Tag: Behar
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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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Behar: Thinking long-term
Chaverim,After several chapters about purity and the sacrificial system, our Torah portion “Behar”, feels it necessary to refer back once again to the time of the revelation of the Torah. This chapter appears as if it is an afterthought, something that Moses had neglected to mention until now.I am saying this due to the sheer fact…
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Yashar kochechem
In the past few weeks we have achieved several milestones in our congregation and celebrated wonderful happy moments in the lives of many of you. Often, we use the Hebrew expression “Yasher Koach“ to congratulate one another when a person does well or has achieved something in their lives (and I include an Aliyah to…
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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…
