The Old Testament is also called ‘Ta•nach.’ In Hebrew it is not a name but the initials of the three sections of the Old Testament: Torah (Torah, the Law); ‘Ne•vi•eem’ (Prophets); and Ke•tu•vim (Writings). The Torah includes the five books of Moses (Pentateuch), and ‘Va•ik•ra’ (Leviticus) is its third book, following ‘Be•re•sheet’ (Genesis) and ‘Shemot’ (Exodus).
Each of the Torah books is named after either the very first word in that book (as in Genesis where the very first word ‘be•re•sheet’ is the name of the book), or the second (as in Exodus where it is the second word in the verse), with one exception occurring in the Book of Numbers, which gets its name from the fifth word of the book.
The Book of Leviticus, ‘Va•ik•ra,’ means ‘And [the Lord] called,’ which is the first word in this book. ‘And [the Lord] called’ is actually one word in Hebrew because of its conciseness.
“And the Lord called to Moses, and spoke to him out of the Tent of Meeting, saying…”
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