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...
"Two peoples/proud ones in your womb; two nations will part in/ depart from your womb; nation from/than nation shall gain strength, and great(ly) shall serve young". This is the prophecy, ambiguous on several counts, which was shared with Rivka when she went to inquire of Hashem regarding the implications of her intolerable pain induced by the thrashing from within her womb. And, as it is practically impossible to shed the midrashic associations which accompany Yaakov and Esav from their first appearance, identifying the former with the people Israel and the latter with Rome, our great adversary, I won't try to do so. It would make no sense. And sense, or sensation, is precisely what is lacking in the key passage of our parashah. Recall that, upon hearing her husband, Yitzchak's misguided intend to bestow his blessing on Esav, his favorite, Rivka is keen on insuring that Yaakov, her favorite and the one designated for greatness (as she understands the prophecy) r...