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...
They were standing there, leaning against the wall with that world-weary, seen-it-all indifference. Shalhevet, our oldest daughter, had returned to the school at which she worked during her three months in Sherut Leumi (National Service) to visit the kids with whom she had formed a connection. She had decided to change track to a pre-army Mechina (preparatory academy) for religious girls, but she still missed the kids, and so she hit the road early last Erev Shabbat, made her way to Netanya, and was rewarded by an overwhelming, excited response on the part of the kids, who missed her too. Even fifth-grade boys, normally so habituated in their pre-macho macho, smiled and came running. All except these two. Earrings in place, spitting sunflower seed shells, they kept their distance and make sarcastic remarks. Oh, well. You can’t win ‘em all. Teenagers will be teenagers, no? Except this pair were no teenagers. They were six-years old! Shalhevet remembered them from her time at t...