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Bechukotai

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Bechukotai (alternately Bechukosai, B'hukkothai, etc.; Hebrew: בחוקותי, "by my decrees” — the second word, and the first distinctive word, in the parshah) is the 33rd weekly Torah portion ("parshah") in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the 10th and last in the book of Leviticus. It constitutes Leviticus 26:3–27:34. Jews in the Diaspora generally read it in May.

The lunisolar Hebrew calendar contains up to 54 weeks, the exact number varying between leap years and regular years. In years with 54 weeks (for example, 2008), parshah Bechukotai is read separately on the 33rd Sabbath after Simchat Torah. In years with fewer than 54 weeks (for example, 2007 and 2009), parshah Bechukotai is combined with the previous parshah, Behar, to help achieve the needed number of weekly readings.

“Summer” (painting by Leopold Graf von Kalckreuth)

Summary

Blessings and curses

God promised that if the Israelites followed God’s laws, God would bless Israel with rains in their season, abundant harvests, peace, victory over enemies, fertility, and God’s presence. (Lev. 26:3–14.) But if the Israelites did not observe God’s commandments, God would wreak upon Israel misery, consumption, fever, stolen harvests, defeat by enemies, poor harvests, attacks of wild beasts, pestilence, famine, desolation, and timidity. (Lev. 26:15–38.)

Those who survived would be removed to the land of their enemies, where they would become heartsick over their iniquity, confess their sin, and atone. (Lev. 26:39–41.) God promised then to remember God’s covenants with Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, and the ancients whom God freed from Egypt. (Lev. 26:42–45.)

Payment of vows

God told Moses to instruct the Israelites that when anyone vowed to offer God the value of a human being, the following scale would apply:

  • for a man from 20 to 60 years of age, 50 shekels of silver (Lev. 27:3),
  • for a woman from 20 to 60 years, 30 shekels (Lev. 27:4),
  • for a boy from 5 to 20 years, 20 shekels (Lev. 27:5),
  • for a girl from 5 to 20 years, 10 shekels (Lev. 27:5),
  • for a boy from 1 month to 5 years, 5 shekels (Lev. 27:6),
  • for a girl from 1 month to 5 years, 3 shekels (Lev. 27:6),
  • for a man 60 years or over, 15 shekels (Lev. 27:7), and
  • for a woman 60 years or over, 10 shekels (Lev. 27:7).

But if a vower could not afford the payment, the vower was to appear before the priest, and the priest was to assess the vower according to what the vower could afford. (Lev. 27:8.)

If the vow concerned an animal that could be brought as an offering, the animal was to be holy, and one could not exchange another for it, and if one did substitute one animal for another, the thing vowed and its substitute were both to be holy. (Lev. 27:9–10.) If the vow concerned an unclean animal that could not be brought as an offering, the vower was to present the animal to the priest, the priest was to assess it, and if the vower wished to redeem it, the vower was to add one-fifth to its assessment. (Lev. 27:11–13.) No firstling of a clean animal could be consecrated, for it already belonged to God. (Lev. 27:26.) But a firstling of an unclean animal could be redeemed at its assessment plus one-fifth, and if not redeemed, was to be sold at its assessment. (Lev. 27:27.)

If one consecrated a house to God, the priest was to assess it, and if the vower wished to redeem it, the vower was to add one-fifth to the assessment. (Lev. 27:14–15.) If one consecrated to God land of one’s ancestral holding, the priest was to assess it in accordance with its seed requirement. (Lev. 27:16–17.) If the vower consecrated the land after the jubilee year, the priest was to compute the price according to the years left until the next jubilee year, and reduce the assessment accordingly. (Lev. 27:18.) If the vower wished to redeem the land, the vower was to add one-fifth to the assessment and retain title, but if the vower did not redeem the land and the land was sold, it was no longer to be redeemable, and at the jubilee the land was to become the priest’s holding. (Lev. 27:19–21.) If one consecrated land that one purchased (not land of ancestral holding), the priest was to compute the assessment up to the jubilee year, the vower was to pay the assessment as of that day, and in the jubilee the land was to revert to the person whose ancestral holding the land was. (Lev. 27:22–24.)

But nothing that one had proscribed for God (subjected to cherem) could be sold or redeemed, and no human being proscribed could be ransomed, but he was to be put to death. (Lev. 27:28–29.)

All tithes from crops were to be God’s, and if one wished to redeem any of the tithes, the tither was to add one-fifth to them. (Lev. 27:30–31.) Every tenth head of livestock was to be holy to God, and the owner was not to choose among good or bad when counting off the tithe. (Lev. 27:32–33.)

