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...
Ki Tisa - when you lift up the head of the people of Israel. Lifting up the head or face has many associations and meanings, some positive, some not so positive (to wit: the opposing and ironic usages of the term by Yosef to the Egyptian butler and baker), but the positive predominates. Lifting up the head is a way of encouraging by relating. Those were some of the thoughts going through my mind as I was learning with my son, Yinon, last night at his yeshiva tichonit (high school yeshiva) in Otniel - the parents are invited to learn with their sons before every in-Shabbat, about every two or three weeks, and I try to make as many of those sessions as I can because Yinon, the middle child (or "sandvitch", as they say in pure Biblical Hebrew) of our five (bli ayin hara) children, effectively lives at yeshiva, so it's special opportunity to encourage him, deepen the connection, heck, to lift up his head!! They gave us a sheet of prepared sources dealing with road safety,...