Parashat Vayikraפָּרָשַׁת וַיִּקְרָא

In Vayikra (“He Called”), the first Torah portion in the Book of Leviticus, God tells Moses about the sacrifices offered in the Mishkan (Tabernacle). Among these are sacrifices entirely burnt on the altar, meal offerings made of flour and oil, peace offerings, and sacrifices brought for sinning inadvertently. Vayikra opens the Book of Leviticus and functions as the priestly manual for Israelite worship, laying out the system of korbanot (offerings) by which the people drew near to God at the Tent of Meeting. The word korban derives from a root meaning "to draw near," and the portion's central theme is closeness to the Divine through structured ritual, holiness, and purity. It distinguishes between inadvertent and deliberate sin, establishing mechanisms of atonement for unintentional wrongdoing. Commentators stress that the offerings are meant to engage the worshipper's heart and model ethical conduct, not merely to consume an animal, so the portion frames sacrifice as an expression of devotion, repentance, and gratitude.

In most communities the haftarah for Vayikra is Isaiah 43:21–44:23, read the same way in Ashkenazi and Sephardi traditions. The connection is the shared vocabulary of sacrifice: where the parashah details the laws of burnt offerings, meal offerings, and the fat of sacrifices, Isaiah invokes those same images but inverts the emphasis, rebuking Israel for burdening God with sin rather than calling upon Him, and mocking those who fashion idols with their own hands. The prophetic reading thus serves as a corrective counterpoint, foregrounding sincerity and relationship with God over mechanical ritual. When Vayikra coincides with a special Shabbat, the haftarah changes: on Shabbat Zachor (the Shabbat before Purim) communities read 1 Samuel 15:2–34. When Vayikra falls on Rosh Chodesh Nisan, that Shabbat is always Shabbat HaChodesh, and the Torah is read from three scrolls: the parashah in six aliyot from the first, the Rosh Chodesh reading, Numbers 28:9–15, as the seventh aliyah from the second, and the HaChodesh maftir, Exodus 12:1–20, from the third. The haftarah is then Shabbat HaChodesh's: Ezekiel 45:16–46:18 for Ashkenazim and Ezekiel 45:18–46:15 for Sephardim.

The most famous feature of Vayikra is the small aleph at the end of the opening word "Vayikra" (Leviticus 1:1), written smaller than any other letter in the Torah. The classic midrashic explanation ties it to Moses' humility: Moses wished to write "vayikar" (He chanced upon, as with the gentile prophet Balaam) rather than "vayikra" (He called, an affectionate summons), and God insisted on the aleph, which Moses out of modesty wrote small; a scribal alternative attributed to Shadal is that it distinguishes the aleph from the following word "el." Another well-known verse is the salt covenant (Leviticus 2:13), requiring that salt accompany every meal offering. The portion catalogs the major offering types: olah (burnt offering), mincha (meal offering), shelamim (peace offering), chatat (sin offering), and asham (guilt offering). It is the 24th weekly Torah portion, the first in Leviticus, covering Leviticus 1:1–5:26, and is typically read in March or early April. In Sephardic tradition it is chanted in Maqam Rast, the maqam that signals a beginning.