Bechukotai, Bechukosai, or Bəḥuqothai (Biblical) ( bəḥuqqōṯay—Hebrew for "by my decrees," the second word, and the first distinctive word, in the parashah) is the 33rd weekly Torah portion (, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the 10th and last in the Book of Leviticus. It constitutes Leviticus 26:3–27:34. The parashah addresses blessings for obeying the law, curses for disobeying it, and vows. The parashah is made up of 3,992 Hebrew letters, 1,013 Hebrew words, 78 verses, and 131 lines in a Torah Scroll (, Sefer Torah).
Jews generally read it in May or early June. The lunisolar Hebrew calendar contains up to 55 weeks, the exact number varying between 50 in common years and 54 or 55 in leap years. In leap years (for example, 2024 and 2027), Parashat Bechukotai is read separately. In common years (for example, 2025 and 2026), Parashat Bechukotai is combined with the previous parashah, Behar, to help achieve the needed number of weekly readings.
In years when the first day of Passover falls on a Sabbath (as it did in 2022), Jews in Israel and Reform Jews read the parashah following Passover one week before Conservative and Orthodox Jews in the Diaspora. In such years, Jews in Israel and Reform Jews celebrate Passover for seven days and thus read the next parashah (in 2018, Shemini) on the Sabbath one week after the first day of Passover, while Conservative and Orthodox Jews in the Diaspora celebrate Passover for eight days and read the next parashah (in 2018, Shemini) one week later. In some such years (for example, 2018), the two calendars realign when Conservative and Orthodox Jews in the Diaspora read Behar together with Bechukotai while Jews in Israel and Reform Jews read them separately.See Hebcal Jewish Calendar and compare results for Israel and the Diaspora.
Readings In traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings, or , aliyot.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Vayikra/Leviticus (Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 2008), pages 187–205.
First reading—Leviticus 26:3–5 In the first reading, God promises that if the Israelites follow God's laws, God will bless Israel with rains in their season, and abundant harvests..
Second reading—Leviticus 26:6–9 In the second reading, God promises that if the Israelites follow God's laws, God would bless Israel with peace, victory over enemies, and fertility, and God's presence..
Third reading—Leviticus 26:10–46 In the third reading, God promises that if the Israelites follow God's laws, God will bless Israel with God's presence.. But in the section known as Tocheichah or the Admonitions, if the Israelites do not observe God's commandments, God will wreak upon Israel misery, consumption, fever, stolen harvests, defeat by enemies, poor harvests, attacks of wild beasts, pestilence, famine, desolation, and timidity. Those who survive will be removed to the land of their enemies, where they will become heartsick over their iniquity, confess their sin, and atone.. God promises them that He will remember His covenant with Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, and the ancients whom God freed from Egypt..
Fourth reading—Leviticus 27:1–15 In the fourth reading, God told Moses to instruct the Israelites that when anyone vows to offer God the value of a human being, the following scale would apply: for a man from 20 to 60 years of age, 50 shekels of silver;. for a woman from 20 to 60 years, 30 shekels;. for a boy from 5 to 20 years, 20 shekels;. for a girl from 5 to 20 years, 10 shekels; for a boy from 1 month to 5 years, 5 shekels;. for a girl from 1 month to 5 years, 3 shekels; for a man 60 years or over, 15 shekels;. and for a woman 60 years or over, 10 shekels. But if a vower could not afford the payment, the vower must appear before the priest, and the priest will assess the vower according to what the vower could afford.. If the vow concerns an animal that could be brought as an offering, the animal is holy, and one cannot exchange another for it, and if one does substitute one animal for another, the thing vowed and its substitute will both be holy.. If the vow concerns an unclean animal that could not be brought as an offering, the vower is to present the animal to the priest, the priest is to assess it, and if the vower wishes to redeem it, the vower is to add one-fifth to its assessment.. If one consecrates a house to God, the priest is to assess it, and if the vower wishes to redeem it, the vower is to add one-fifth to the assessment..
Fifth reading—Leviticus 27:16–21 In the fifth reading, if one consecrates to God land of one's ancestral holding, the priest is to assess it in accordance with its seed requirement.. If the vower consecrates the land after the jubilee year, the priest is to compute the price according to the years left until the next jubilee year, and reduce the assessment accordingly.. If the vower wishes to redeem the land, the vower is to add one-fifth to the assessment and retain title, but if the vower does not redeem the land and the land is sold, it will no longer be redeemable, and at the jubilee the land is to become the priest's holding..
Sixth reading—Leviticus 27:22–28 In the sixth reading, if one consecrates land that one purchased (not land of ancestral holding) the priest is to compute the assessment up to the jubilee year, the vower is to pay the assessment as of that day, and in the jubilee the land is to revert to the person whose ancestral holding the land was.. No firstling of a clean animal could be consecrated, for it already belongs to God.. But a firstling of an unclean animal should be redeemed at its assessment plus one-fifth, and if not redeemed, is to be sold at its assessment.. Nothing that one had proscribed for God (subjected to cherem) could be sold or redeemed..
Seventh reading—Leviticus 27:29–34 In the seventh reading, no human being proscribed could be ransomed, but he is to be put to death.. All tithes from crops are to be God's, and if one wishes to redeem any of the tithes, the tither is to add one-fifth to them.. Every tenth head of livestock is to be holy to God, and the owner is not to choose among good or bad when counting off the tithe..
