Bechukotai

With God’s help, you and I are beginning to study the weekly portion Bechukotai. In our conversation we will be talking about the blessings that the people of Israel will receive if they keep God’s commandments in the Holy Land, and, God forbid, about the curses that the people of Israel may receive if they do not follow them. So, let us read from verse 3 of chapter 26.

For agriculture, as for any undertaking, it is necessary that all the circumstances come together in a convenient way. For agriculture this is rain at the right moment, wind at the right moment, sun at the right moment: agriculture depends on many natural phenomena. But in any business too, in any undertaking we are engaged in, it is important that the circumstances come together in a way favorable to us. And the Most High says: “If you live by My laws, then the world will meet you halfway, from the climate down to all sorts of small things.” The world itself will try to respond to you with all its strength, the world itself will be interested in your success. Both the tree and the land, by the command of the Most High, will themselves try to add some effort of their own, so that we receive the maximum fruit.

These are two components of happiness and success. It is good to be a rich country, but a rich country, any rich household, any rich person is in constant fear that someone may encroach on his wealth. A rich country may be attacked, raided, and people may try to plunder it. Here the Most High says: “You will live richly and you will not worry about your wealth.”

How many times one hears from farmers, from people who work in agriculture, that they worked so hard, but a ferret came and ate all their chickens, or something else like that happens. Here the removal of the evil animals is done by the will of the Most High, without the participation of man, without his interference in the balance of nature. For example, do you remember the famous Chinese experiment, when the Chinese tried to exterminate the sparrows which, in their opinion, were eating the crops? As a result, the Chinese exterminated almost 2 billion sparrows and in the first year reported that the harvest had grown. But it turned out that the insects, which sparrows also eat, destroy more crops. When the locusts and the other insects that the sparrows had been destroying grew up, famine began in China and 30 million people died. That is how one of Mao Zedong’s most famous campaigns ended. But the Most High has other methods. It is precisely the Most High who can intervene in nature harmoniously, as the Owner, and remove the wild animals in such a way that agriculture benefits.

And the Most High, who holds the hearts of all kings in hand, can use His power in such a way that no one will want to attack the country of Israel. But even if some wars begin, the enemies who try to attack you will not be able to get into your country, because you will pursue them and put them to flight, as we read further on.

They will fall not by your sword, they will fall by the sword before you, that is, they will get tangled up among themselves, there will be turmoil among them, and they will kill one another. There are several battles in history, more in European history, when it happened that in fog or while drunk soldiers fought and struck one another down. During the Austro-Turkish war, near the town of Karansebes, on September 17, 1788, several Austrian soldiers who had gotten drunk started a brawl, which, according to legend, the whole army joined. Amid the confusion and rumors that the Turks had attacked, part of the army was scattered and suffered human and material losses. This is an example of what turmoil there can be in an army when its soldiers go out of their minds. And such turmoil the Most High promises to sow in the armies of the enemies who try to attack Israel.

Thus the ratio of forces will be 1:20, that is, each person will turn back 20 warriors. Moreover, the commentators say that these are five simple guys straight from the plow: not warriors, not some musclemen, not heroes.

And then the hundred will turn back revavá – this is a number which is sometimes translated as myriad or ten thousand people. That is, when we gather into a hundred, our strength will no longer act in a simple progression. When there are a hundred of us, we are not 20 times stronger than when there are five of us, we are many times stronger. When we are together, we are stronger. This is very important, and I speak about it again and again: nationwide joint actions are of very great importance.

And again we read here before you, that is, the enemies in the commotion will run away, will fall, getting tangled up and fighting one another. Here one can give an example from Jewish history. Not so long ago, during one of the wars, Egyptian tanks entered Israeli territory in the area of Sinai. Two girls who were at a remote checkpoint on the shore of the Red Sea went swimming, not knowing at all that some military action had begun. They were swimming, and since they were there alone, they were swimming in their primordial state. And so they come out of the water and see that right in front of them stands an Egyptian tank. It is completely unclear what was going on in the girls’ heads at that moment, but even less clear is what was going on in the heads of the Egyptian soldiers, because the tank turns around and disappears over the horizon at full speed. As it happened, many Egyptians were taken prisoner then, including these tank crewmen, and they told this story. They got scared because they reasoned: “Two Jewish girls, completely naked, this cannot be, there is some catch here, this is some kind of trap, we have to get out of here quickly,” which they did – they turned around and ran away.

And then the Most High continues His good promises.

I will make you fruitful and multiply you – one can say that this is a kind of parallelism: “I will make it so that there will not simply be more of you, I will make you stronger, if you value this unity, if you begin to pursue not by fives but by hundreds. The larger the groups, the larger the fellowships you unite into, the more unity there is among you, the more of you there will become.”

That is, you will have a great surplus in everything, you will not know lack in anything, except perhaps in places for storehouses. All your storehouses will be so overfilled that when there is a new harvest, you will still have part of the old harvest left, it will last for a long time.

The LORD says: “I will be constantly present in your people, and My spirit, consequently, will be present among you and lead you. You will be My family, My big family you will be. I will be God to you, and you will be My people to Me, My relatives.” We have already spoken about the fact that in the sprinkling of the altar with blood, in this part of the sacrifices, there is an entering into kinship with God.

The LORD says: “Here is the evidence of what I have already done. I freed you from all slavery, from all dependence, I brought you out of a country that had enslaved you completely. You know My power, you know what I am capable of, how great My blessing can be. Follow My laws, listen to My commandments, and everything will happen for you in its time. Live in My time: this is shabbát, this is shmitá (the seventh year), this is yovel (the jubilee year)”. Shmitá – this is the time when everything becomes common: I have nothing of my own, and I am ready for that. The jubilee is the time when everyone gets back what is his own, when I can no longer remain someone’s slave and be dependent on someone, I must go free, even if I do not want to, even if I have gotten used to slavery. After all, slavery in those times (we are talking about Jewish slavery) is a little different from how we imagine it. It is the existence of a hired worker who works for food, for a modest wage (one can compare it with a hired worker today). And suddenly in the jubilee year he is told: “Go and open your own business, start your own enterprise, be self-employed, be independent, feed yourself. All the master classes that you received here, in slavery, from a man who manages his business so well that he has hired workers, are over. Now, like it or not, go and do your own business.” This is a very bold decision, this kind of going out to freedom, but it has to be carried out. And the Most High says: “If you live within the framework, in the rhythm of My time, everything will work together for your good, the whole world.” And these are all God’s times, times that exist with the Most High. And the Most High says: “If you do everything in time, then everything will happen for you in time, the world itself will meet you halfway, and the evidence of that is that I am the LORD, Who brought you out of slavery, I have already broken the enslavement over you, you are free.”

The fruits of everything you do will not come to you. The whole world will be against you, and your enemies will come and eat what you sow.

We have said that the phrase I will turn My face to you is more often in a positive context, but here it is not at all in a positive context, here it means: “I will take you on personally, I will deal with you. You will find yourselves in an even worse situation than your enemies would be at a time when you were blessed, when a hundred enemies ran away from five people. Here you will run away from your own fear without anyone pursuing you. Why is that? Because you will feel fear because you broke off the relationship with Me, because of My presence in this world.”

It may turn out that galút (exile) will last 490 years instead of 70 years. Perhaps this was also Daniel’s fear, about which he prayed fervently (9:4–19). The LORD says: “If you do not listen, despite the punishment, I will not tack a year on for you, it is not that instead of 7 years you will sit 8, no. I will give you 49 years, you will receive 7 times more punishment.”

That is, on the one hand, the heavens will not give any moisture, they will be like iron that does not sweat. On the other hand, the land will be like copper, that is, all the fruits, all your treasures which you will store in it, everything will begin to rot because the land will sweat like copper, and this moisture will spoil everything.

That is, here it is the other way around, the land will resist you with all its strength. If in verse 4 we read that even étz hassadé (the tree of the field), that is, a wild tree, will give you fruit, now it says étz ha'áretz (the tree of the earth), the one in the garden, and even it will not give fruit.

The word kéri is sometimes translated as by chance, that is, you will keep the commandments from time to time. But another translation, and the most likely one here, it seems to me, is: if you stubbornly walk against Me, if you move away from Me.

The word shchól (loss, death of children) means parental orphanhood; this word does not exist in the Russian language. In Hebrew there is the word yatóm (one who has lost his parents) and the word shakúl (one who has lost his children); this word has no synonym in the Russian language. These animals will destroy your children, and make you parents who have lost their children, make you childless, orphans with respect to your children.

