Parashat Behar-Bechukotai (Revised May 8, 2026) This week's double parashah, Behar and Bechuotai, bring to a close the book of Vayikra, a book the all-consuming focus of which is, undoubtably, KEDUSHAH, holiness. The last chapter is concerned largely with the kind of vows people make in dedicating something to the service of Hashem in the Mikdash. There are many laws regulating this seemingly noble motivation and its accompanying action, but my attention was taken this time around by the following law: "If (the devoted thing) is an animal of the kind from which an offering is brought to Hashem, any one which is given to Hashem shall be kodesh . One shall not exchange it ( lo yachalifenu ) nor shall one substitute for it ( yamir oto ), good for bad or bad for good; now if one DOES substitute for it, it will be that it and its substitute will be kodesh ." Vayikra 27:10-11 This mitzvah turns out to be very curious, because one is lashed for its intentional violation...
Who is it who tells Avraham, “Lech Lecha”? I don’t mean that as it might seem – after all, the Torah tells us: “And Hashem said to Avraham, “Go, you…” Rather, what I mean is this name, Shad-dai (one of the seven holy names; thus I don’t write it completely even in English), regarding which Hashem later said to Moshe, “I was revealed to Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya’acov as E-l Shad-dai, but My name, Hashem, I was not known to them”. What aspect of Hashem’s ever-unfolding-to-us Being was revealed to Avraham through that Name? And: Why is understanding this divine name so important to understanding Avraham’s spiritual consciousness and mission? To be sure, our parashah is peppered with a variety of divine names. But our commentators tell us that it is precisely as/with the Name, Shad-dai, that Hashem makes a covenant with Avraham. So, let’s examine the critical verse: Toward the end of our parashah, after all the episodes which take Avraham to Egypt, to Dan in t...