Friday 15 May 2020

Shabbos Tzetl: Behar-Bechukotai

CANDLE LIGHTING 
5:01pm - Candle Lighting, Friday.
6:00pm - Havdalah, Saturday.
These times are for Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Eruv Status: KOSHER
Shabbat Shalom! 


YESHIVA SHULE TIMES

Please click here to view the Yeshivah Shule Tzetel for Shabbos Chazak Parshas Behar Bechukosai.

Please click here to view the PDFs of the Weekly Publications previously distributed in Shule each Shabbos.


PARSHAH IN A NUTSHELL
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.



HAFTORAH IN A NUTSHELL
Jeremiah 16:19-17:14.

The haftorah discusses the punishments that await those who disregard G‑d's law, and the blessings that are the lot of those who follow the Creator's wishes. This follows the theme of this week's Torah reading which details at length the blessings and curses.

The prophet Jeremiah rebukes the people of Israel for their idolatrous ways and for not having faith in G‑d. He conveys G‑d's words of wrath towards those who do not put their trust in Him — foretelling exile as their punishment — and of blessings for those who do.

"Cursed is the man who trusts in man and relies on mortal flesh for his strength, and whose heart turns away from the G‑d. He shall be like a lone tree in the desert, and will not see when good comes, and will dwell on parched land in the desert, on salt-sodden soil that is not habitable. Blessed is the man who trusts in the G‑d, to whom G‑d will be his trust. For he shall be like a tree planted by the water, and which spreads its roots out into a stream, so it will not be affected when heat comes, and its leaves shall be green, and in the year of drought will not be anxious, neither shall it cease from bearing fruit."

The haftorah ends with the following poignant verses: "G‑d who is the source of the hopes of Israel, all that forsake You shall be shamed, and they who turn away from me shall be marked out on the earth that they have forsaken G‑d, the source of living waters. Heal me, O G‑d, then shall I be healed; help me, then I shall be helped, for You are my praise!"



SAGES ON THE PARSHAH

You shall not defraud one another (25:14)

Legally, it is only forbidden to defraud one's fellow. But a chassid must go beyond the letter of the law, and take care not to delude himself, either.

(Rabbi Bunim of Pshischa)

https://w2.chabad.org/media/pdf/87059.pdf




THIS WEEK IN HISTORY



    In preparation for the festival of Shavuot, we study one of the six chapters of the Talmud's Ethics of the Fathers ("Avot") on the afternoon of each of the six Shabbatot between Passover and Shavuot; this week we study Chapter Five. (In many communities -- and such is the Chabad custom -- the study cycle is repeated through the summer, until the Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah.)

    Link: Ethics of the Fathers, Chapter 5




    Pesach's personal Dvar Torah




    Submission to Emmanuel's? See here




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