That is, all the agriculture on which you relied (literally it is written matté – staff or support), the LORD will take away. And you will have so little bread, and bread will be so expensive, that the bakers will measure very, very strictly, measure out the bread for you, as under a ration card system.

Why does the Most High give such punishments? Is this simply a cruel Father, who punishes all the disobedient, punishes all those who do not agree with Him, and all those who turn away from His will? Or is there still something else here, something else that stands behind this? We often see that a person turns to the Most High at the moment when, as it says in the book of Devarim, “your life will hang before your eyes,” when a person despairs and understands that only the Most High can help him. There is no bank account, no friends, no help of any kind from nature: from nowhere, except from the Most High, can a person expect help. We observe this and often know from people’s testimonies that it is precisely at such a moment that a person turns to the Most High. And conversely, when a person has some property, some wealth, something he can hold on to, then the person directs both his faith and his trust toward that: “Thank God, I have a hundred thousand dollars in the bank. Thank God, I have three apartments, and, if anything happens, I will be able to rent them out. Thank God, I have rich relatives who, if anything happens, will help.” That is, on the one hand, thank God for this, and on the other hand, thank God that I no longer have to trust only in God. And very rarely in such a situation can you hear: “Thank God, I have God, there is God, who will not abandon me.” And it turns out that often a person directs 90% of his trust toward himself and somewhere around 10% toward the Most High. And this is our reality, the reality also of believing people. Therefore the Most High says that if a person’s property, if what he has, some wealth of his, some strength of his, if all this allows him to gather courage and move away from the Most High, to forget that the Most High is our God and we are His people, to forget that trust must be 100% in Him, then the Most High gradually takes away every assurance that stands between us and Him. If all this, like an anchor, allows us to hold on to this world and not trust in Him, then we receive the corresponding results, then the Most High begins to strike our idols, which distance us from Him. But if our property is perceived as His blessing, brings us closer to Him, it will grow and multiply, and we will grow rich and glorify Him with our property, with our prosperity.

With God’s help we continue studying the weekly portion Bechukotai and will read chapter 26 from verse 27. The Most High continues to speak about those punishments and curses that will pursue the people of Israel if the people persist in not observing His will.

Such terrible events happened in the history of Israel. There is mention of this in the Tanach, and the midrashim also tell about it. This, unfortunately, also took place in the 20th century, and happened in the German concentration camps. This is a very terrible situation.

The midrash tells of a man named Du'ek ben Yosef, who left a rich inheritance to his widow. She had a small child, and each time she donated in the Temple an amount of gold equivalent to his weight, and besides that she donated a lot more. But when the siege of Jerusalem happened, she was forced to eat her child. The midrash says that Yirmeyahu mourned him and asked: “How can such a thing be?!” And from heaven they answered: “And how can it be that a kohen is killed in the Temple?” What is meant, of course, is the blood of Zcharya, who was killed in the courtyard of the Temple by order of King Yo'ash (2 Divrei haYamim 24:21). Many misfortunes of this kind happened to the people of Israel.

High places – small hills, mounds, knolls were used for worshiping other gods. Chammán is a rare word that is used here and in the book of Divrei haYamim and apparently means a place of sun worship (although there is no evidence that at the time of the giving of the Torah a cult of sun worship existed in Israel, it arose later).

Another very interesting word is gillulechém. The thing is that idol in Hebrew is elíl, and one could have said elillechém (your idols). But the Most High uses a play on words here: galúl means balls of dung, so one can say that gillulechém – is not your idols, but your dung-gods.

The midrash tells a story about the prophet Eliyahu, who once met a very sick and swollen boy who was lying on a heap of some kind of garbage. The prophet Eliyahu asked him: “Boy, whose are you? Do you have parents?” And the boy answered: “No, I have no one left. I am here alone, and I am afraid.” And the prophet Eliyahu said to him: “Boy, I can teach you a prayer that will help you. Repeat after me: ‘Shmá yisraél adonáy elohéynu adonáy echád – Hear, Israel, the LORD, our God, God is one!’” But the boy said: “No, I will not say this. My parents never pronounced the name of this God, and I will not pronounce it.” The boy took some little godling out of his bosom, kissed it and immediately died.

