Group - Behar

Behar, BeHar, Be-har, or B’har ( — Hebrew for "on the mount,â€� the fifth word, and the first distinctive word, in the parshah) is the 32nd weekly Torah portion (parshah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the ninth in the book of Leviticus. It constitutes Leviticus 25:1–26:2. Jews in the Diaspora generally read it in May. The lunisolar Hebrew calendar has a leap year every two or three years, in which an extra month is added to the calendar. In leap years (for example, 2008, 2011, 2014, and 2016), parshah Behar is read separately on the 32nd Sabbath of the annual cycle (which begins on Simchat Torah). In non-leap years (for example, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2015), parshah Behar is combined with the subsequent parshah, Bechukotai, to ensure that the sequence of readings is completed by Simchat Torah. On Mount Sinai, God told Moses to tell the Israelites the law of the Sabbatical year for the land. (Lev. 25:1–2.) The people could work the fields for six years, but in the seventh year the land was to have a Sabbath of complete rest during which the people were not to sow their fields, prune their vineyards, or reap the aftergrowth. (Lev. 25:3–5.) They could, however, eat whatever the land produced on its own. (Lev. 25:6–7.)