Bechukotai

Bechukotai, Bechukosai, or Bəḥuqothai (Biblical) (בְּחֻקֹּתַי‎ bəḥuqqōṯay—Hebrew for "by my decrees," the second word, and the first distinctive word, in the parashah) is the 33rd weekly Torah portion (פָּרָשָׁה‎, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the 10th and last in the Book of Leviticus. It constitutes Leviticus 26:3–27:34. The parashah addresses blessings for obeying the law, curses for disobeying it, and vows. The parashah is made up of 3,992 Hebrew letters, 1,013 Hebrew words, 78 verses, and 131 lines in a Torah Scroll (סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה‎, Sefer Torah).^[1]

Jews generally read it in May or early June. The lunisolar Hebrew calendar contains up to 55 weeks, the exact number varying between 50 in common years and 54 or 55 in leap years. In leap years (for example, 2024 and 2027), Parashat Bechukotai is read separately. In common years (for example, 2025 and 2026), Parashat Bechukotai is combined with the previous parashah, Behar, to help achieve the needed number of weekly readings.^[2]

In years when the first day of Passover falls on a Sabbath (as it did in 2022), Jews in Israel and Reform Jews read the parashah following Passover one week before Conservative and Orthodox Jews in the Diaspora. In such years, Jews in Israel and Reform Jews celebrate Passover for seven days and thus read the next parashah (in 2018, Shemini) on the Sabbath one week after the first day of Passover, while Conservative and Orthodox Jews in the Diaspora celebrate Passover for eight days and read the next parashah (in 2018, Shemini) one week later. In some such years (for example, 2018), the two calendars realign when Conservative and Orthodox Jews in the Diaspora read Behar together with Bechukotai while Jews in Israel and Reform Jews read them separately.^[3]