{"id":74671,"date":"2020-05-13T22:47:25","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T19:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=74671"},"modified":"2020-05-13T22:47:25","modified_gmt":"2020-05-13T19:47:25","slug":"behar-bechukotai-the-power-of-a-curse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/behar-bechukotai-the-power-of-a-curse\/","title":{"rendered":"Behar-Bechukotai: The Power Of A Curse"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Behar is just a single chapter, but this short parsha has a very important message \u2013 it teaches us how to build a fair society where everyone is free but also equal.<\/p>\n

Sometimes you can have freedom without equality, such as in a country where everyone is free to do whatever job they wish, and spend their money however they wish, but some people are poor and some are rich, so not everyone is equal (this is called a capitalist free economy). And sometimes you can have equality without freedom, where everyone has the same but the government take away a lot of choices (for example communism or socialism). Rarely do we see both.<\/p>\n

The powerful insight of the Torah is that you can have both, but not at the same time. Therefore time itself has to become part of the solution, in the form of the seventh year (the shmita year) and, after seven sabbatical cycles, the fiftieth year \u2013 the Jubilee (Yovel). These work as corrections to the inequalities caused by the free market that allow some to become rich while others suffer the loss of land, home, and even freedom.<\/p>\n

Bechukotai is mainly God speaking about the blessings that the Israelites will receive if they keep the Torah, and the curses\/bad things that will happen to them if they do not. If we believe that God acts in history, rewards the good and punishes the bad, then we can have hope \u2013 this is an idea that was given to the world by the Torah. The remarkable statement at the end of the curses – that whatever happens, God will not reject His people, provides us with eternal hope throughout Jewish history<\/p>\n

Download the Family Edition for Behar-Bechulotai as a PDF<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Family Study Materials","main_caption":"The Power Of A Curse","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"for Behar-Bechukotai","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":42816,"id":42816,"title":"covenant and conversation - Sacks","filename":"covenant-and-conversation-Sacks.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/covenant-and-conversation-Sacks.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-three-stages-of-creation\/covenant-and-conversation-sacks\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"covenant-and-conversation-sacks","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":42815,"date":"2018-10-25 10:59:44","modified":"2022-10-19 19:45:17","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":723,"height":426,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/covenant-and-conversation-Sacks-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/covenant-and-conversation-Sacks-300x177.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":177,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/covenant-and-conversation-Sacks.jpg","medium_large-width":723,"medium_large-height":426,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/covenant-and-conversation-Sacks.jpg","large-width":723,"large-height":426,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/covenant-and-conversation-Sacks.jpg","1536x1536-width":723,"1536x1536-height":426,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/covenant-and-conversation-Sacks.jpg","2048x2048-width":723,"2048x2048-height":426,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/covenant-and-conversation-Sacks.jpg","post_full_size-width":723,"post_full_size-height":426,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/covenant-and-conversation-Sacks-713x420.jpg","home_baner-width":713,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"old_create_date":"","links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74671"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74675,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74671\/revisions\/74675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}