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PARSHA POSTS: BEHAR

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May 11, 2026, 6:54 PM

What Does Shemittah Have to Do with Smartphones? – B’har-B’hukkotai 5786

So this past week, I was in a supermarket, and I went to the front desk because I could not find the Cape Cod chips in the 100-calorie bag. I am trying to eat healthily. ;-) The woman behind the...

Reuven Chaim Klein

May 10, 2026, 12:59 AM

Iyyar is in the Air – ziv & iyyar

As the month of Iyyar comes to a close this week, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss the two names for “the second month” in the Jewish Calendar — Ziv and Iyyar. That month is very special...

May 9, 2026, 12:08 AM

Parshas Behar-Bechikosai: This Land is My Land

Our Parsha this week (which is double) sends us some very powerful warnings about this entire experience of building a Mishkan while living in the desert adjacent to Har Sinai וְהָאָ֗רֶץ לֹ֤א תִמָּכֵר֙ לִצְמִתֻ֔ת כִּי־לִ֖י הָאָ֑רֶץ כִּֽי־גֵרִ֧ים וְתוֹשָׁבִ֛ים אַתֶּ֖ם עִמָּדִֽי׃ But...

May 9, 2026, 12:07 AM

The Holy Secret Inside ‘Six-Seven’

My son Shaya loves saying “Six-Seven.” He says it often, with full confidence, as if everyone in the room is supposed to understand exactly what it means. If you are a parent, teacher, or have been around children recently, you...

May 8, 2026, 8:43 PM

Parashat Behar–Bechukotai

When the Mountain Stays the Hand and the Laws Hold the World Without Our Understanding Them The mountain does not tremble. No one runs. There is no fire driving faces down. Only a voice settling over time like cool shade...

May 8, 2026, 7:17 PM

Behar: The Other CRT

Parshat Behar introduces Yovel, the Jubilee year. Every fifty years the shofar is sounded and we are commanded, “U’krasem dror ba’aretz l’chol yoshveha” – “You shall proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof” (Vayikra 25:10). Those...

Steven C. Wernick

May 8, 2026, 6:54 PM

The Mountain Doesn’t Blink. Neither Do We.

Last Thursday night, Beth Tzedec hosted a panel that gave urgent shape to questions this Shabbat's Torah portion has been asking all along. Bruce Elman, Co-Chair of CIJA's Legal Task Force and a member of our own Board; Mark...

May 8, 2026, 6:38 PM

When Money Becomes Manhood (Behar-Behukotai)

Men are often taught to treat money as proof of manhood. Not just as a practical necessity. As evidence. Evidence that you are competent, desirable, serious, protective, respectable. Evidence that you can provide, recover, endure. Evidence that your life is...

Ben-Tzion Spitz

May 8, 2026, 12:05 PM

Spiritual Hunger (Behar–Bechukotai)

“The soul is not nourished by what it takes in, but by what it gives.” — Viktor Frankl Much has been written about nourishment in its most tangible sense, about what sustains the body and allows it to function and...

May 7, 2026, 11:05 PM

What If: Power, Punishment, and Moral Responsibility in Behar–Beḥukotai

The closing parshiyot of Sefer Vayikra confront us with two deeply unsettling themes: human power over others and divine power over us. In Behar, we are forced to grapple with the Torah’s sanctioning of slavery. In Becḥukotai, we face...

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