from the Rebbe on this week's parsha, Parshas Vayikra. The parsha, which is also the chumash, starts with the words ויקרא אל משה. Hashem called to Moshe, and then he spoke to him all kinds of halachot. And Rashi says that the word ויקרא that's written by Moshe Rabbeinu shows the specialty of Yidden. Because we find by גויישע נביאים, גויישע prophets like Bilam, the Torah uses a similar לשון, but not ויקרא, but ויקר. Like it says, ויקר אלקים אל בלעם. ויקר comes from the לשון of קרי, which a לשון טומאה, לשון of something that's temporary, it just happened to be, nothing important. ויקרא, which is calling, that is לשון חיבה, it's a לשון that shows love of the Eibershter to Moshe Rabbeinu, which represents the love of the Eibershter to Yidden. So it comes out that the difference between Yidden and goyim is hinted in the alef of ויקרא. By goyim it's not לשון חיבה, it's without the alef, it's ויקר, and by Yidden it's ויקרא, so the alef represents the difference between Yidden and goyim. So therefore the Rebbe asks, in this case the alef is a small alef. We know that ויקרא is written with a small Aleph in the Sefer Torah. If the

Aleph is the letter that represents the specialty of Yidden, why would it be a small Aleph? Which represents that this is something that's not so important, where this is a major thing, the major important inyan which represents the difference between Yidden and goyim. Then the Rebbe says be'emet on the אלף זעירא, the small Aleph itself is a question. Aleph is a very special letter. The proof is it's the first one. The first one means it's the foremost, the most important, it's the first. That's on one hand, so we say that the Aleph is the most important of the letters. At the same time, we have a small Aleph, which means it's smaller than the rest of the letters. So which one is it? Is it the most important one because it's the first, or is it a small one which represents that it's not important, it's very little, less important than the rest of the letters? So what does this Aleph mean? So the Rebbe says that this is exactly what we're trying to say here. The pasuk is trying to show us the difference between the connection of Yidden to the Aibershter and להבדיל גוים to the Aibershter. Yidden are connected to the Aibershter in a form like the Aleph. The Aleph is the first letter, which means the Aleph, as it says in Shulchan Aruch, is also represented, representing the אלופו של עולם. Aleph means the אלופו, אלף, the word Aleph comes, אלופו means the boss of the world, so Aleph represents the Aibershter. Besides the fact that Aleph is one, and that's the unity of השם אחד, השם is one. And what it's telling us is that Yidden are very, very close to Hashem, they're meyuchad with Hashem. That's the reason why the difference between אידן להבדיל גוים is in the Aleph. The Yidden have the Aleph and the goyim don't have the Aleph means the Yidden are very, very close to Hashem, while the גוים are not. But then

one might think since the אידן feel close to Hashem, feel very united with Hashem, this might bring out ga'avah in the אידן, that it will bring out their ego: \"I'm special, I'm close to Hashem.\" But the truth is the opposite. Because אידן feel very close to Hashem, they don't consider themselves as any important מציאות. They're completely batel to Hashem, realizing that whatever they have and whatever maalot they have, it's only because Hashem gave it to them, so it's all because of Hashem. So it doesn't show the, bring out the ego of the person, his own personal ego. And that's why the אלף is small. So the small אלף, which is the letter in this case that represents the difference between אידן and גוים, is specifically an אלף, but a small אלף, to show that the אידן have the אלף, that means they're connected to the אלף, to אלופו של עולם, and to the השם אחד, to the אלף, the one, the אייבערשטער, they're close to him, and at the same time they remain small, they remain batel to Hashem, with anivut, etc., etc. And that's why the אלף here is an אלף זעירא, a small אלף.