This week’s parashot are the 9th and 10th parashot in the book of Vayikra also called Leviticus, and they are called Behar/Bechukotai which mean ‘On Mount’ and ‘In My Statutes’.
Bullet Point Summary
– The laws of the land sabbath are given
– Every 50th year shall be a Yovale
– Pricing of goods shall be according to the years left until the yovale
– Triple fruit will be given in the 6th year
– The laws of land redemption are given
– The Yovale laws for real estate are given
– Laws of the poor who owe you
– Laws of brothers being sold unto you for poverty
– Redemption laws for brothers
– You shall not make or have any idols
– You shall keep the sabbaths and reverence His sanctuary
– The blessings if you keep His commandments
– The curses for breaking His commandments
– If Yisra’el shall confess and accept their punishment YHWH will remember His covenant
– The law of estimation for vows is given
– The redemption law for beasts is given
– The redemption law for houses is given
– The laws of sanctifying and redeeming fields to YHWH
– The laws of devoted things
– The laws of tithes and redemption of tithes
– Haftarah – The punishments for forsaking YHWH and the blessings for trusting in Him
Parashat Text with Readers and Daily Portions (Reader 1 Starts on Saturday Evening)
Behar “On Mount” , Bechukotai “In My Statutes”
Lev 25:1 – 27:34 , Jeremiah 16:19 – 17:14
Reader 1 (Saturday Evening Portion)
Lev 25:1 And YHWH spoke unto Moshe in mount Sinai, saying,
Lev 25:2 Speak unto the children of Yisra’el, and say unto them, When you come into the land
which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto YHWH.
Lev 25:3 Six years you shall sow thy field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and
gather in the fruit thereof;
Lev 25:4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for YHWH:
you shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard.
Lev 25:5 That which grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, neither gather
the grapes of your vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.
Lev 25:6 And the sabbath of the land shall be food for you; for you, and for your servant, and
for your maid, and for your hired servant, and for your stranger that sojourns with you,
Lev 25:7 And for your cattle, and for the beast that are in your land, shall all the increase
thereof be food.
(Sunday Morning Portion)
Lev 25:8 And you shall number seven sabbaths of years unto you, seven times seven years; and
the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto you forty and nine years.
Lev 25:9 Then shall you sound the loud shofar on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the
day of atonement shall you make the shofar sound throughout all your land.
Lev 25:10 And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land
unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a Yo’vale unto you; and you shall return every
man unto his possession, and you shall return every man unto his family.
Lev 25:11 A Yo’vale shall that fiftieth year be unto you: you shall not sow, neither reap that
which grows of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of your vine undressed.
Lev 25:12 For it is the Yo’vale; it shall be holy unto you: you shall eat the increase thereof out of
the field.
Lev 25:13 In the year of this Yo’vale you shall return every man unto his possession.
Lev 25:14 And if you sell anything unto your neighbor, or buy anything of your neighbor’s
hand, you shall not oppress one another:
Lev 25:15 According to the number of years after the Yo’vale you shall buy of your neighbour,
and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto you:
Lev 25:16 According to the multitude of years you shall increase the price thereof, and
according to the fewness of years you shall diminish the price of it: for according to the
number of the years of the fruits does he sell unto you.
Lev 25:17 You shall not therefore oppress one another; but you shall fear your Elohim: for I am
YHWH your Elohim.
Lev 25:18 Wherefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and you
shall dwell in the land in safety.
Reader 2 (Sunday Evening Portion)
Lev 25:19 And the land shall yield her fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in
safety.
Lev 25:20 And if you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow,
nor gather in our increase:
Lev 25:21 Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth
fruit for three years.
Lev 25:22 And you shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until
her fruits come in you shall eat of the old store.
(Monday Morning Portion)
Lev 25:23 The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for you are strangers and
sojourners with me.
Lev 25:24 And in all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.
Lev 25:25 If your brother be waxen poor, and has sold away some of his possession, and if any
of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.
Lev 25:26 And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it;
Lev 25:27 Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the
man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession.
Lev 25:28 But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the
hand of him that has bought it until the year of Yo’vale: and in the jubile it shall go out, and
he shall return unto his possession.
Reader 3 (Monday Evening Portion)
Lev 25:29 And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a
whole year after it is sold; within a full year may he redeem it.
Lev 25:30 And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the
walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it
shall not go out in the Yo’vale.
Lev 25:31 But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted
as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the Yo’vale.
Lev 25:32 Notwithstanding the cities of the Levi’im, and the houses of the cities of their
possession, may the Levi’im redeem at any time.
Lev 25:33 And if a man purchase of the Levi’im, then the house that was sold, and the city of his
possession, shall go out in the year of Yo’vale: for the houses of the cities of the Levi’im are
their possession among the children of Yisra’el.
(Tuesday Morning Portion)
Lev 25:34 But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual
possession.
Lev 25:35 And if your brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with you; then you shall
relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with you.
Lev 25:36 Take you no interest of him, or increase: but fear your Elohim; that your brother may
live with you.
Lev 25:37 You shall not give him your money upon interest, nor lend him your victuals for
increase.