Unfortunately, we know that all kinds of idolatry became very widespread in Israel in the period of the First Temple. This often confuses people who read the Tanach and say: “There could not have been such a thing in Israel as you say, because, look, it is clearly written that the Torah forbids it!” But one must understand and remember that the people of Israel did not observe, or did not always observe, the commandments of the Torah. And even the opposite, one can say that almost never did all of Israel live according to the Torah. We are alive thanks to the mercy and long-suffering of the Most High. Therefore, when you try to assume that something did not exist because the Torah forbids it, you need to be careful with that. The rules forbid crossing the road on a red light. What, have you never once seen people crossing the street on a red light? Israel was even more rebellious with regard to the commandments of the Most High.

So, the Most High says: “I will destroy your shrines and throw your corpses onto the ruins of these shrines.”

The punishment grows, and now not only is there no longer a connection with God, but there is no connection with the country either. The Most High says: “And why do I need on the Holy Land a people that does not live in holiness, that does not worship Me?”

The phrase vashamemú aléha oyevechém hayoshevím ba can be translated in two ways. The first: and they will be astonished, amazed at the extent of the destruction that has taken place, those enemies of yours who will settle on your land. They will see and say: “What great cities were here, what gardens were here, why did all this perish?” And in another way it can be understood like this: it (the land) will be empty also for your enemies who will settle here after you. Even to your enemies it will give nothing. They will try, but they will not be able to extract anything from the land.

The land will satisfy its desire to keep Sabbath: “If you do not let the land rest once in seven years, then I will let it rest. I will give it all those years of Sabbaths that you did not observe. And to the extent of your non-observance of the Sabbath for the land, you will receive punishment, and the land will receive its right to the Sabbath.” The Most High, as it were, says to us here: “My land will live by My laws anyway, My laws will come to pass anyway. With your participation – for a blessing to you, without your participation – for a curse to you. But My will, My law will be fulfilled. Decide for yourselves: do you want this law to become a blessing for you, or do you want it to become a curse for you? Do you want to live by My laws or do you want to be punished by My laws? Will you be part of the problem or part of the solution to the problem? It is for you to decide.”

I have already said it and will repeat it here once more: softness of heart is not what in the Russian language is called soft-hearted or kind. Softness of heart is timidity, not necessarily in a negative sense, it is simply a human quality. It is told that before a war the kohen gadol passed before the army and said: “Whoever is weak of heart, rach libó (soft-hearted), let him go home.” Soft-heartedness is akin to fearfulness, it is a quality that a person has. It is not always necessary to fight it and overcome it in order to go out to war, but when the Most High softens the heart in such a sense as here, a person begins to live by fears.

That is, the Most High says: “I will instill in you this softness of heart and a constant feeling of being pursued, a constant sensation that someone is chasing you.” This is the feeling a sinner lives with: a constant expectation of judgment, a constant expectation of something that may come crashing down on him.

What does you will lose one another in the land of the pagans mean? It means assimilation, the people will dissolve, will mix with other peoples, and this is happening even now: when the people returns to the land, we see it. Very many people have been scattered, have been lost. One brother lives in America, another in Australia, and the relationships have ceased, the ties have been broken. How many brothers and sisters, fathers and children are now finding one another. How many people who have lost their Jewish documents are trying to get them restored, trying to find out: “Am I even a Jew at all?” At some point their ancestors, because of persecution, hid, lost or made themselves other documents, and the children are still suffering because of it to this day.

The fact that a person cannot return to the path of the Most High in a foreign land also affects his children. We can see generations that move away from Judaism, that flee into some other religions. And we see centers of Buddhism and centers of other religions, and suddenly it turns out that they are headed by people with the surname Cohen or with the surname Katz. And these are not made-up stories.

We know that the covenant with Yaakov is a covenant of protection, that the Most High will always be with us. And the covenant with Avraham is a covenant of salvation, one of the important parts of Jewish history. It is the covenant at whose making the Most High promised Avraham that He would bring us out of exile. It is a covenant connected with the return from exile.

The Most High says: “Everything that will happen to you – both when you are driven out of the land, and when you are punished for your sins, and when you, God forbid, eat your own children – these are all punishments, but they are always for your correction, for your return to the Holy Land.”

