Parsha Talk - Bechukotai 2022 5782

Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat B’chukotai [Leviticus 26:3-27:34] concludes the reading from the Book of Leviticus. Chapter 26 contains the tochechah, the lengthy passage of rebuke for failure to live up to God’s commands, which finds an echo in parashat Ki Tavo, near the end of Deuteronomy. Chapter 27 discusses votive offerings to the tabernacle, where a person’s donation is determined by gender and age. This finds an echo in the Book of Numbers, which we begin reading next week, and the redemption of the first-born. This topic of valuations forms the basis of the mishnaic tractate of Arakhin, and provides a contrast between the monetary worth of a human being here with the infinite value of a human being embedded in the idea that each of us is created in the image of God. Shabbat Shalom!