In classical rabbinic interpretation

Leviticus chapter 27

Tractate Arakhin in the Mishnah, Tosefta, and Babylonian Talmud interpreted the laws of dedicatory vows in Leviticus 27:1–33. (Mishnah Arakhin 1:1–9:8; Tosefta Arakhin 1:1–5:19; Babylonian Talmud Arakhin 2a–34a.)

Tractate Temurah in the Mishnah, Tosefta, and Babylonian Talmud interpreted the laws of substituting one sacrifice for another in Leviticus 27:1–33. (Mishnah Temurah 1:1–7:6; Tosefta Temurah 1:1–4:17; Babylonian Talmud Temurah 2a–34a.)

Commandments

According to Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are 7 positive and 5 negative commandments in the parshah:

  • When one vows a person’s value, to estimate the value as determined by the Torah (Lev. 27:2.)
  • Not to substitute another beast for one set apart for sacrifice (Lev. 27:10.)
  • The new animal, in addition to the substituted one, retains consecration. (Lev. 27:10.)
  • To estimate the value of consecrated animals (Lev. 27:12–13.)
  • To estimate the value of consecrated houses (Lev. 27:14.)
  • To estimate the value of consecrated fields (Lev. 27:16.)
  • Not to change consecrated animals from one type of offering to another (Lev. 27:26.)
  • To carry out the laws of interdicting possessions (Lev. 27:28.)
  • Not to sell interdicted possessions (Lev. 27:28.)
  • Not to redeem interdicted possessions (Lev. 27:28.)
  • To separate the tithe from animals every year (Lev. 27:32.)
  • Not to redeem the tithe (Lev. 27:33.)
Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem (painting by Rembrandt)

(Sefer HaHinnuch: The Book of [Mitzvah] Education. Translated by Charles Wengrov, 3:461–517. Jerusalem: Feldheim Pub., 1984. ISBN 0-87306-297-3.)

Haftarah

The haftarah for the parshah is Jeremiah 16:19–17:14.

Further reading

The parshah has parallels or is discussed in these sources:

  • Vassal treaties of Esarhaddon
  • Deuteronomy 27:9–28:69 (blessings and curses).
  • Psalms 1:1–6 (blessings and curses); 3:6 (to lie down in peace); 44:12 (scattered among the nations); 50:14–15 (performing vows); 65:2 (performing vows); 76:12 (performing vows); 78:59 (God abhorred Israel); 97:7 (graven images); 98:2 (in the sight of the nations); 106:41, 45 (they that hated them ruled over them; but God remembered God’s covenant); 127:1 (labor in vain); 136:23 (God remembered).
  • Josephus. The Wars of the Jews, 6:3:3–5. Circa 75 C.E. Reprinted in, e.g., The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged, New Updated Edition. Translated by William Whiston, 737–38. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Pub., 1987. ISBN 0-913573-86-8.
  • Mishnah: Challah 4:9; Taanit 3:5; Megillah 3:3, 3:6; Chagigah 1:4; Menachot 9:7, 12:1; Bekhorot 1:7, 9:1–8; Arakhin 1:1–9:8; Temurah 1:1–7:6. Land of Israel, circa 200 C.E. Reprinted in, e.g., The Mishnah: A New Translation. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 157, 312, 320–21, 329, 752, 759, 790, 807–36. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-300-05022-4.
  • Sifra 260:1–277:1. Land of Israel, 4th Century C.E. Reprinted in, e.g., Sifra: An Analytical Translation. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 3:345–409. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988. ISBN 1-55540-207-0.
  • Leviticus Rabbah 6:5; 10:7; 11:3; 15:1; 34:9; 35:1–37:4. Land of Israel, 5th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Midrash Rabbah: Leviticus. Translated by H. Freedman and Maurice Simon, 4:84, 131, 137, 189, 435, 446–71. London: Soncino Press, 1939. ISBN 0-900689-38-2.
  • Rashi. Commentary. Leviticus 26–27. Troyes, France, late 11th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Rashi. The Torah: With Rashi’s Commentary Translated, Annotated, and Elucidated. Translated and annotated by Yisrael Isser Zvi Herczeg, 3:347–86. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1994. ISBN 0-89906-028-5.
  • Zohar 3:112a–115b. Spain, late 13th Century.
  • Thomas Hobbes. Leviathan, 3:40. England, 1651. Reprint edited by C. B. Macpherson, 503–04. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Classics, 1982. ISBN 0140431950.

Texts

Commentaries


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