)!

The Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah 7:3) explains the preference for Vayikra in the following manner:

“Why do we begin a very young child’s study of Torah with Leviticus and not with Bereishis (Genesis)? Because children are pure and Korbanos (sacrificial offerings) are pure; let those who are pure occupy themselves with that which is pure.”

That children occupy a unique position in Judaism is not a revelation. That giving a child a Jewish education is more crucial than any other religious imperative is a Talmudic principle validated by millennia of Jewish history.

The Midrash recounts how the only guarantors that G-d accepted for the Torah were the children. The Patriarchs and prophets did not suffice.

So important is the Jewish education of a child that Maimonides rules:

“Everyone is obligated to join in the building of the Holy Temple [in Jerusalem]… One does not, however, interrupt the Torah study of children even for the building of the Temple.”

Conventional wisdom says that Jewish education for the young is so important because it is imperative for the survival and future of our nation.

Our Talmudic sages go further. Not only is education of our children an indispensable tool for the future—a means to an end—but, furthermore, the entire world stands on the merit of the Torah study of little children.

The reason this is so, the Talmud declares, is because the children possess an intrinsic purity which, imbues their Torah study with an aura of purity that cannot be matched by learned and righteous adults.

Miniature Moshiach’s

Indeed, the Talmud refers to the children as “Meshichoi” my anointed ones, an appellation reserved for the Moshiach, Judaism’s most exalted personality, because each and every child possesses the quality represented by the Messianic age: purity and innocence.

To be sure, every one of us possesses these “juvenile” qualities. And, in relation to G-d, we are all His little children. The difference between and adult and a child is in the way the purity of our souls is manifested. The children have no outer barrier that obstructs their inner purity and innocence. The lack of the controlling influence of the intellect in childhood serves the children well because this allows them to express their inner holiness without expending much effort.

The adult, by contrast, must use his or her intellect to uncover the inner purity. The many obstacles that stand between the mind and the heart make the process of revealing our inner spark of Moshiach a challenge.

Pure or Holy?

We can now appreciate the reason for commencing the study of the Torah with the Book of Leviticus which deals with purity and innocence.

A question has been raised as to why the Midrash characterizes the sacrificial offerings as “pure” rather than holy.

Normally, the quality of holiness is superior to purity. In the context of children and Moshiach, however, purity represents the inner essence of our souls. When this child-like innocence and inner essence of our souls is allowed to express itself, it can lead us to the highest levels of holiness.

Vayikra and the Four Questions

It is perhaps for this reason that in many years we read the Parsha of Vayikra as we enter into the month of Nissan, the month in which we celebrate the twin events of the spring season and the Exodus from Egypt. Both events are expressive of the special quality associated with children.

Passover, of course, highlights the inquisitive child who asks the four questions. Moreover, the entire Seder is structured in a way that encourages the child to ask even more questions. The Exodus from Egypt has been compared by the prophet Ezekiel to the birth and the early development of the Jewish nation.

Even the spring character of Nissan expresses the youthful state of existence which we all possess. Indeed, the physical phenomenon of the blooming of the natural forces in spring parallels and is a reflection of the blossoming of the deepest spiritual forces that occur in the month of Nissan.

Nissan the Month of Future Redemption

This explains the statement of our Sages, “In Nissan they were redeemed and in Nissan they will be redeemed in the future.”

This statement does not preclude Moshiach’s arrival any other time of the year. It merely suggests the appropriateness of Moshiach’s coming in the month of Nissan. The dynamic forces that are generated in Nissan are very much in sync with redemption.

In spiritual terms, the significance of the month of Nissan is that it has the capacity to reveal the inner energies that are “held captive” within creation and within the Jewish soul.

Nissan is the month when the natural purity— the Moshiach quality—of the individual and of the world at large is most easily expressed. Hence, bringing Moshiach in the month of Nissan requires less effort than in other months to “get in touch” with our natural innocence— the Moshiach within.

The Challenge

The challenge ahead of us as we commence reading the Book of Vayikra and enter into the month of Nissan is to search for the inner core of our souls, the spark of Moshiach, the Ba’al Shem Tov said we all have.

Reading the words of the Torah that represent the childlike purity and innocence is more than just an intellectual exercise or a religious ritual. The term “krias Hatorah-the reading of the Torah” can also be translated as the “invitation of the [spiritual dynamics inherent in] the Torah. Thus, the actual time of the year [the naturally and supernaturally youthful month of Nissan] coupled with the reading of the parsha of Vayikra, provides us with maximum energy to reveal that inner core of Moshiach.

When we succeed in engaging this spark of Moshiach—the child in us—we will join with the children of the world in making this world receptive to the ultimate Redemption, when the “spirit of impurity will be obliterated from the earth.”

From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Vayikra by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.