~ Bechokotai is well known due to the presence of the tochecha, the curses, the rebukes or the threats that are given to B'nei Israel. If Israel loses its way spiritually, it will lose everything in every sphere: physical, political and economical. The section is introduced with a few verses of promises and several verses of warnings. Yet in the very end the text changes and brings one of the great consolations of the Torah.
~ Our triennial cycle picks up from the next immediate section, which is the valuation process: if someone vows the value of a person or an animal to God, how is this calculated? Can it be exchanged? How do you feel about having this scale? How do you imagine it connects with the previous section, of the warnings?
איש כי יפלא נדר בערכך נפשת לה'. היינו אחר פרשות התוכחה נתן הש"י מבטח עוז לישראל ונתן להם פ' ערכין, היינו שיוכל האדם לפדות עצמו מכל דבר. ונכתב ארבע מיני פדיונות. בתים ושדות ואדם ובהמה, והם כנגד ד' פעמים שבע הנכתב בתוכחה, כי שבע הוא שהש"י מדקדק כחוט השערה ולזה נתן הש"י ד' מיני פדיונות, ולא שיוכל האדם בעצמו לפדות, אלא אף אדם שרואה לחבירו שצריך פדיון יוכל לפדותו, כדאיתא בגמ' (ערכין כ'.) האומר ערך פלוני עלי. ונמצא בפ' ערכין ל"ג פסוקים חוץ פסוק וידבר ופסוק אלה המצות שאינם מענין הערכין כנגד פ' התוכחה שיש בה גם כן ל"ג פסוקים. ונגד פסוק ואבדתם בגוים שהוא גדולה יראה כנזכר, נאמר הפסוק וכל ערכך יהיה בשקל הקודש וכל פסוק שבפרשת ערכין הוא כנגד פסוק שבפרשת התוכחה ליתן פדיון לכל דבר הנאמר שם.
"When anyone explicitly vows to Hashem the equivalent for a human being" ~ that is, after the portion of rebuke the Holy One of Blessing gave an assurance of strength to Israel and gave them the portion of valuations, that is, a person can redeem oneself from any thing. And four redemptions are listed: houses, fields, people and animals; and they are given against the four times the word "seven" was written in the admonitions portion, since seven symbolizes that the Holy One is precise by a hairsbreadth, and for this the Holy One of Blessing gave four different forms of redemption, and not only a person can redeem oneself, but also if a person sees that their friend needs redemption the person can also redeem their friend, as it is written in the Gemara (Arachin 20a) "one can say 'the value of Ploni is upon me'." And there are 33 verses on the portion of Valuations, with the exception of the verses "And He said" (Lev. 27:1) and "These are the commandments" (Lev. 27:34) which are not of the issue of valuations. These 33 verses are compared to 33 verses in the portion of Rebuke [and put side by side.] And against the verse "you will become lost among the nations" (Lev. 26:38), which is a great fear, the verse "and all your valuations will be by the holy shekel" (27:25). And every verse in the portion of Valuations has a correspondent in the portion of Rebuke, to give redemption to every thing that is said there.
Jonathan Sacks, "The Birth of Hope (Bechukotai 5779)"
http://rabbisacks.org/the-birth-of-hope-bechukotai-5779/
Hope is one of the very greatest Jewish contributions to Western civilisation, so much so that I have called Judaism “the voice of hope in the conversation of humankind.” In the ancient world, there were tragic cultures in which people believed that the gods were at best indifferent to our existence, at worst actively malevolent. The best humans can do is avoid their attention or appease their wrath. In the end, though, it is all in vain. We are destined to see our dreams wrecked on the rocks of reality. The great tragedians were Greek. Judaism produced no Sophocles or Aeschylus, no Oedipus or Antigone. Biblical Hebrew did not even contain a word that meant “tragedy” in the Greek sense. Modern Hebrew had to borrow the word: hence, tragedia. ... For the most part, the Hebrew Bible expresses a quite different view: that there can be change in the affairs of humankind. We are summoned to the long journey at whose end is redemption and the Messianic Age. Judaism is the principled rejection of tragedy in the name of hope.