D’Var Torah – Parsha Vayikra:
It is a very special thing when a child learns Torah for the first time. There is a time honored Jewish custom, of beginning a child’s Torah learning with Parshas Vayikra. The reason is that this section deals with the karbanos which are always given in purity, so we let the young children who are pure from chataim begin their Torah study “careers” dealing with purity. Adults actually possess those same virtues but as we get older we tend to lose touch with that wellspring of purity because of the stresses in our lives and other external factors. The Talmud states that even if the Torah had not been given, we would have learned “Thou shalt not steal” by observing the ant(ants never steal food from each other). We would have learned chastity from the dove and modesty from the cat. How is the Talmud so confident that we would learn all the right things from all the right animals. Maybe we would look at the animals that are thieving, immodest, and unchaste and learn all those bad traits. The Talmud is sure this would not happen because each person has an internal chord that naturally responds to good and rejects evil. It is built into us. Dovid Hamelech wrote “Ura kivodi” -Awaken my glory. Every Jew has that glory inside, we may lose touch with it but we never lose IT. We can achieve spiritual greatness by simply reconnecting to that splendor which Hashem planted within us. It’s right there waiting for us. With Torah learning, Tefillah and introspection we can tap in to that inner child.