Tag: Bechukotai
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The Holiness of Doing Nothing
Parashat Behar opens with one of the Torah’s most radical ideas. Every seventh year, the land of Israel must observe a shmita [sabbatical year]. No sowing, no pruning, no harvesting. The fields are simply left alone. Not because the land is broken, but because rest is not a reward for good work. Rest is a commandment.
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The Sabbath of the Land, the Sabbath of the Soul
The Sabbath and Shmita teach us that the land is not merely our resource, but our partner in God’s covenant—a caregiver that Resh Lakish likens to a devoted handmaiden raising the king’s children. When we honour the earth’s need for rest, we rediscover our own worth beyond productivity, learning to breathe not as owners, but…
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Bechukotai: Do the right thing because it is the right thing to do
Chaverim,Many Reform siddur editors have been bothered by the biblical language of retribution as they appear in our Torah portion Bechukotai and in various parts of Deuteronomy. The same holds true for many congregants. On the Shabbatot when these portions are scheduled to be read, often the baal korei (Torah reader) will chant them quickly at a…
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Parashat Bechukotai – I will look with favour upon you
Chaverim, friendsIt has taken the orthodox community in Johannesburg almost 3 ½ years to realise that Bet David has an openly gay rabbi. To be honest, I am not so sure if this news went around earlier, but to me it looks like that this became a topic in the wider – not progressive community…
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Walking with God
Since Abraham, Israelites and Jews have been on physical, spiritual and moral journeys. This week’s Sidra, Bechukotai, contains in its first ten verses three applications of the Hebrew root HaLaCH (to go) which contain a beautiful insight into how Jews can encounter God from different angles.The first appearance of the root is in the beginning…
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Behar – Bechukotai: Walking upright and unafraid
In our parashah, God vows to enact a series of blessings and curses for the Israelites—blessings if they observe the commandments, and curses if they do not. In her interpretation, Rabbi Lisa Exler explains that the blessings are “curiously framed” by the image of walking.Walking is, for many of us, our most basic vehicle for…
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Bechukotai and LagBaOmer
The torah portion for this Shabbat is Bechukotai (Lev. 26.3-27.34):God promises that if Israel will keep the commandments, they will enjoy material prosperity and dwell secure in their homeland. But God also delivers a harsh warning of the exile, persecution and other evils that will befall them if they abandon their covenant with the Eternal.…
