Shabbat Shalom!
Welcome to Behar - On The Mountain / Bechukotai - In My Statutes - this week's Torah reading

Leviticus 25:1–27:34

1 And YAHUVEH spoke to Moses in Mount Sinai, saying,
2 Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I am giving to you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to YAHUVEH.
3 You shall sow your field six years, and you shall prune your vineyard six years, and shall gather its produce.
4 And in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest to the land, a Sabbath to YAHUVEH. You shall not sow your field, and you shall not prune your vineyard.
5 You shall not reap that which grows of itself of your harvest; and you shall not gather the grapes of your unkempt vine; it shall be a year of rest to the land.
6 And the Sabbath of the land shall be to you for food, to you, and to your male slave, and to your female slave, and to your hired one, and to your tenant, those living among you;
7 and to your livestock, and to the animal in your land, all its produce shall be for food.
8 And you shall number to yourself seven Sabbaths of years, seven years times seven, and all the days of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be to you forty nine years.
9 And you shall let a ram's horn resound, a signal in the seventh month, in the tenth of the month1; in the day of atonement, let a ram's horn pass throughout all your land;
10 and you shall make the fiftieth year holy2, one year. And you shall proclaim liberty in the land to those living in it; He shall be a jubilee to you. And you shall return every man to his possession; yea, you shall turn back each to his family.
11 It is a jubilee year, the fiftieth year; it is to you. You shall not sow, nor reap that which grows of itself, nor gather from its unkempt vines;
12 for it is a jubilee, it is holy to you; you shall eat its increase out of the field.
13 In the year of jubilee you shall return each one to his possession.
14 And if you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from the hand of your neighbor, you shall not each man oppress his brother.
15 By the number of years after the jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor; by the number of the years of increase he shall sell to you;
16 according to the many years you shall increase its price; and by the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price, for he is selling to you the number of crops.
17 And you shall not oppress each man his neighbor, and you shall fear your ELOHIM, for I am YAHUVEH your ELOHIM.
18 And you shall do My statutes, and you shall keep my judgments and shall do them; and you shall live on the land securely.
19 And the land shall give its fruit, and you shall eat to satisfaction; and you shall dwell securely on it.
20 And when you say, What shall we eat in the seventh year; for, lo, we may not sow nor gather our increase?
21 Then I have commanded My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall produce the increase for three years;
22 and you shall sow the eighth year, and shall eat of the old crop until the ninth year, until the coming in of its crop; you shall eat of the old.
23 And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is Mine; for you are aliens and tenants with Me.
24 And you shall grant a redemption for the land in all the land of your possession.
25 If your brother has become poor and has sold his property, then his kinsman redeemer shall come, and he shall redeem the thing sold by his brother.
26 But when a man has no kinsman redeemer to him, and his own hand has reached out, and he has enough for its redemption,
27 then he shall count the years since its sale, and shall give back the surplus to the man to whom he sold; and he shall return to his possession.
28 And if his hand has not found enough to give back to him, then the thing he sold shall be in the hand of him who buys it until the year of jubilee. And it shall go out in the jubilee, and he shall return to his possession.
29 And when a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then his right of redemption shall be the end of the year of its sale; his right of redemption shall be a year of days.
30 And if it is not redeemed until a full year is complete, then the house in the walled city shall be established to perpetuity to its buyer, throughout his generations; it shall not go out in the jubilee.
31 But the houses of the villages which have no walls all around shall be counted as the field of the country; there are redemption rights to it. And it shall go out in the jubilee.
32 As to the cities of the Levites, houses of the cities of their possession, never ending redemption rights shall be to the Levites.
33 And that which one redeems from the Levites, both the sale of a house, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the jubilee. For the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession in the midst of the sons of Israel.
34 And the field, the open land of their cities, shall not be sold; for it is a never ending possession to them.
35 And when your brother has become poor, and his hand has failed with you, then you shall help him. He shall live with you as an alien and a tenant.
36 You shall take no interest or increase from him, and you shall fear your ELOHIM; and the life of your brother is with you.
37 You shall not give silver to him with interest, and you shall not give your food for increase.
38 I am YAHUVEH who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give to you the land of Canaan, to become your ELOHIM.
39 And when your brother becomes poor with you, and he has been sold to you, you shall not lay on him the service of a slave.
40 He shall be with you as a hireling, as a tenant he shall be with you; he shall serve with you until the year of jubilee;
41 then he shall go out from you, he and his sons with him, and shall return to his family; he shall even return to the possession of his father.
42 For they are My servants, whom I have brought out from the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold with the sale of a slave.
43 You shall not rule over him with severity, and you shall fear your ELOHIM.
44 And your male slave and your female slave whom you have shall be from the nations who are all around you, you shall buy them as male slave or female slave;
45 and also you may buy of the sons of the tenants who are residing with you, and of their families who are with you, which they have fathered in your land. And they shall be a possession to you.
46 And you shall take them for inheritance to your sons after you, to hold for a possession; you may lay service on them forever. But on your brothers, the sons of Israel, one over another, you shall not rule over him with severity.
47 And if an alien or a tenant lifts up a hand with you, and your brother grows poor with him, and he sells himself to an alien, a tenant with you, or to the offshoot of the family of an alien,
48 after he has been sold, there is a redemption to him; one of his brothers may redeem him,
49 or his uncle, or a son of his uncle, may redeem him, or any of his fleshly relations of his family may redeem him. Or, if his own hand has reached out to gain, then he may be redeemed.
50 And he shall count with his buyer from the year of his being sold to him until the year of jubilee, and the silver of his sale shall be by the number of years. As the days of a hireling, it shall be with him.
51 If there are yet many years, by mouth he shall give back his redemption, from the silver of his purchase.
52 And if few are left of the years till the year of jubilee, then he shall count with him according to his years he shall give back his redemption price.
53 As a hireling, year by year, he shall be with him, and he shall not rule him with severity before your eyes.
54 And if he is not redeemed in this way, then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, he and his sons with him.
55 For the sons of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt; I am YAHUVEH your ELOHIM.

