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...
Why does the Torah tell us about the Splitting of the Red Sea, but only hints about the Sealing of the Mountain Pass? "Huh", you ask, "what's the Sealing of the Mountain Pass?" See Rashi on B'midbar 21:15. There he relates what actually transpired as Am Yisrael north on the "Jordanian" side of the Jordan valley, near the Dead Sea: There was a narrow cleft in the Mountains of Edom, one of many running east to west along the extent of the valley. The many caves and crevices make excellent hiding places, and the Amorites hid there, intending to fall upon the unsuspecting Israelites as they passed through. But as they were hiding there, and before Am Yisrael arrived, Hashem made the two sides come together, such that a protruding rock on one side fit perfectly into a recess on the other, crushing the enemy to death in their thousand hiding places, and saving Am Israel from certain destruction. The only way we knew what happened was afterwards, ...