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...
"And Tuval Kayin's sister was Na'amah" – what a strange place to end an aliyah – "in the middle of nowhere". Is there some hidden logic in this widespread custom to end the fifth aliyah of Parashat Bereshit with these words? We are given rules regarding how to break a passage to be read into several aliyot. We are bidden to conform to the presentation of the text when possible – the breaks between parashiyot were given to Moshe to reflect between each matter, and that is where we should break when recreating that giving of Torah by our public reading. We should not stop our reading in the middle of a story. Also, we are not to end an aliyah on a "downer", a negative note. The story of Lemech comes as a coda to the story of Kayin. Lemech is the seventh generation from Adam down the Kayinian line. Like his progenitor, he kills a man, and seeks to invoke divine protection from human retribution. In a sense, Lemech is the climax of what was ...