The past two articles I wrote for Radical Torah, here & here, explained the small Alef at the end of the word Va-Yiqra (He called), & the diminutive Mem at the beginning of the word moqdah (firewood).
These two parshiyot work together to provide us all with a glimpse of Olam Ha-Ba (The World that is Coming).
There are other Alef & Mem combinations that represent pairs of redeemers. For example: Efrayim and Menashe were the first pair of brothers in the whole dramatic Biblical narrative to have a good relationship. Up until them, all brothers descending from Abraham suffered from terrible sibling rivalry & lived in deeply dysfunctional families. It isn’t until the end of Sefer B’reyshit/Genesis that two brothers are worthy of Israel’s brakhah, the knots of broken kin having been untied, B”H. A good relationship between family is a necessary element of redemption, which is why we bless our sons each Friday night that they may grow to be like Efrayim & Menashe.
Aharon & his brother Moshe were empowered by G@d to bring us up from Egypt. Esther & her uncle Mordechai were likewise another Alef-Mem pair empowered to save us from genocide in Persia. In the future, says the haftorah we read on Shabbat HaGadol last week, our saviours will be Eliyahu Ha-Navi (Elijah the Prophet) & the Moshiach. Of course, G@d is the only real redeemer, & is named, among other things, Avinu Malkeynu (our Father, our King) as well as Mageyn Avraham (shield of Abraham).
It’s interesting to note that Alef & Mem, when put together as a word, spells eym (mother), eem (if, in case, when), & om (nation). It’s even more interesting that the gematria of the Alef-Mem word is 41, the same as for Eli (my G@d). The Redeemer.
May we all have a chag kasher ve-same’ach & be fully redeemed this Pesach.