Summary: Behar בְּהַר = on the Mountain [Sinai] [also means radiant, RS] Bechukotai בְּחֻקֹּתַי = in My statutes. Bechukotai is the last parsha in Leviticus / Vayikra. The parshas explicate agricultural, financial, and property laws and also the consequences of one’s actions.

The spiritual harvest of a Shabbat or Shemittah can be achieved only after a “work-week” of dealing with the material world and developing its resources. But it must be preceded and predicated upon “a sabbath unto G‑d” that occupies the fore of our consciousness and pervades our every deed. ~The Lubavitcher Rebbe

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Fulfill your ethical obligations to the Law and the land will respond by blessing you in turn. Disregard your end of the bargain and – in an almost incredible symbiotic relationship – the land will clearly demonstrate its disapproval and withhold its gifts of grain and produce. Man’s spiritual status predicts his material fate. Rabbi Benjamin Blech, Yeshiva University

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It is during this time that humanity is invited to observe nature without trying to exert power over it. The seventh year commands a person to do nothing in the face of his needs and dependence on the land, despite his own responsibility to others who depend on him. One has to rely on the land, be dependent upon it, and to trust it. ~Rabbi Avital Hochstein, Shalom Hartman Institute

This is to remind us that [the land] is given on condition to live ethically....it is a gift contingent on our behavior and gratitude in carrying out the laws and values of Shmitta....It is our faith in Hashem that gives us the peace of mind to know that innate sustenance is a reality if we do not abuse our gifts on this earth. The purpose of this commandment of Shmitta is to root the Jewish people in faith and trust in God...in this way the fallacies and illusions of human power are stripped away, and the truth of our partnership with God and the mandate to carry out the laws of the Torah for the benefit of humanity remains. ~Rabbi Mel Gottlieb, Behar

Once the world and its resources are indiscriminately exploited, as if they were made only by and for humans, the godliness that should pertain to the care of nature is replaced by human destruction to satisfy greed. War and desolation, ecological disaster, and perpetual pollution are the result. God's plea to respect nature and observe the laws is today a universal imperative. ~Rabbi Mel Gottlieb, Behar

When your brother becomes impoverished and loses his ability to support himself in the community, you must come to his aid. Help him survive whether he is a proselyte or a native [Israelite]. ~Trans. R' Aryeh Kaplan------------------------------------------------

(4) And if through his lashon hara or rechiluth he lowers his friend so that he loses his livelihood as a result, as when through evil-heartedness he publicizes his friend as being dishonest, or, if he is a worker, as being unfit for his work, or the like, he also transgresses (Vayikra 25:35). ~Chafetz Chaim, Introduction to the Laws of the Prohibition of Lashon Hara and Rechilut, Positive Commandments 4

The word “if” is to be understood as a plea on the part of G‑d: “If only you would follow My statutes . . .” ~Talmud, Avodah Zarah 5a ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The word chok חֻקֹּ (“statute” or “decree”), literally means “engraved.”

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When something is written, the substance of the letters that express it—the ink—remains a separate entity from the substance upon which they have been set—the parchment. On the other hand, letters engraved in stone are forged in it: the words are stone and the stone is words.

By the same token, there is an aspect of Torah that is “inked” on our soul: we understand it, our emotions are roused by it; it becomes our “lifestyle” or even our “personality”; but it remains something additional to ourselves. But there is a dimension of Torah that is chok, engraved in our being. There is a dimension of Torah which expresses a bond with G‑d that is of the very essence of the Jewish soul. ~ Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi

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Has the Torah changed how you live your life? Someone simply guided by some internal north star, who does only whatever their “gut” tells them is good, cannot be said to be walking in God’s ways. Unless they allow the Torah to teach them something, it’s a worthless text from which one can cherry-pick verses and phrases that support their already inborn feelings and disregard anything with which they don’t immediately agree. ~Rabbi Elchanan Shoff, Beis Knesses Los Angeles

ונתתי משכני בתוככם, “My Shechinah will reside amongst you, everywhere;” The meaning is that the close relationship which had existed between the Jewish people and its G’d before the sin of the golden calf would be restored. Prior to that traumatic break in the Israel-G’d relations, G’d had been on record (Exodus 20,21) בכל המקום אשר אזכיר את שמי אבא רליך, “I will come to you to any place where My name will be mentioned.” [In other words, there was not even a need for a Sanctuary. Ed.]