Lev 25:38 I am YHWH your Elohim, which brought you forth out of the land of Mitzrayim, to
give you the land of Kena’an, and to be your Elohim.
Reader 4 (Tuesday Evening Portion)
Lev 25:39 And if your brother that dwells by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto you; you
shall not compel him to serve as a bondservant:
Lev 25:40 But as a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with you, and shall serve you
unto the year of Yo’vale:
Lev 25:41 And then shall he depart from you, both he and his children with him, and shall
return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.
Lev 25:42 For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Mitzrayim: they
shall not be sold as bondmen.
Lev 25:43 You shall not rule over him with rigour; but shall fear thy Elohim.
Lev 25:44 Both your bondmen, and your bondmaids, which you shall have, shall be of the
heathen that are round about you; of them shall you buy bondmen and bondmaids.
Lev 25:45 Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall
you buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they
shall be your possession.
Lev 25:46 And you shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them
for a possession; they shall be your bondmen forever: but over your brethren the children of
Yisra’el, you shall not rule one over another with rigor.
(Wednesday Morning Portion)
Lev 25:47 And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by you, and thy brother that dwells by him
wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by you, or to the stock of the
stranger’s family:
Lev 25:48 After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him:
Lev 25:49 Either his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any that is near of kin unto
him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself.
Lev 25:50 And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him
unto the year of Yo’vale: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of
years, according to the time of a hired servant shall it be with him.
Lev 25:51 If there be yet many years behind, according unto them he shall give again the price
of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.
Lev 25:52 And if there remain but few years unto the year of Yo’vale, then he shall count with
him, and according unto his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption.
Lev 25:53 And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with
rigor over him in your sight.
Lev 25:54 And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of Yo’vale,
both he, and his children with him.
Lev 25:55 For unto me the children of Yisra’el are servants; they are my servants whom I
brought forth out of the land of Mitzrayim: I am YHWH your Elohim.
Lev 26:1 You shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image,
neither shall you set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am
YHWH your Elohim.
Lev 26:2 You shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am YHWH.
Lev 26:3 If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;
Lev 26:4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the
trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
Lev 26:5 And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the
sowing time: and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
Lev 26:6 And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you
afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
Lev 26:7 And you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
Lev 26:8 And five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand
to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
Lev 26:9 For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and
establish my covenant with you.
Reader 5 (Wednesday Evening Portion)
Lev 26:10 And you shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.
Lev 26:11 And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.
Lev 26:12 And I will walk among you, and will be your Elohim, and you shall be my people.
Lev 26:13 I am YHWH your Elohim, which brought you forth out of the land of Mitzrayim, that
you should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you
go upright.
Lev 26:14 But if you will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;
Lev 26:15 And if you shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that you
will not do all my commandments, but that you break my covenant:
Lev 26:16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and
fever, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in
vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
Lev 26:17 And I will set my face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies: they
that hate you shall reign over you; and you shall flee when none pursues you.
Lev 26:18 And if you will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times
more for your sins.
Lev 26:19 And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and
your earth as copper:
Lev 26:20 And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase,
neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.
Lev 26:21 And if you walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven
times more plagues upon you according to your sins.
Lev 26:22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and
destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.
Lev 26:23 And if you will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto
me;
Lev 26:24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your
sins.
Lev 26:25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and
when you are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and
you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
Lev 26:26 And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in
one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and you shall eat, and not
be satisfied.
Lev 26:27 And if you will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;
Lev 26:28 Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven
times for your sins.
Lev 26:29 And you shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall you eat.
Lev 26:30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your
carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.
Lev 26:31 And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I
will not smell the savor of your sweet odors.
Lev 26:32 And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall
be astonished at it.
Lev 26:33 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and
your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
Lev 26:34 Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lies desolate, and you be in your
enemies’ land; then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.
Lev 26:35 As long as it lies desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when
you dwelt upon it.
Lev 26:36 And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the
lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee,
as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursues.
Lev 26:37 And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursues:
and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
Lev 26:38 And you shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you
up.
(Thursday Morning Portion)
Lev 26:39 And they that are left of you shall pine away in their lawlessness in your enemies’
lands; and also in the lawlessness of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
Lev 26:40 If they shall confess their lawlessness, and the lawlessness of their fathers, with their
trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto
me;
Lev 26:41 And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land
of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the
punishment of their lawlessness:
Lev 26:42 Then will I remember my covenant with Ya’akov, and also my covenant with
Yitzchak, and also my covenant with Avraham will I remember; and I will remember the
land.
Lev 26:43 The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lies
desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their lawlessness:
because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my
statutes.
Lev 26:44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them
away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with
them: for I am YHWH their Elohim.
Lev 26:45 But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought
forth out of the land of Mitzrayim in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their Elohim: I
am YHWH.
Lev 26:46 These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which YHWH made between him
and the children of Yisra’el in Mount Sinai by the hand of Moshe.
Reader 6 (Thursday Evening Portion)
Lev 27:1 And YHWH spoke unto Moshe, saying,
Lev 27:2 Speak unto the children of Yisra’el, and say unto them, When a man shall make a
singular vow, the persons shall be for YHWH by your estimation.
