Ensuring Obedience to God, and the Sanctuary’s Welfare
PARASHAT B’CHUKOTAI (“my laws”) concludes Leviticus, a book devoted to instructing the people of Israel how to conduct their lives in keeping with their status as God’s people. The first part of the parashah seeks to ensure obedience to these instructions by providing strong motivation in the form of a series of blessings and curses. God, through Moses, promises the people prosperity and peace if they follow the path laid out by God; and God threatens them with famine, war, and eventually exile, if they choose to spurn God’s laws and commandments (26:3–46). The second part of the parashah (27:1–34) is an appendix that addresses issues related to communal funding, especially of the priesthood and of the sanctuary.
Explicit information about women in these passages, while scant, does shed some additional light on their status and the nature of their household responsibilities in ancient Israel. Especially significant for our understanding of the status of women in this culture is the material in 27:3–7, which lists monetary equivalents for the worth of individuals whose services are vowed to the temple. Leviticus, we learn, bases these assessments and values on a combination of the factors of age and gender (see also Another View).
In addition, the content of 27:1–25, which deals with vows and gifts of property to the temple, touches upon several other issues that relate to the lives of women in ancient Israel, such as whose vows were binding and under what conditions, who could partake in the priests’ portion of sacrificial animals (a major source of food for priests and their households), and who could inherit and possess property. While Leviticus 27 does not directly deal with these issues, all of them are crucial for those wishing to understand the significance of the instruction in this text for women in ancient Israel.
The explicit reference in 26:26 to women who bake bread further highlights the lives of women.
—Hilary Lipka
Outline—
I. EPILOGUE
Ensuring Obedience to God (26:3–46)
A. Blessings for obedience (vv. 3–13)
B. Curses for disobedience (vv. 14–45)
C. Conclusion (v. 46)
II. APPENDIX
The Sanctuary: Funding, Gifts, and Dues (27:1–34)
A. Votary pledges of people (vv. 1–8)
B. Votary pledges of animals (vv. 9–13)
C. Consecrations of property (vv. 14–25)
D. Firstlings (vv. 26–27)
E. Proscriptions (vv. 28–29)
F. Tithes (vv. 30–33)
G. Conclusion (v. 34)