Behar

Embark on a journey of Jewish learning and discovery, exploring the depth of our Behar resources, where tagged items including audio, programs, and podcast episodes await your exploration.

Behar: Working for G-d

Rabbi Jay Kelman

The Torah was wary of the employer-employee relationship. Almost by definition, an employee is not much different than a slave; both are told what to do, when to do it and how it is to be done. “For [all of] you are slaves unto Me” (…
Article
May 24, 2019

Behar: Money in Trust

Rabbi Jay Kelman

In his thematic enumeration of the 613 mitzvoth, the Rambam has as the very first mitzvah that of belief in G-d. It is, in the view of the Rambam, the central component of Judaism. The Rambam maintains that one who denies any of what…
Article
May 11, 2018

Behar: Legal Loopholes

Rabbi Jay Kelman

Legal loopholes are a mainstay of the legal profession. People are often frustrated when criminals are let off the hook on a technicality, perhaps subverting the intent of the law. But it is not only secular law that is criticized for its seeming…
Article
May 27, 2016

Behar-Bechukotai: The End

Rabbi Jay Kelman

"G-d spoke to Moshe at Mount Sinai saying: When you come the land that I am giving you the land shall rest a Shabbat to G-d" (Vayilkra 25:1-2). Mah inyan shmitta etzel har Sinai? In one of the most well known Rashi's, the great commentary asks why…
Article
May 15, 2015

Behar: The End of the Torah

Rabbi Jay Kelman

The Torah was edited with great precision. This is the idea behind the notion that "there is no chronological order to the Torah". Items are placed were they can teach the greatest messages—form can be as important as substance. For…
Article
May 9, 2014

Behar-Bechukotai: End of the Story

Rabbi Jay Kelman

“These are the commandments that G-d has commanded Moshe to the children of Israel on Mount Sinai (Vayikra 27:34).” Though it is the Book of Exodus that we associate with Har Sinai, it is at the end of Vayikra that the Torah actually…
Article
May 3, 2013

Behar: Speaking of Sinai

Rabbi Jay Kelman

Our Sages equated farming with faith. Only a man of faith could put in months of backbreaking labour, knowing full well that all his efforts could go for naught with a few days of bad weather. It is the farmer who, more than others, realizes that…
Article
May 15, 2009