Weekly Scripture Reading:
Behuqqotai – In My Laws
Wayyiqra 26:3-27:34
Haftorah: Yirmeyahu 16:19-17:14
Suggested HaBerith HaChadashah Reading: Mt. 21:33-46; 2 Cor 6:14-18
Lev 26:3 ‘If you walk in My laws and guard My commands, and shall do them,
Lev 26:4 then I shall give you rain in its season, and the land shall yield its crops, and the trees of the field yield their fruit.
Lev 26:5 ‘And your threshing shall last till the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last till the time of sowing. And you shall eat your bread until you have enough, and shall dwell in your land safely.
Lev 26:6 ‘And I shall give peace in the land, and you shall lie down and no one make you afraid. And I shall clear the land of evil beasts, and not let the sword go through your land.
Lev 26:7 ‘And you shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you.
Lev 26:8 ‘And five of you shall pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you pursue ten thousand. And your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.
Lev 26:9 ‘And I shall turn to you and make you bear fruit, and shall increase you, and shall establish My covenant with you.
Lev 26:10 ‘And you shall eat the old supply, and clear out the old because of the new.
Lev 26:11 ‘And I shall set My Dwelling Place in your midst, and My being shall not reject you.
Lev 26:12 ‘And I shall walk in your midst, and shall be your Elohim, and you shall be My people.
Lev 26:13 ‘I am יהוה your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim, from being their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk upright.
Lev 26:14 ‘But if you do not obey Me, and do not do all these commands,
Lev 26:15 and if you reject My laws, or if your being loathes My right-rulings, so that you do not do all My commands, but break My covenant,
Lev 26:16 I also do this to you: And I shall appoint sudden alarm over you, wasting disease and inflammation, destroying the eyes, and consuming the life. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
Lev 26:17 ‘And I shall set My face against you, and you shall be smitten before your enemies. And those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.
Lev 26:18 ‘And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I shall punish you seven times more for your sins.
Lev 26:19 ‘And I shall break the pride of your power, and shall make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.
Lev 26:20 ‘And your strength shall be spent in vain and your land not yield its crops, nor the trees of the land yield their fruit.
Lev 26:21 ‘And if you walk contrary to Me, and refuse to obey Me, I shall bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins,
Lev 26:22 and send wild beasts among you, which shall bereave you of your children. And I shall cut off your livestock, and make you few in number, and your highways shall be deserted.
Lev 26:23 ‘And if you are not instructed by Me by these, but walk contrary to Me,
Lev 26:24 then I also shall walk contrary to you, and I Myself shall smite you seven times for your sins.
Lev 26:25 ‘And I shall bring against you a sword executing the vengeance of My covenant, and you shall gather together in your cities, and I shall send pestilence among you, and you shall be given into the hand of the enemy.
Lev 26:26 ‘When I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall bring back to you your bread by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.
Lev 26:27 ‘And if in spite of this, you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me,
Lev 26:28 then I shall walk contrary to you in wrath. And I Myself shall punish you seven times for your sins.
Lev 26:29 ‘And you shall eat the flesh of your sons, and eat the flesh of your daughters.
Lev 26:30 ‘And I shall destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-pillars, and put your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols. And My being shall loathe you.
Lev 26:31 ‘And I shall turn your cities into ruins and lay your set-apart places waste, and not smell your sweet fragrances.
Lev 26:32 ‘And I shall lay the land waste, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it.
Lev 26:33 ‘And I shall scatter you among the gentiles and draw out a sword after you. And your land shall be desert and your cities ruins,
Lev 26:34 and the land enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies waste and you are in your enemies’ land. Then the land would rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.
Lev 26:35 ‘As long as it lies waste it rests, for the time it did not rest on your Sabbaths when you dwelt in it.
Lev 26:36 ‘And as for those of you who are left, I shall send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, and the sound of a shaken leaf shall cause them to flee. And they shall flee as though retreating from a sword, and they shall fall when no one pursues.
Lev 26:37 ‘And they shall stumble over one another, as from before a sword, when no one pursues. And you shall be unable to stand before your enemies.
Lev 26:38 ‘And you shall perish among the gentiles, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up,
Lev 26:39 and those of you who are left rot away in their crookedness in your enemies’ lands, and also in their fathers’ crookednesses rot away with them.