...the world was not created for any need of God, [therefore] we can say that the world was created for a great reason and that that reason is the service of the Creator, blessed be He. For just as a king is not called king until he has a people...so similarly the name “Creator” cannot be applied to one unless there is something that He has created. He is not called “God’ until He has a people, as it is said (Leviticus 26:12), “And I will be your God and you shall be My people...[N]othing was lacking in His power before the world was created, but in the creation of the world His perfection increased. This is the cause for which the world was created. Thus we know and understand that the Creation of the world was the perfection of God’s name.” ~Sefer HaYashar 1:5

Beh-hala is variously translated as misery, terror, panic or shock. It has the sense of being scared, suddenly, without knowing what to do (Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra, Spain, 1089-1164). This terror and confusion makes it hard to understand, to listen, to heed, adds Rabbi Moshe Alshich (Turkey, 1507-1593). When we’re scared, our fight-or-flight response kicks in. We may freeze or run or lash out, but when we’re scared, we’re bad listeners. We can rarely even understand what’s going on around us and inside us. ~Rabbi Noah Arnow, Commentary on Bechukotai

This is the first of the curses...and at this point, we might not even realize that it is a curse: "....we may not have the perspective to realize we’ve crossed over, that we’re not still receiving blessings. In fact, the panic and confusion of this curse is often misinterpreted and misunderstood as a blessing, writes Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin (Eastern Europe/Israel, 1881-1966)...The impatience we have with everything — for him, in his day, with wagons and increasingly with trains, and eventually, he predicts, rather presciently, with air travel, is a symptom of this curse. All the things that allow us to do things faster while decreasing and depleting our attention span and patience are not a product of human ingenuity, but rather, a manifestation of this curse. ~Rabbi Noah Arnow, Commentary on Bechukotai

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"Im Be'chokotai Tim'asu" – "if you consider My

laws loathsome." He speaks here not of simply disobeying

or disregarding the Mitzvot, but of despising and abhorring

them.

The obvious question arises, does anyone truly consider

the Mitzvot "loathsome"? Sure, many of us are not as committed as we should be. But to what kind of person does the

Torah refer when it speaks of "hatred" for the Mitzvot? Who

despises Mitzvot? ~Rabbi Eli Mansour

All sins derive from the sin of insignificance: when a person ceases to be sensitive to the paramount importance which G‑d attaches to his life and deeds. “I don’t really matter” is not humility—it is the ultimate arrogance. It really means: “I can do what I want.”

The most terrible of punishments is for G‑d to indulge the sinner this vanity. For G‑d to say: “All right, have it your way; what happens to you is of no significance”—for G‑d to act toward him as if He really does not care what happens to him. ~The Chassidic Masters

the Book of VaYikra categorically rejects the distinction made between interpersonal laws that affect our relationship with other people, and ritual laws that reflect our relationship with God. This book creates a frame for understanding the theological dimensions of social laws, and the human dimension of the theological ones, those instances that seem to only affect the vertical relationship between a person and God.

...So the laws of sacrifices include circumstances that are entirely interpersonal, from the passing of Aharon’s sons we learn to make space for human intuition in the face of an inclination to be stringent in the eyes of the law; the chapter that focused on the tzara’at affliction taught us that an entire social structure is embedded in the encounter between the afflicted person and the Kohen; and similarly in our parashah, we see that the the laws of the Sabbatical/Shemittah year which ask us to rescind our claims of ownership and instruct us in the ways that the social structure is impacted by questions of ownership, is titled "shabbat of/for the Lord." Sefer VaYikra as a whole warns us against thinking erroneously that engaging in the realm of the sacred is separate from our social, human lives. At the same time it teaches us that our human actions carry theological weight. ~Rabbi Avital Hochstein, Shalom Hartman Institute --------------------------------

They say "When I see it, I will believe it."

We say "When I believe it, then I will see it!"

That's the power of Bitachon! ~ R' Michael Safdie, quoting his mother

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For any person, bitachon can be a source of tranquility and happiness through the vicissitudes of life. Many read the story of the manna (Exodus 16) every day to strengthen their bitachon... But nothing helps more than meditating deeply upon the deep relationship we each have with the Source of All Good, and putting that conviction to work for you whenever necessary. ~Rabbi Tzvi Freeman