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...
Beginning with his birth in Parshat Shmot, Moshe's name is mentioned in every Parasha of the Torah (until Chumash Devarim , since he is the first-person narrator for most of the book). Yet in Parashat T'zaveh, it is nowhere to be found. Where is Moshe? Now, lest we dismiss Moshe's absence as a coincidental by-product of the haphazard manner in which history and custom have divided the Torah into weekly portions, consider this: our parasha opens with a series of Divine directives aimed at Moshe: V'atah t'zaveh; v'atah hakrev, v'atah t'daber: "you must command, you must bring close, you must speak". What could have been more natural than to set the context of the various commands by at least beginning with Vayomer Hashem el Moshe? Furthermore, the very first pasuk of the next Parasha begins: Vayomer Hashem el Moshe! Where, then, in Tetzaveh , is Moshe? Let's find him! Parshat T'zaveh places us right in the middle of the extended se...