Chapter 26

1 You shall not make idols to yourselves; and you shall not set up for yourselves graven images, or a memorial pillar. And you shall not place any stone image in your land, to bow yourselves to it; for I am YAHUVEH your ELOHIM.
2 You shall keep My Sabbaths, and revere My sanctuary; I am YAHUVEH.
3 If you walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them,
4 then I will give you rains in their season, and the land shall give her produce, and the tree of the field shall give its fruit;
5 and your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time; and you shall eat your bread to satisfaction, and live in your land securely.
6 And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall terrify you. And I shall cause evil beasts to cease out of the land, and the sword shall not pass over into your land.
7 And you shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
8 And five of you shall pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you shall pursue a ten thousand; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
9 And I shall turn My face toward you and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and shall establish My covenant with you.
10 And you shall eat very old store, and clear away the old store because of the new.
11 And I will set My tabernacle in your midst, and My soul shall not loathe you;
12 and I shall walk always in your midst, and shall be ELOHIM to you, and you, you shall be people to Me;
13 I am YAHUVEH your ELOHIM, who has brought you out from the land of the Egyptians, from being their slaves; and I will break the bars of your yoke, and cause you to stand erect.
14 And if you will not listen to Me, and do not do all these commands;
15 and if you reject My statutes, and if your soul hates My judgments, so as not to do all My commands, to the breaking of My covenant;
16 I will also do this to you, and I shall appoint terror over you, the wasting, and the burning fever, destroying the eyes, and consuming the soul; and you shall sow your seed in vain, and your enemies will eat it.
17 And I shall set My face against you, and you shall be smitten before your enemies; and those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee, and there will be no one pursuing you.
18 And if after these things you will not listen to Me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sin;
19 and I will break the pride of your strength, and will make your heavens as iron, and your earth as copper;
20 and your strength shall be consumed in vain, and your land shall not give her produce, and the tree of the land shall not give its fruit.
21 And if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to listen to Me, then I will bring seven times more plagues on you according to your sins,
22 and send against you the beast of the field, and it shall bereave you. And I shall cut off your livestock and shall make you few, so that your ways are desolate.
23 And if you are not chastised by Me by these things, and shall walk contrary to Me,
24 then I, I also, shall walk contrary to you, and shall smite you, even I, seven times more for your sins;
25 and I will bring a sword on you, executing the vengeance of the covenant, and you shall be gathered to your cities, and I shall send pestilence into your midst; and you shall be given into the hand of an enemy.
26 When I break to you the staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and shall give back your bread by weight; and you shall eat, and shall not be satisfied.
27 If you will not listen to Me for this, and shall walk contrary to Me,
28 then I also will walk contrary to you in fury. I also will chastise you, I also, seven times1 for your sins.
29 And you shall eat of the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat of the flesh of your daughters.
30 And I shall destroy your high places and cut down your altars, and shall put your dead bodies on the carcasses of your idols. And My soul shall loathe you.
31 And I shall make your cities a waste, and shall make your sanctuaries desolate; and I shall not smell your sweet fragrances.
32 And I shall make the land desolate, and your enemies who are living in it shall be astonished at it.
33 And I will scatter you among nations, and shall draw out the sword after you, and your land shall become a waste, and your cities shall be a desolation.
34 Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths, all the days of the desolation. And you shall be in the land of your enemies; then the land shall enjoy rest, and shall enjoy its Sabbaths.
35 It shall rest all the days of the desolation, that which it has not rested in your Sabbaths while you lived on it.
36 And those who are left of you, I shall also bring a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword; and they shall fall when no one pursues.
37 And they shall stumble upon one another, as if it were before the sword, when no one pursues. And you shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
38 And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall devour you.
39 And of those who are left of you, they shall melt away in their iniquity, in the lands of your enemies; and also in the iniquities of their fathers, they shall dwindle away with them.
40 And if they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass with which they have trespassed against Me; and, also, that they have walked contrary to Me,
41 that I also have walked contrary to them, and I have brought them into the land of their enemies; if their uncircumcised then humbled, and they are pleased to pay for their iniquity;
42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and I shall also remember My covenant with Abraham, and I shall remember the land.
43 For the land shall be forsaken by them, and shall satisfy for its Sabbaths, in the desolation without them. And they shall satisfy for their iniquity, because, even because, they have kicked against My judgments, and their soul has loathed My statutes.
44 And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I hate them, to consume them, to break My covenant with them; for I am YAHUVEH their ELOHIM.
45 Then I shall remember for them the covenant of the first fathers, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their ELOHIM; I am YAHUVEH.
46 These are the statutes and the judgments and the laws which YAHUVEH has given between Him and the sons of Israel, in Mount Sinai, by the hand of Moses.

