Parsha talk Behar Behukotai 5785 2025

Parashat B’har-B’hukotai [Leviticus 25-27], a double parashah, the third in four weeks for those keeping score, is the concluding reading from ספר ויקרא [the Book of Leviticus]. Leviticus is the shortest book in the Torah, only 27 chapters, and with all the double parashiyot this year, is finished in only seven weeks. In his JPS Torah Commentary, Baruch Levine divides the reading into 3 sections: Principles of Land Tenure [25:1-26:2], Epilogue to the Holiness Code [26:3-46], more commonly known as the Tokhekhah [The Rebuke, with a parallel version in Deuteronomy 28], and Funding the Sanctuary [chapter 27]. Our discussion mostly focused on chapter 25, in particular the laws of sh’mittah [sabbatical year] and yovel [jubilee year]. On one hand it is hard to figure out how they worked in practice; on the other, it is hard to figure out how utopian legislation fits into a legal code. Is law supposed to be practical or aspirational? This week we were shocked by the murders of Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, may their mourners be comforted together with all the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem. We continue to keep in mind the hostages who remain in Gaza, and pray fervently that they will be speedily returned to their families. We also keep in mind the soldiers defending Israel as part of the Israel Defense Forces, may they be removed from harm’s way. Shabbat Shalom.