Readings according to the triennial cycle Jews who read the Torah according to the triennial cycle of Torah reading read the parashah according to a different schedule.See, e.g., Richard Eisenberg, "A Complete Triennial Cycle for Reading the Torah," Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement: 1986–1990 (New York: The Rabbinical Assembly, 2001), pages 383–418.
In inner-biblical interpretation The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these Biblical sources:For more on inner-Biblical interpretation, see, e.g., Benjamin D. Sommer, "Inner-biblical Interpretation," in Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, editors, The Jewish Study Bible, 2nd edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), pages 1835–41.
Leviticus chapter 26 Leviticus 26:9 addresses God's role in the creation of children. While Leviticus 12:6–8 required a new mother to bring a burnt-offering and a sin-offering, Leviticus 26:9 Deuteronomy 28:11 and Psalm 127:3–5 make clear that having children is a blessing from God, Genesis 15:2 and 1 Samuel 1:5–11 characterize childlessness as a misfortune, and Leviticus 20:20 and Deuteronomy 28:18 threaten childlessness as a punishment.
In Leviticus 26:14–15, God warned of consequences “if you reject My laws and spurn My rules.” Similarly, in Amos 2:4, the 8th century BCE prophet Amos condemned people of Judah, “because they have spurned the Teaching of the Lord and have not observed His laws.”
The Admonitions of Leviticus 26:14–38 are paralleled in Deuteronomy 28:15–68. The curses in Leviticus are considered more severe than those in Deuteronomy, for "the former [were] spoken by Moses in the name of God and the latter by Moses on his own initiative; the former is worded in first person and addressed to the Jews in plural while the latter is in first-person and addressed in singular form".Bar-Ilan University, Daf Parashat Hashavua (Study Sheet on the Weekly Torah Portion); see also Babylonian Talmud Megillah 31b.
In Leviticus 26:42–45, God promises to "remember" God's covenant with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham to deliver the Israelites and the Land of Israel. Similarly, God remembered Noah to deliver him from the flood in Genesis 8:1, God promised to remember God's covenant not to destroy the Earth again by flood in Genesis 9:15–16, God remembered Abraham to deliver Lot from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:29, God remembered Rachel to deliver her from childlessness in Genesis 30:22, God remembered God's covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to deliver the Israelites from Egyptian bondage in Exodus 2:24 and 6:5–6, Moses called on God to remember God's covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to deliver the Israelites from God's wrath after the incident of the Golden Calf in Exodus 32:13 and Deuteronomy 9:27, the Israelites were to blow upon their trumpets to be remembered and delivered from their enemies in Numbers 10:9, Samson called on God to deliver him from the Philistines in Judges 16:28, Hannah prayed for God to remember her and deliver her from childlessness in 1 Samuel 1:11 and God remembered Hannah's prayer to deliver her from childlessness in 1 Samuel 1:19, Hezekiah called on God to remember Hezekiah's faithfulness to deliver him from sickness in 2 Kings 20:3 and Isaiah 38:3, Jeremiah called on God to remember God's covenant with the Israelites to not condemn them in Jeremiah 14:21, Jeremiah called on God to remember him and think of him, and avenge him of his persecutors in Jeremiah 15:15, God promises to remember God's covenant with the Israelites and establish an everlasting covenant in Ezekiel 16:60, God remembers the cry of the humble in Zion to avenge them in Psalm 9:13, David called upon God to remember God's compassion and mercy in Psalm 25:6, Asaph called on God to remember God's congregation to deliver them from their enemies in Psalm 74:2, God remembered that the Israelites were only human in Psalm 78:39, Ethan the Ezrahite called on God to remember how short Ethan's life was in Psalm 89:48, God remembers that humans are but dust in Psalm 103:14, God remembers God's covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Psalm 105:8–10, God remembers God's word to Abraham to deliver the Israelites to the Land of Israel in Psalm 105:42–44, the Psalmist calls on God to remember him to favor God's people, to think of him at God's salvation, that he might behold the prosperity of God's people in Psalm 106:4–5, God remembered God's covenant and repented according to God's mercy to deliver the Israelites in the wake of their rebellion and iniquity in Psalm 106:4–5, the Psalmist calls on God to remember God's word to God's servant to give him hope in Psalm 119:49, God remembered us in our low estate to deliver us from our adversaries in Psalm 136:23–24, Job called on God to remember him to deliver him from God's wrath in Job 14:13, Nehemiah prayed to God to remember God's promise to Moses to deliver the Israelites from exile in Nehemiah 1:8, and Nehemiah prayed to God to remember him to deliver him for good in Nehemiah 13:14–31.
Leviticus chapter 27 Tamara Cohn Eskenazi wrote that Biblical laws required Israelites to act as redeemers for relatives in four situations: (1) redemption of land in Leviticus 25:25–34, (2) redemption of persons from slavery, especially in Leviticus 25:47–50, (3) redemption of objects dedicated to the sanctuary in Leviticus 27:9–28, and (4) avenging the blood of a murdered relative in Numbers 35.Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Tikva Frymer-Kensky, The JPS Bible Commentary: Ruth (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2011), page liv.
The Torah addresses tithes in Leviticus 27:30–33, Numbers 18:21–24, and Deuteronomy 14:22–29 and 26:12–14.