Chapter 27

1 And YAHUVEH spoke to Moses, saying,
2 Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them, When a man makes an extraordinary difficult vow by your evaluation, the persons shall belong to YAHUVEH.
3 And your evaluation shall be of the male from a son of twenty years even until a son of sixty years; then your evaluation shall be fifty shekels of silver by the shekel of the sanctuary.
4 And if it is a female, then your evaluation shall be thirty shekels.
5 And if from a son of five years to a son of twenty years, then your evaluation shall be twenty shekels for the male and ten shekels for the female.
6 And if a son of a month even to a son of five years, then your evaluation shall be five shekels of silver for the male and three shekels of silver for the female.
7 And if from a son of sixty years and above, if a male, then your evaluation shall be fifteen shekels and for a female ten shekels.
8 But if he is too poor for your evaluation, then he shall be made to stand before the priest, and the priest shall value him; the priest shall value him according to the reach of him who vowed.
9 And if it is an animal of which they bring an offering to YAHUVEH, all that one gives of it to YAHUVEH is holy.
10 He shall not replace it, or change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good. And if he shall at all change animal for animal, then both it and that for which it is changed shall be holy.
11 And if it is any unclean animal, or one which they may not bring as an offering to YAHUVEH, then he shall make the animal stand before the priest.
12 And the priest shall value it, whether it is good or bad; as you the priest value it, so it shall be.
13 But if he really redeems it, then he shall add its fifth to your evaluation.
14 And when a man sanctifies his house as a holy thing to YAHUVEH, then the priest shall value it, whether good or bad. As the priest values it, so it shall stand.
15 And if he who is sanctifying shall redeem the house, then he shall add a fifth of the silver of its valuation, and it shall become his.
16 And if a man sanctifies a field of his property to YAHUVEH, then your valuation shall be according to its seed; a homer of barley seed at fifty shekels of silver.
17 If he shall sanctify his field from the year of jubilee, it shall stand according to your valuation.
18 And if he shall sanctify his field after the jubilee, then the priest shall count to him the silver according to the years which are left, to the year of the jubilee. And it shall be deducted from your estimation.
19 And if he sanctifying the field really will redeem it, then he shall add a fifth of the silver of your evaluation to it, and it shall rise to become his.
20 And if he does not redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it is not to be redeemed any more.
21 And the field shall be holy to YAHUVEH when it goes out in the jubilee, as a field which is devoted. It shall be a possession to the priest.
22 And if he should devote a field of his purchase, which is not of the fields of his possession,
23 then the priest shall count to him the amount of your valuation to the year of jubilee. And he shall give your valuation in that day, a holy thing to YAHUVEH.
24 In the year of jubilee the field shall return to him from whom he bought it, to him who owns it in the land.
25 And all your valuation shall be by the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be the shekel.
26 However, no man shall dedicate a firstling, which is first-born to YAHUVEH among animals, whether ox or sheep; it belongs to YAHUVEH.
27 And if it is among the unclean animals, then he shall ransom it at your valuation, and he shall add its fifth to it. And if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold at your evaluation.
28 But any devoted thing which a man devotes to YAHUVEH from all which belongs to him, of man or of animal, or of the field of his possession, it shall not be sold nor redeemed. Every devoted thing to YAHUVEH is most holy.
29 No devoted thing which is dedicated by man shall be ransomed, dying it shall die.
30 And all the tithe of the land, of the seed of the land, of the fruit of the tree, shall belong to YAHUVEH; it is holy to YAHUVEH.
31 And if a man really redeems any of his tithes, he shall add its fifth to it.
32 And all the tithe of the herd and of the flock, all that passes under the rod, a tenth shall be holy to YAHUVEH;
33 he shall not search whether it is good or bad, nor shall he change it. And if he at all changes it, then it shall be that it and its substitute shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.
34 These are the commands which YAHUVEH has commanded Moses for the sons of Israel, on Mount Sinai.