The Most High says: “I sent this people, in its time, into exile in Egypt. And the people was in enslavement, and in humiliation, and in contempt among the pagans. But I showed My strength on them and brought them out, and not simply brought them out, but brought them out before the eyes of all the pagans, to My glory and as proof to everyone that this is My people. I will remember this, and I will do so again. I will not simply bring this people out of galút (exile), I will not simply say to the punished: ‘All right, come out of the corner!’ No, I will bring them out as I brought their forefathers out of Egypt before the eyes of all the peoples, so that the whole world sees the miracle of Israel’s return to its land.

We have already said repeatedly that chukkím (laws) are the relationship with the Most High, mishpatím (judgments, statutes) are the relationship between people, but here there are also torót (teachings). Teaching is instruction, methodology: how to act when we do not know a specific law, what to be guided by, how to behave in new situations unfamiliar to us. It is guidance in our wisdom, so that our wisdom can learn and find some new solutions when there are no specific instructions. It is a sense of righteousness, a sense of purity, toward which the Most High leads us. It is an agreement of friendship, of cooperation and of restoring cooperation if the friendship does not work out, a labor contract which the Most High handed over and concluded through the intercessor of the Torah, the attorney Moshe, with the whole people of Israel.

With God's help, we are finishing our study of the portion Bechukotai and also finishing our study of the book of Vayikra. We will read the last, 27th chapter of the book, from verse 1.

That is, a person, finding himself in some difficult situation or just like that, promised the Most High not a cow, not an ox, but himself, and said: “If You save me, if You deliver me, then I will belong wholly to You.” Of course, people are not for sale, all the more so to the LORD: everything belongs to Him anyway. And one could say that he, as one who has dedicated himself to the LORD, will go to work in the Temple and will perhaps be in the Temple service for food, thereby falling into slavery to the kohanim. But the LORD says here: “Redeem yourself at the assessed value.”

The word be'erkechá (by valuation, érech – value, worth) is used a little unusually here, it ends with the suffix of the second-person possessive pronoun cha, that is, by your valuation. But it turned into a fixed form without the suffix and will be used that way throughout the whole chapter. In the Tanach there are several cases of similar usage.

So, the Most High says that it is not the person himself who becomes a slave, but he gives some monetary equivalent of his ability to work, of his capacity for labor.

If you convert the value of the silver in one holy shekel, you get roughly about 10 dollars (19.6 grams of silver at 0.5 dollars), that is, a ratio of one to ten. And then it turns out that a man between twenty and sixty years of age has to give a ransom of 500 dollars for himself.

One can, of course, be indignant and say: “What a terrible God, who values a woman less than a man.” But we remember that we are talking about the ability to work. If we suppose that a woman is given a discount because of her weakness, then everything can look different. At the same time, we must understand that the man in those times was the breadwinner of the family, was the one who fights, protects, procures, provides. Therefore it is natural that a man's earnings in those times were greater, and the ransom for a man is accordingly set higher.

Usually, when we speak of a child under five years, it is a reminder of what a hard time it was. The ransom is carried out from the moment he turns one month old. He lived to a month – that means he survived. Far from everyone lived that long, therefore the valuation is given from the age of one month.

The Torah is always merciful to those who cannot give something, cannot donate something. If a person does not have enough means, then we must remember Who provides for the kohanim, Who provides for the whole world. The Most High is the Richest sponsor in the world of the kohanim of God's people, therefore they should not try to extort money from people. Here we are talking about a person who gives a voluntary donation, voluntarily hands over some money, and the kohen can say to him: “Not so much, that much is not needed, give a little less, so that your budget does not suffer.” I know that there are other variants, and I have happened to hear how at some gatherings people are urged to promise, to make vows to the Most High: “I will bring so much and so much.” And then they begin to pray for them, that God would give them the opportunity to bring this “so much and so much,” and if it does not work out for them, then they call them debtors. But here we see that the Torah offers a completely different path: even if a person has already promised something, the kohen can and must say to him: “You don't have it? Give less, give so much and so much.” The Torah cares not only about the kohen, but also about the person who gives the donation. The kohen exists for the sake of these people, and not the other way around, not these people for the sake of the kohen.

That is, if a person said: “This lamb here I will bring as a sacrifice,” he cannot exchange it. One cannot say: “This lamb would be too much for a sacrifice, let me give some worse one,” or, the other way around, say: “It is shameful to appear before the eyes of the Most High with such a lamb, I could take something better.” No, the intention itself to give something to the Most High is already a good thing. Therefore, whatever quality of lamb you promised, that is the kind you bring as a sacrifice.

