Read & Listen

Last week’s portion, Behar, laid out the need for the earth to receive a sabbatical year every seventh year and our responsibility to let the land rest. Bekhukotai, the final chapters of the book of Leviticus, now describes the consequences of these directives.

Developed and directed by Carol Fox Prescott. Presented at Friday evening services, May 13, 2022

... human history is not a continuous march of progress. While we have advanced in certain understandings of what is good and just, we have regressed in others, and none more so than in our relationship with the earth. Here, the agrarian culture of the Torah has critical lessons to teach us, ancient wisdom that must be reclaimed.

Torah serves not as the last word, but as the foundation of Judaism’s legal and ethical tradition. This tradition took shape some 3,000 years ago and has evolved continually since that time.

This week’s Torah portion is named Kedoshim, derived from the opening instruction of the parashah קְדשִׁים תִּֽהְיוּ kedoshim tih’yu — “You shall be holy” (Leviticus 19:2). The verses that follow describe the ethical and interpersonal behavior necessary to achieve this quality of holiness.

Chapter 16 of this week’s portion describes in detail how to enact Yom Kippur: dressed in plain white linen (as opposed to his regular very elaborate vestments), Aaron, הַכֹּהֵן הַגָּדוֹל ha’kohein ha’Gadol, the High Priest, enters the sanctuary alone and sacrifices a bull and a ram. Then he takes two goats and casts lots upon them. One goat is slaughtered and offered to God on behalf of the people’s sins. The other goat is chosen as the scapegoat. ... What’s wrong with this picture?

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Metzora is among the most obscure sections of the Torah. Metzora, along with the latter chapters of the preceding portion Tazri’a, describes a variety of physical symptoms that make a person temporarily unfit to be close to God, and the rituals required in order to restore that person to fitness.

Our portion begins with a chapter that, at eight verses, happens to be the shortest chapter in the Torah. Chapter 12 describes the extended period after childbirth, during which a woman is considered ritually impure.

This is one of the most mystifying passages in the Torah. Why are Nadav and Avihu consumed by YHVH’s fire? ... Why does Moses express no sympathy or grief? Why is Aaron silent? What is their understanding of the import of these deaths?