Shalom my friends,
It has been a busy week for me at work and I am tired yet I want to start the video study thread for those who enjoy studying the Torah portion of the week. This week we are reading the double portion of Behar and Bechokutai. Since the portion of Bechukotai contains the Tochacha (Rebuke) it is always hard to read this portion because it reminds us of all the curses which Hashem promised to bring to us, and looking at history it seems that many of these curses actually have befallen us.
But despite these curses, the rebuke ends by promising that Hashem will never completely abandon the Jewish people, and he will always be prepared to receive our Teshuva (return/repentance).
Here is the Chabad Parsha in a Nutshell:
http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/2904/jewish/Behar-Bechukotai-in-a-Nutshell.htm
On the mountain of Sinai, G‑d communicates to Moses the laws of the Sabbatical year: every seventh year, all work on the land should cease, and its produce becomes free for the taking for all, man and beast.
Seven Sabbatical cycles are followed by a fiftieth year—the Jubilee year, on which work on the land ceases, all indentured servants are set free, and all ancestral estates in the Holy Land that have been sold revert to their original owners. Additional laws governing the sale of lands, and the prohibitions against fraud and usury, are also given.
G‑d promises that if the people of Israel will keep His commandments, they will enjoy material prosperity and dwell secure in their homeland. But He also delivers a harsh “rebuke,” warning of the exile, persecution and other evils that will befall them if they abandon their covenant with Him. Nevertheless, “Even when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away; nor will I ever abhor them, to destroy them and to break My covenant with them; for I am the L‑rd their G‑d.”
The Parshah concludes with the rules on how to calculate the values of different types of pledges made to G‑d.
Let us start with the latest video from Rabbi Richman of the Temple Institute:
Next listen to Rabbi Weisblum talk about the portion: