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Accept No Substitutes

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...
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About

IndustryEducation, Fintech
OccupationTeacher, System Administrator
LocationEfrat, Gush Etzion, Israel
IntroductionBorn and raised in L.A. in an idiosyncratic Jewish American home, Physics from U.C.L.A., Junior Year Abroad in Israel was life-reorienting, launching me on a lifetime of Jewish exploration and commitment. My path led me through many Jewish communities and sub-communities and brought me in contact with a rich and mutually irreconcilable panoply of Jewish souls, hearts and minds. Through it all there has been learning Torah, delving into its many crystal-clear pools and half-lighted deeps. Years and years of teaching Torah and listening to and sharing with people searching high and low have been followed and buttressed, professionally, by work in the world of hi-tech. Everything made possible by my family - my beloved wife and the children and grandchildren with whom Hashem has blessed us.
InterestsMy granddaughters, Tefillah, Midrash, Aggadah, Rav Kook, Eretz Yisrael, the nexus between faith and reason, the mind-brain question, playing guitar, learning spoken Arabic
Favorite moviesThere Will Be Blood, Chinatown, Mulholland Drive, Unforgiven
Favorite musicBluegrass, Mahler, Gypsy Jazz, Boston
Favorite booksMoby Dick, Heart of Darkness, The Count of Monte Christo, Lord of the Rings

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