And if I nevertheless try to exchange it and say: “No, this lamb is not very good, I will bring some better one,” or the other way around: “This lamb is too good, let me bring some worse one,” then go ahead and bring both as a sacrifice.

There are all sorts of work done in the Temple service, and it is quite possible that a place will be found for a donkey or for a horse. And those who manage the holy things can simply sell this animal. Besides that, we are talking about gifts to the kohanim, and a kohen may have his own farm.

Why is it important that the kohen value it? Why value the little horse or the little donkey that I gave as a gift?

It turns out that I, as it were, first gave the animal to the Temple as a gift, and then take it back, and that turns out not nice – changing one's mind. Therefore, as a penalty, I must give a fifth part of the valuation. How is the fifth part determined? According to one version, one can say that there are four quarters: the whole is divided into four quarters, that is, four parts of 25% each. I add a fifth part to the four, that is, I add 25%, and it comes to 125% of the kohen's valuation. According to another version, there are five parts in the whole, each part 20%. And when I add a sixth part to the five, it comes to 120% of the valuation. It is calculated differently, but in any case I must add, in order to take back what I decided to dedicate to the LORD, so that it does not look as though I simply changed my mind.

The same principle as with the animal.

That is, if 8 measures can be sown on this field, then this field will cost 50 x 8 = 400 shekels.

That is, if we said that the field is worth 400 shekels until the jubilee year, that is 8 shekels a year. 10 years have passed – and the field will cost 80 shekels less, already 320 shekels.

That is, if I dedicated a field, handed it over to the kohen to dispose of, and did not redeem it within some period of time, and the kohen during that time decided that he does not need the field, but he does need money, and he sold this field, then that's it, I can no longer come and redeem my field in this case.

One might have expected that in the jubilee year the field would come back to me, but – no. Let us repeat it, in order to understand: if I gave, dedicated my estate to the kohen, then I can redeem it. But if I did not redeem it, or if the kohen sold it to someone, then I will no longer be able to redeem it, and in the jubilee year this field becomes the eternal possession of the kohen, it will not return to me.

Here it is about this kind of situation: I bought a field from someone before the jubilee year (we remember that land cannot be bought for perpetual use), and I decided to dedicate it to the LORD. In this case, naturally, the kohen cannot take it, because the field is actually not mine, or rather, it is mine only for a certain time.

I do not hand over the field itself, I can go on using it. I, as it were, buy out from the kohen the value of its lease at the assessed value until the jubilee year, and on that same day I give this money as a holy thing to the LORD.

One may be surprised here, here the time has already come to be surprised, and to ask: “Why is all this done at all? What cases are we talking about? Why does a person suddenly dedicate to the Most High now a little ram, now a little sheep, now a little goat, now a tree, now a house, now a field? Where does all this come from at all?” And one must stop and understand that the people lives next to the Most High and constantly feels the grace of the Most High, feels the mercy of the Most High. And therefore, feeling love for the Most High in return, the people itself wants to donate, to give something of its own to the One from Whom it receives both spiritual and material bread. We live in a society in which we are trained to donate, and teachers often tell us: “Come on, donate, donate!” But the Torah speaks of the fact that there are people for whom giving, donating something to the Most High, is an impulse of the heart. And it is on this kindheartedness, on the good hearts of people, that the whole Temple economy is built first of all.

For the owner of the field the situation does not change: he would have gotten it back in the jubilee year in any case.

One gera is approximately one gram of silver. The Most High says: there is a single standard for valuation, and it is not in yuan, not in yen, not in rubles. Everything takes place in Temple (holy) shekels, the unit of valuation cannot be changed, no currency schemes can be pulled off here – with us everything is honest.

Any firstborn of livestock that is born to me already belongs to the LORD. And what already belongs to the LORD, as the LORD said: “All the firstborn are Mine,” I cannot dedicate to Him; the firstborn are already dedicated to Him, I must treat them as dedicated. Therefore I cannot say: “If this cow gives birth to a little calf, I will dedicate it to the Most High.” No, it is already dedicated to the Most High – it is not mine, and I cannot give it away.

One might have thought that then – okay, the firstborn of a horse, and the firstborn of a donkey or the firstborn of a female camel are also dedicated to the LORD, that is, I could have thought that the firstborn of unclean animals may not be dedicated to the Most High either. We remember that verse 11 already told us about the dedication of an unclean animal. And here the Torah speaks of the firstborn of such animals so that I understand that from an unclean animal I may dedicate firstborn to the Most High. Again, a little camel, a little donkey or a foal may turn out to be useful in the household, and therefore, if I have donated a firstborn from the unclean animals, I can redeem it for its value, adding a fifth part. The Temple or kohanic treasurers may sell them for their value, and if it was not I who redeemed them, then that's it, the train has left, I will no longer be able to redeem them.

Here it is about a situation when I dedicated something to the LORD in advance that I do not yet have. For example, if warriors say: “When we enter a certain city, then all the property that we take possession of there will be a holy thing to the LORD,” then this cannot be sold, redeemed or exchanged. If in a captured city I found some precious vessel, some object or some person (by the standards of those times), I can neither redeem them nor sell them: this is all a holy thing to the LORD, and this is not up for discussion in any way.

I know that today there are many different conventions and laws that say that one must take prisoners, keep prisoners, and that one may not kill civilians. The Torah provides for a somewhat different attitude. If we, warriors, said before a battle: “We will enter the city and kill everyone there (as the Tanach says, everyone who urinates against the wall), we will destroy everyone in the city if we take it,” then everything will be devoted to the Most High: nothing and no one can be sold, or exchanged, or redeemed. Perhaps it would be right to say that humanity has outgrown those attitudes: just as slavery is forbidden today, so the killing of unarmed prisoners is forbidden too.

And the Torah continues to speak about the Temple economy. We have spoken about what is given by a person voluntarily, but there are also certain obligations.

The tithe of all the fruits of the land is what a resident of the land of Israel is obliged to give to the Levites. It is very important to remember here that this is our commandment, our obligation toward the LORD, toward the Most High. Not toward a rabbi, not toward a teacher, not toward a pastor, not toward anyone else, but precisely toward the LORD. Since not everyone lives in Israel, and there is no Temple today, and there is no Levitical service today, it is opened to us in the heart how to dedicate this money to the LORD. Of course, it is good to support teachers, any teacher exists thanks to support, but the choice is up to the heart of the person.

If apples have grown for me, and I have gathered 200 kilograms of apples, then at 5 shekels per kilogram my harvest will be worth 1000 shekels. And if instead of apples I want to give money, then I must pay a fifth part extra (as we said, it may be 1200 shekels or 1250 shekels), I must add money.

A note in parentheses: there is a situation where I buy out someone else's tithe. For example, I see that my neighbor Chaim has grown 100 kilograms of apples and is giving the harvest as a tithe. I can say to the kohen: “I am buying it out.” Why do I need this? Maybe because I want to make more jam in my workshop, or in order to eat it myself, it doesn't matter. In this case I buy out someone else's tithe at the purchase price, that is, I do not have to add a fifth part to it: after all, I did not change my mind, I am simply buying it out, there is such a right.

When I drive the sheep into the pen, they jump over the fence for me, I count them (the way people count sheep before sleep), and every tenth one that has passed under the rod – to the LORD. I do not choose a fatter one, or a thinner one, or a whiter one, or a darker one. I dedicate every tenth one in random order to the Most High.

And the last verse of our portion, the last verse of the book of Vayikra:

These are the commandments which the LORD commanded Moshe to pass on to the sons of Israel. It is not the first time we encounter the qualification on Mount Sinai, although the people has already left Mount Sinai, and the Tent of Meeting is already standing, and much else has happened. But we see, and I have spoken about this: the Torah is not always given in chronological order, there is no strict chronology in the Torah, and this is one of those examples. These are the commandments which Moshe received from the Most High on Mount Sinai.

And we have finished, with God's help, the book of Vayikra. A difficult book, I hope that with God's help it has become a little closer, a little more understandable. Glory to God for this opportunity – every year to reread the Torah, every year to discover something new for oneself. A great thing – the completion of some book, of some tractate, some even arrange a celebration on this occasion. Blessed is the Most High, who gives wisdom to his blood and flesh. Praise to the Most High, the Merciful God!

To continue: the portion Behar on the sabbatical year and the jubilee, blessings and curses in Devarim 28, a talk on the covenants and the weekly portions of the Torah.