Bechukotai

📜 The Story

Bechukotai is the last parsha in the Book of Leviticus. It begins, 'If you follow My laws and keep My commandments,' and God promises that if the people of Israel keep the Torah and its mitzvot (commandments), they will be blessed.

The Torah lists the blessings. Rain will come at the right time. The land will grow so much food that the harvest will still be going when it is time to pick grapes, and the grape picking will still be going when it is time to plant again. The people will have plenty to eat. They will live safely in their land, with no wild animals or war to fear. And God will walk among them.

The parsha also warns what will happen if the people turn away from the Torah, and some of these warnings are hard to read. But the Torah promises that even then, if the people come back to God, He will remember His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and He will never leave His people.

Toward the end, the parsha turns to a very different subject, called arachin. If someone promised to give the Temple the 'value' of a person, the Torah sets a fixed amount based on that person's age and whether they are male or female. The parsha also has laws about giving animals, houses and fields to the Temple, and about the animal tithe: every tenth animal that passed under the shepherd's staff was set aside for God.

Leviticus ends with the words, 'These are the commandments that God gave Moses for the people of Israel at Mount Sinai.' When we finish each of the Five Books of the Torah, we call out together, 'Chazak, chazak, v'nitchazek!' That means 'Be strong, be strong, and let us strengthen one another!'