Study Desk

then I, for my part, will do this to you: I will bring terror upon you — wasting disease and chronic fever to dim your sight and sap your strength. You will sow your seed for nothing, because your enemies will eat the crops.

If these things don't make you listen to me, then I will discipline you seven times over for your sins.

then I too will go against you; and I, yes I, will strike you seven times over for your sins.

"‘And if, for all this, you still will not listen to me, but go against me;

then I will go against you furiously, and I also will chastise you yet seven times more for your sins.

I will destroy your high places, cut down your pillars for sun-worship, and throw your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols; and I will detest you.

As for those of you who are left, I will fill their hearts with anxiety in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf will frighten them, so that they will flee as one flees from the sword and fall when no one is pursuing.

At that time I will be going against them, bringing them into the lands of their enemies. But if their uncircumcised hearts will grow humble, and they are paid the punishment for their misdeeds;

For the land will lie abandoned without them, and it will be paid its Shabbats while it lies desolate without them; and they will be paid the punishment for their misdeeds, because they rejected my rulings and loathed my regulations.

Rather, for their sakes, I will remember the covenant of their ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Egypt — with the nations watching — so that I might be their God; I am Adonai .'"

If it is a child five to twenty years old, assign a value of twenty shekels for a boy and ten for a girl;

if a baby one month to five years of age, five shekels for a boy and three for a girl;

if a person past sixty, fifteen shekels for a man and ten for a woman.

"‘If the vow is for the value of an animal of the kind used when people bring an offering to Adonai , all that a person gives of such animals to Adonai will be holy.

He is not to exchange or replace it by substituting a good animal for a bad one or vice versa; if he does make such a substitution, both the original animal and the one replacing it will be holy.

"‘When a person consecrates his house to be holy for Adonai , the cohen is to set a value on it in relation to its good and bad points; the value set by the cohen will stand.

If the seller does not wish to redeem the field, or if [the treasurer for the cohanim] has already sold the field to someone else, it can no longer be redeemed.

"‘However, the firstborn among animals, since it is already born as a firstborn for Adonai , no one can consecrate — neither ox nor sheep — since it belongs to Adonai already.

The owner is not to inquire whether the animal is good or bad, and he cannot exchange it; if he does exchange it, both it and the one he substituted for it will be holy; it cannot be redeemed.'"

These are the mitzvot which Adonai gave to Moshe for the people of Isra'el on Mount Sinai. Haftarah B'chukkotai: Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 16:19–17:14 B'rit Hadashah suggested readings for Parashah B'chukkotai: Yochanan (John) 14:15–21; 15:10–12; 1 Yochanan (1 John) Hazak, hazak, v'nit'chazek! Be strong, be strong, and let us be strengthened!