Lev 26:40 ‘But if they confess their crookedness and the crookedness of their fathers, with their trespass in which they trespassed against Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me,
Lev 26:41 and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies – if their uncircumcised heart is then humbled, and they accept the punishment of their crookedness,
Lev 26:42 then I shall remember My covenant with Yaʽaqoḇ, and also My covenant with Yitsḥaq, and also remember My covenant with Aḇraham, and remember the land.
Lev 26:43 ‘For the land was abandoned by them, and enjoying its Sabbaths while lying waste without them, and they were paying for their crookedness, because they rejected My right-rulings and because their being loathed My laws.
Lev 26:44 ‘And yet for all this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I shall not reject them, nor shall I loathe them so as to destroy them and break My covenant with them. For I am יהוה their Elohim.
Lev 26:45 ‘Then I shall remember for their sake the covenant of the ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Mitsrayim before the eyes of the nations to be their Elohim. I am יהוה.’ ”
Lev 26:46 These are the laws and the right-rulings and the Torot1 which יהוה made between Himself and the children of Yisra’ĕl on Mount Sinai by the hand of Mosheh. Footnote: 1Torot - plural of Torah, teaching.
Lev 27:1 And יהוה spoke to Mosheh, saying,
Lev 27:2 “Speak to the children of Yisra’ĕl, and say to them, ‘When a man separates a vow, by your evaluation of lives unto יהוה,
Lev 27:3 when your evaluation is of a male from twenty years old up to sixty years old, then your evaluation shall be fifty sheqels of silver, according to the sheqel of the set-apart place.
Lev 27:4 ‘And if it is a female, then your evaluation shall be thirty sheqels;
Lev 27:5 and if from five years old up to twenty years old, then your evaluation for a male shall be twenty sheqels, and for a female ten sheqels;
Lev 27:6 and if from a month old up to five years old, then your evaluation for a male shall be five sheqels of silver, and for a female your evaluation shall be three sheqels of silver;
Lev 27:7 and if from sixty years old and above, if it is a male, then your evaluation shall be fifteen sheqels, and for a female ten sheqels.
Lev 27:8 ‘But if he is too poor to pay your evaluation, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall set a value for him. According to the ability of him who vowed, the priest shall value him.
Lev 27:9 ‘And if it is a beast of which they bring an offering to יהוה, all such given to יהוה is set-apart.
Lev 27:10 ‘He is not to replace it or exchange it, good for spoilt or spoilt for good. And if he at all exchanges beast for beast, then both it and the one exchanged for it is set-apart.
Lev 27:11 ‘And if it is any unclean beast of which they do not bring an offering to יהוה, then he shall present the beast before the priest;
Lev 27:12 and the priest shall value it, whether it is good or spoilt. According to your evaluation, O priest, so it shall be.
Lev 27:13 ‘But if he indeed redeems it, then he shall add one-fifth to your evaluation.
Lev 27:14 ‘And when a man sets his house apart, to be set-apart to יהוה, then the priest shall value it, whether it is good or spoilt. As the priest values it, so it stands.
Lev 27:15 ‘And if he who sets it apart does redeem his house, then he shall add one-fifth of the silver of your evaluation to it, and it shall be his.
Lev 27:16 ‘And if a man sets apart to יהוה a field he owns, then your evaluation shall be according to the seed for it – a ḥomer of barley seed at fifty sheqels of silver.
Lev 27:17 ‘If he sets his field apart from the Year of Jubilee, according to your evaluation it stands.
Lev 27:18 ‘But if he sets his field apart after the Jubilee, then the priest shall reckon to him the silver due according to the years that remain till the Year of Jubilee, and it shall be deducted from your evaluation.
Lev 27:19 ‘And if he who sets the field apart ever wishes to redeem it, then he shall add one-fifth of the silver of your evaluation to it, and it shall be his.
Lev 27:20 ‘And if he does not redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it is no longer redeemed,
Lev 27:21 but the field, when it is released in the Jubilee, is set-apart to יהוה as a dedicated field, to be the possession of the priest.
Lev 27:22 ‘And if a man sets apart to יהוה a field which he has bought, which is not the field of his possession,
Lev 27:23 then the priest shall reckon to him the amount of your evaluation, up to the Year of Jubilee, and he shall give your evaluation on that day, set-apart to יהוה.
