B’har-B’chukotai
With the third double sedra in four weeks, it’s a good time to take a closer look at the double sedra story.
There are 54 total sedras in the Torah; of those, seven pairs of sedras are sometimes read individually and sometimes combined.
Taking them not quite in order, we’ll start with Tazria & M’tzora (TM) and Acharei Mot & Kedoshim (AK). They are read combined as double sedras during 12-month years, and are read separately during 13-month years. That gives us a frequency of being combined in 12 out of 19 years (63.16%), and read separately in 7 of 19 years (36.84%).
The same goes for this week’s parshiot, Behar & Bechukotai (BB), except that in Israel they are also separated in a 12-month year when Pesach begins on Friday night-Shabbat. In such a year, which happens to be the most frequent of all year-types – 18.05% of all years – we in Israel resume parshat ha’shavua on the day that is the Eighth Day of Pesach outside of Israel; and so for a few weeks we get ahead of Chutz La’Aretz in the parshiyot. Thus, by separating BB, we get back in sync with the rest of the Jewish world. Frequencies for BB outside of Israel are the same as for TM and AK, while in Israel, BB are combined only 45.11% of the time, and are read separately 54.89% of the time.
Next, Vayakhel & Pekudei (VP), which “behave” like TM and AK, except that they are also read separately in what happens to be the current year, 5785, and which is the rarest of year-types, at only 3.31% of all years. VP are combined 59.85% of the time and read separately 40.15% of the time.
Chukat & Balak (CB) are never combined in Israel. Abroad, they are read together whenever Shavuot falls on Friday – regardless of whether the year is a p’shuta (12 months) or a me’uberet (13 months). This occurs in 28.57% of years. In Israel, there is no second day of Shavuot, so we read parshat hashavua when the special reading for the second day of Shavuot is read abroad, getting out of sync until Chukat–Balak, after which we are back in sync. CB are the least frequently combined of the double sedras.
Matot & Mas’ei (MM) are the most-often combined pair – they are read separately only in 13-month years in which Rosh Hashana was on Thursday and Friday. That gives a combined MM frequency of 89.47%, and only 10.53% of the time when MM are read separately.
In Israel, however, MM are also split when Pesach runs from Shabbat to Friday here and Shabbat to Shabbat abroad. MM is the first available double for us to split in order to get back in sync with parshat hashavua. Israel’s frequencies of MM combined vs. separate are 70.49% vs. 20.51% – making it still the most-often combined double sedras.
Fun fact: It turns out that the numeric values (gematria) of the first pasuk of Matot and the first pasuk of Ma’aseh match – at 3,324. No other first pesukim of any sedras match each other. This doesn’t prove anything, but it is an interesting numeric confirmation of the “combined-ness” of MM.
Which brings us to the two shortest sedras of the Torah, Nitzavim and Vayeilech (NV). They are combined when there is no Shabbat between Yom Kippur and Sukkot (60.46% of the time) and read separately when there is a Shabbat between Yom Kippur and Sukkot (39.54%). When NV are combined, Ha’azinu is Shabbat Shuva; when separate, Vayeilech is Shabbat Shuva.
Nitzavim is always read on the last Shabbat of the year, the one right before Rosh Hashanah – sometimes with Vayeilech and sometimes alone. This means that Vayeilech sometimes is read on the first Shabbat of the year, sometimes on the last Shabbat of the year, sometimes on both, and sometimes it is not read at all during a particular year!
Okay, back to BB, the double sedra for this week. Behar and Bechukotai have 57 and 78 pesukim, respectively, each on the short side and “comfortable” to combine (unlike MM, a pair of relatively long sedras).
With “only” 24 mitzvot, Behar does not seem to be in the major league of mitzvah sedras, the fact is that there are only sevem sedras with more mitzvot than Behar (46 sedras with fewer). Yet there are only four sedras smaller than Behar and 49 longer. Even Bechukotai’s 12 mitzvot puts it tied (with Va’etchanan) for 15th place.
“And Hashem spoke to Moshe at Har Sinai, saying…” The wording of this first pasuk of Parshat Behar gives rise to Rashi’s famous question: “Ma inyan Sh’mita eitzel Har Sinai?” – What does the Sabbatical Year have to do with Har Sinai? Meaning, what is the reason that the laws of Shemittah are singled out here by telling us that Hashem spoke them to Moshe at Har Sinai, when all mitzvot were taught by Hashem to Moshe at Har Sinai?
In fact, “Ma inyan Sh’mita eitzel Har Sinai?” is Israeli slang for “What does one thing have to do with the other?” In English, we would say, “What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?” (Or some such similar expression.)
Rashi explains that we learn from here that all mitzvot, along with their details, were taught by Hashem to Moshe at Sinai. This is based on the Talmudic principle that when one thing is singled out of a whole category, it comes to teach us something about the whole category, not just about itself.
Finally, a reminder that this coming Sunday night / Monday is Yom Yerushalayim. Celebrate it meaningfully, with hakarat hatov to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, showing our gratitude to Hashem for this great modern miracle.
