Parashat Behar - Bechukotai

This week’s double parsha completes the readings from the Book of Vayikra (Leviticus).

The title ‘Behar’ refers to Har Sinai, Mt Sinai. Not only were the Ten Commandments revealed to us there, but all the laws that we have been reading, including the social ethics, the laws of ritual purity, the sacrifices, family responsibilities and relationships and seeking holiness in daily life, were all divinely revealed at Mt Sinai.

G’d’s laws are as concerned about interpersonal relations as about the relationship between humankind and the Divine.  If we ‘walk in G’d’s ways’ and don’t take what we have for granted but appreciate the benefits bestowed on us by sharing with others, we will be blessed and will have understood the Divine Will. That is why the Book concludes with the laws of the tithes.

Our wealth is to be shared by those in need and by those whose duties to G’d preclude them from supporting themselves economically, the priests. All parts of society are interlinked and interdependent.

Behar

Bechukotai