Lev 27:24 ‘In the Year of Jubilee the field returns to him from whom he bought it, to him whose is the possession of the land.
Lev 27:25 ‘And all your evaluations is to be according to the sheqel of the set-apart place: twenty gĕrahs to the sheqel.
Lev 27:26 ‘However, a first-born of the beasts, which is first-born to יהוה, no man sets it apart – whether bull or sheep, it belongs to יהוה.
Lev 27:27 ‘And if among the unclean beasts, then he shall ransom it according to your evaluation, and shall add one-fifth to it. And if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your evaluation.
Lev 27:28 ‘However, whatever a man lays under ban for יהוה of all that he has, man and beast, or the field of his possession, is not sold or redeemed. Whatever is laid under ban is most set-apart to יהוה.
Lev 27:29 ‘No one under the ban, under the ban among men, is ransomed, but shall certainly be put to death.
Lev 27:30 ‘And all the tithe of the land – of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree – belongs to יהוה. It is set-apart to יהוה.
Lev 27:31 ‘If a man indeed redeems any of his tithes, he adds one-fifth to it.
Lev 27:32 ‘And the entire tithe of the herd and of the flock, all that passes under the rod, the tenth one is set-apart to יהוה.
Lev 27:33 ‘He does not inquire whether it is good or spoilt, nor does he exchange it. And if he exchanges it at all, then both it and the one exchanged for it are set-apart, it is not redeemed.’ ”
Lev 27:34 These are the commands which יהוה commanded Mosheh for the children of Yisra’ĕl on Mount Sinai.
Haftorah: Yirmeyahu 16:19-17:14
Jer 16:19 O יהוה, my strength and my stronghold and my refuge, in the day of distress the gentiles shall come to You from the ends of the earth and say, “Our fathers have inherited only falsehood, futility, and there is no value in them.”1 Footnote: 1See Ps. 147:19, Isa. 2:3, Isa. 60:2-3, John 4:22, Rom. 2:20, Rom. 3:2, Rom. 9:4.
Jer 16:20 Would a man make mighty ones for himself, which are not mighty ones?
Jer 16:21 “Therefore see, I am causing them to know, this time I cause them to know My hand and My might. And they shall know that My Name is יהוה!”
Jer 17:1 “The sin of Yehuḏah is written with a pen of iron, engraved with the point of a diamond on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars,
Jer 17:2 while their children remember their altars and their Ashĕrim by the spreading trees on the high hills.
Jer 17:3 “My mountain in the field, I give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures, your high places of sin, throughout all your borders.
Jer 17:4 “And you, even of yourself, shall let go of your inheritance which I gave you. And I shall make you serve your enemies in a land which you have not known, for you have kindled a fire in My displeasure which burns forever.”
Jer 17:5 Thus said יהוה, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart turns away from יהוה.
Jer 17:6 “For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and not see when good comes, and shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land that is not inhabited.
Jer 17:7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in יהוה, and whose trust is יהוה.
Jer 17:8 “For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and does not see when heat comes. And his leaf shall be green, and in the year of drought he is not anxious, nor does he cease from yielding fruit.
Jer 17:9 “The heart is crooked1 above all, and desperately sick – who shall know it? Footnote: 1See 7:24, 16:12, 18:12, 23:17.
Jer 17:10 “I, יהוה, search the heart, I try the kidneys, and give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.
Jer 17:11 “As a partridge that broods but does not hatch, so is he who gets riches, but not by right. It leaves him in the midst of his days, and at his end he is a fool.”
Jer 17:12 An esteemed throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our set-apart place.
Jer 17:13 O יהוה, the expectation of Yisra’ĕl, all who forsake You are put to shame. “Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken יהוה, the fountain of living waters.”1 Footnote: 1See 2:13.
Jer 17:14 Heal me, O יהוה, so that I am healed. Save me, so that I am saved, for You are my praise.
Suggested HaBerith HaChadashah Reading: Mt. 21:33-46; 2 Cor 6:14-18
Mat 21:33 “Hear another parable: There was a certain man, a householder who planted a vineyard and placed a hedge around it, and dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. And he leased it to farmers and went abroad.
Mat 21:34 “And when the season of the fruits drew near, he sent his servants to the farmers, to receive its fruit.
Mat 21:35 “And the farmers took his servants and beat one, and they killed one, and they stoned another.
Mat 21:36 “Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them.