Lev 27:3 And your estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years
old, even your estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary.
Lev 27:4 And if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels.
Lev 27:5 And if it be from five years old even unto twenty years old, then thy estimation shall be
of the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels.
Lev 27:6 And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, then your estimation shall be of
the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy estimation shall be three shekels of
silver.
Lev 27:7 And if it be from sixty years old and above; if it be a male, then your estimation shall
be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels.
Lev 27:8 But if he be poorer than your estimation, then he shall present himself before the
priest, and the priest shall value him; according to his ability that vowed shall the priest
value him.
Lev 27:9 And if it be a beast, whereof men bring an offering unto YHWH, all that any man gives
of such unto YHWH shall be holy.
Lev 27:10 He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he
shall at all change beast for beast, then it and the exchange thereof shall be holy.
Lev 27:11 And if it be any unclean beast, of which they do not offer a sacrifice unto YHWH, then
he shall present the beast before the priest:
Lev 27:12 And the priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad: as you value it, who are the
priest, so shall it be.
Lev 27:13 But if he will at all redeem it, then he shall add a fifth part thereof unto your
estimation.
Lev 27:14 And when a man shall sanctify his house to be holy unto YHWH, then the priest shall
estimate it, whether it be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand.
Lev 27:15 And if he that sanctified it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fifth part of
the money of your estimation unto it, and it shall be his.
Reader 7 (6th Day Friday Morning Double Portion)
Lev 27:16 And if a man shall sanctify unto YHWH some part of a field of his possession, then
your estimation shall be according to the seed thereof: an homer of barley seed shall be
valued at fifty shekels of silver.
Lev 27:17 If he sanctify his field from the year of Yo’vale, according to your estimation it shall
stand.
Lev 27:18 But if he sanctify his field after the Yo’vale, then the priest shall reckon unto him the
money according to the years that remain, even unto the year of the Yo’vale, and it shall be
abated from your estimation.
Lev 27:19 And if he that sanctified the field will in any wise redeem it, then he shall add the fifth
part of the money of your estimation unto it, and it shall be assured to him.
Lev 27:20 And if he will not redeem the field, or if he have sold the field to another man, it shall
not be redeemed any more.
Lev 27:21 But the field, when it goes out in the Yo’vale, shall be holy unto YHWH, as a field
devoted; the possession thereof shall be the priest’s.
Lev 27:22 And if a man sanctify unto YHWH a field which he has bought, which is not of the
fields of his possession;
Lev 27:23 Then the priest shall reckon unto him the worth of your estimation, unto the year of
the Yo’vale: and he shall give your estimation in that day, as a holy thing unto YHWH.
Lev 27:24 In the year of the Yo’vale the field shall return unto him of whom it was bought, to
him to whom the possession of the land did belong.
Lev 27:25 And all your estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty
gerahs shall be the shekel.
Lev 27:26 Only the firstling of the beasts, which should be YHWH’S firstling, no man shall
sanctify it; whether it be ox, or sheep: it is YHWH’S.
Lev 27:27 And if it be of an unclean beast, then he shall redeem it according to your estimation,
and shall add a fifth part of it thereto: or if it be not redeemed, then it shall be sold
according to your estimation.
Lev 27:28 Notwithstanding no devoted thing, that a man shall devote unto YHWH of all that he
has, both of man and beast, and of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed:
every devoted thing is most holy unto YHWH.
Lev 27:29 None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed; but shall surely be
put to death.
Lev 27:30 And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the
tree, is YHWH’S: it is holy unto YHWH.
Lev 27:31 And if a man will at all redeem anything of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth
part thereof.
Lev 27:32 And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passes under
the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto YHWH.
Lev 27:33 He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he
change it at all, then both it and the change thereof shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.
Lev 27:34 These are the commandments, which YHWH commanded Moshe for the children of
Yisra’el in Mount Sinai.
Haftarah (Shabbat Evening Portion)
Jer 16:19 O YHWH, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the
nations shall come unto you from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers
have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.
Jer 16:20 Shall a man make elohim unto himself, and they are no elohim?
Jer 16:21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know my
hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is YHWH.
Jer 17:1 The sin of Yahudah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is
graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
Jer 17:2 Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon
the high hills.
Jer 17:3 O my mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures to the
spoil, and your high places for sin, throughout all your borders.
Jer 17:4 And you, even yourself, shalt discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will
cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you know not: for you have kindled a fire
in my anger, which shall burn forever.
Jer 17:5 Thus saith YHWH; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and
whose heart departs from YHWH.
Jer 17:6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but
shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
Jer 17:7 Blessed is the man that trusts in YHWH, and whose hope YHWH is.
Jer 17:8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the
river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful
in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jer 17:10 I YHWH search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his
ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
Jer 17:11 As the partridge sits on eggs, and hatches them not; so he that gets riches, and not by
right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
Jer 17:12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
Jer 17:13 O YHWH, the hope of Yisra’el, all that forsake you shall be ashamed, and they that
depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken YHWH, the
fountain of living waters.
Jer 17:14 Heal me, O YHWH, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for you are
my praise.
Review Torah Summaries (Shabbat Morning Portion)