During Havdalah each
week, we recite a verse taken from the Megillah:
“Layhudim hayta orah
v’simchah v’sason vicar”. ליהודים היתה אורה ושמחה וששון ויקר
Many, perhaps most,
people mispronounce the last word. While it should be “vee-kar” ויקר-“and honor”, usually people say “v’eekar” ועיקר.
It’s a case of substituting a more familiar word for a less familiar one.
People know the word עיקר, “root”
or “main principle”, and are not familiar with the word יקר,
taken here from the Aramaic cognate of the Hebrew כבוד, or “honor”.
“Honor” as a meaning of both
כבוד and יקר
is derivative of their primary
meaning – weight, heaviness, substantiality. Now, in the Megillah, both the word כבוד and
the word יקר are
used. But whereas the former is used only in connection with money and material
wealth, the latter is reserved for honor emanated upon one by the king. Our
honor as Jews is derived from the notion that our very existence points toward the
King of Kings, and, in fact, in the gemara, all four words of the verse above
are interpreted to refer to Mitzvot which express that relationship: אורה -
Torah, שמחה - holidays, ששון -
circumcision and יקר - tefillin.
We are not “the main
principle”, we are not “rooted” in and of ourselves. Any honor we as Jews might
be due is derived from being a people that stands for and points toward Hashem
in how we lead our individual and, especially, our collective lives. In that
sense, we can aspire to be “G-d’s vicar” (pun intended, of course), in the sense of “a
nations of priests”.
So let’s uproot that
guttural, all-too-substantial (for this context) Ayin and glide into the
precious honor of pointing beyond ourselves through our acts: Vee-kar.
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