Tuesday Torah Parshat Behar - 5/21/24

Leviticus opens with the declaration that the book was told to Moshe in the "ohel mo'ed," the Tent of Meeting. This chapter is identified as being told to Moshe at Har Sinai. Why should it make a difference where it was said?

The events in the Torah are not always recorded in chronological order. The present passage actually comes before the beginning of this book as well as all of the material that follows the start of Leviticus. For this text was given at Mount Sinai. And now Moshe forges the covenant that is described earlier, in Parshat Mishpatim (Ex. 24:7)

All of the passages that appear above starting from the beginning of the book were delivered in the "ohel mo'ed." Indeed, the content of all of those chapters deals with the Tabernacle - the sacrifices, and matters of purity and impurity...However, the following two sections of Behar and Behukotai do not really relate either to the "ohel mo'ed" or specifically to the priests. Thus this material was revealed at Mount Sinai.

When the Israelites sinned with the Golden Calf leading Moshe to smash the tablets of the law, that represented a disintegration of the covenant between the nation and the Holy One, blessed be He. Still, when God reconciled with Moshe and supplied him with a second set of tablets, He ordered him to forge a second covenant...It was then that the commandments were repeated...Recognize that in the first covenant, the institution of the Sabbatical year was mentioned in general terms (Ex. 23:11), but now, with the second pact between God and the people, the seventh year is discussed in detail with mention of specifics and punishments for their violation...At the end of the first covenant that took place during the first forty days after revelation, God ordered Moshe to construct the Tabernacle, and once God was appeased He directed Moshe to implement a second covenant. Thus the prophet descended the mountain and conveyed to the people everything that the Lord had commanded him when he was on the mountain, namely the instructions for the building of the Tabernacle...While the people were working on that project, Moshe avoided teaching them any of the other information he had been entrusted with...so as not to distract them from their work...However, once the enterprise was complete, Moshe revealed to his charges the fact that when he was on Mount Sinai, God had in fact issued rules regarding the seventh year and the Jubilee.