Mat 21:37 “And at last he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They shall respect my son.’
Mat 21:38 “But when the farmers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and let us possess his inheritance.’
Mat 21:39 “And they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
Mat 21:40 “Therefore, when the master of the vineyard comes, what shall he do to those farmers?”
Mat 21:41 They said to Him, “Evil ones! He shall bring them to evil destruction, and lease the vineyard to other farmers who shall give to him the fruits in their seasons.”
Mat 21:42 יהושע said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner-stone. This was from יהוה, and it is marvellous in our eyes’?
Mat 21:43 “Because of this I say to you: the reign of Elohim shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits of it.
Mat 21:44 “And he who falls on this stone shall be broken,1 but on whomever it falls, he shall be pulverised.” Footnote:1Rom. 8:10 & 13, Col. 3:5.
Mat 21:45 And the chief priests and Pharisees, having heard His parables, knew that He was speaking of them.
Mat 21:46 And seeking to lay hands on Him, they feared the crowds, seeing they held Him to be a prophet.2Co 6:14 Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? And what fellowship has light with darkness?
2Co 6:15 And what agreement has Messiah with Beliyaʽal? Or what part does a believer have with an unbeliever?
2Co 6:16 And what union has the Dwelling Place of Elohim with idols? For you are a Dwelling Place of the living Elohim, as Elohim has said, “I shall dwell in them and walk among them, and I shall be their Elohim, and they shall be My people.”
2Co 6:17 Therefore, “Come out from among them and be separate, says יהוה, and do not touch what is unclean, and I shall receive you.
2Co 6:18 “And I shall be a Father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me, says יהוה the Almighty.”
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Bechukotai Aliya Summary
General Overview: This week's reading, Bechukotai, contains a vivid description of the rewards for observing G‑d's commandments and the series of punishments that will befall us if we choose to disregard them. The Torah then discusses different types of gifts given to the Temple, and the animal tithe.
First Aliyah: We are promised incredible blessing if we diligently study Torah and observe the mitzvot. The blessings include plentiful food -- "You will be threshing wheat until the grape-harvest, and the grape-harvest will keep you busy until the sowing season!" -- timely rain, and security.
Second Aliyah: More blessings: Peace in the land, the elimination of wild animals from the land, and incredible military success -- "Five of you will chase away a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase away ten thousand!"
Third Aliyah: And even more blessings: An overabundance of crops and G‑d's presence will be revealed in our midst. This section then describes the severe, terrifying punishments which will be the Jews' lot if they reject G‑d's mitzvot. The punishments include disease, famine, enemy occupation of the land, exile, and desolation of the land. The non-observance of the Sabbatical year is singled out as the reason for the desolation of the land. The aliyah concludes with G‑d's promise never to utterly forsake us even when we are exiled in the lands of our enemies.
Fourth Aliyah: This section discusses various endowments pledged to the Temple coffers. A person can pledge the worth of an individual, in which case the Torah prescribes how much the person must pay -- depending on the gender and age of the individual who is being "assessed." An animal which is pledged to the Temple must be offered on the altar if it is fit for sacrifice -- otherwise it must be "redeemed" for its value. If the owner chooses to redeem it, he must add one fifth of its value to the redemption price. The same rule applies to a house which is pledged to the Temple.
Fifth Aliyah: This section discusses the endowment of land to the temple. If it is land which was part of the family lot (given to his ancestors when Israel was divided amongst the Tribes), then the redemption price is a fixed amount, depending on its harvest yield. If the owner chooses not to redeem it, it may be redeemed by any other individual. In this event, or if the land remains un-redeemed, the land becomes the property of the priests during the next Jubilee year.
Sixth Aliyah: Land which was purchased and then consecrated by the buyer can also be redeemed, but it reverts to its original owner when the Jubilee arrives. All firstborn livestock are sacrificed in the Temple, and their flesh is consumed by the priests. A person also has the option of dedicating and consecrating any of his belongings specifically for the use of the priests.
Seventh Aliyah: The "Second Tithe," which must be consumed by its owners in Jerusalem, is briefly mentioned -- as well as the rules for redeeming this tithe if it is too burdensome to transport to Jerusalem. Also discussed is the animal tithe -- every tenth animal is offered as a sacrifice, and the meat consumed by its owners. With this we conclude the Book of Leviticus.
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