Posted on March 20, 2026 by Rabbi Noah Diamondstein
Dear friends,
This Shabbat we begin our reading of the third book of the Torah: Leviticus, or Vayikra (lit. And God called) in Hebrew. Leviticus means “to do with the Levites” reflecting the fact that the Leviim in Judaism served as guardians of the sacred. While this is a perfectly appropriate title, the Hebrew name of the book, Vayikra, which may seem at first to be simply an accidental name pulled from the book’s first word, contains special meaning if you know where to look—especially for our growing families.
In a Torah Scroll, Vayikra is written with a small Aleph at the end—noticeably smaller than any other letter in a Torah scroll. This small Aleph gave rise to many midrashim, most focusing on the nature of God’s call or on Moses’ humility. The small Aleph though also pointed our sages in the direction of the small ones among us, our youth. The Kli Yakar, a 16th Century Torah commentator, teaches that the small alef is an allusion to the custom that small children traditionally begin their studies with this book. “Just as the sacrifices are pure, so too are children pure,” says the midrash. I have also been taught that one might begin teaching children Torah with Leviticus because if you can get them jazzed about Torah from the descriptions of the sacrifices, then just imagine how the stories of Genesis and Exodus will blow their minds!
This week, at the CCAR convention, we had a plenary discussion about futurism and how we can lead with curiosity, imagination, and hope. The keynote speaker was Lisa Kay Solomon, Designer in Residence and Lecturer at the Stanford d.school, where she leads their futures work and teaches popular classes that help students learn skills to build agency and navigate ambiguity amid increasingly complex futures. She encouraged us to imagine even the most unlikely of optimistic futures and challenged us to broaden our imaginations to consider not only the probable, or even just the plausible, but to truly imagine what is possible.
When I envision the Jewish future, and TBE’s future in particular, it is self-evident that investing in our youth’s relationship to Judaism and Torah is of paramount importance—they will live in that future and they will lead it if we give them the tools!
One of the things that makes TBE stand out is our commitment to Shabbat Morning services even when we don’t have a Brit Mitzvah that day. I see that commitment as a staging ground for developing our congregation’s vision, a Jewish time with incredible untapped potential. This Shabbat morning (tomorrow!) we will be experimenting with holding Family Services in the morning rather than the evening, and I hope you can join us for a beautiful celebration of Shabbat and of our Sixth Graders in particular, who will be experiencing their Kabbalat Torah ceremony.
“I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way.” As Rabbi Whitney Houston teaches us, let us all be called to envision a bright future, starting with that small Aleph.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Noah Diamondstein