Kommentar zu Wajikra 26:46

והתורת AND THE TORAHS… [WHICH GOD GAVE… IN MOUNT SINAI BY THE HAND OF MOSES] — (The plural is used because there are two Torahs:) one in writing and one by word of mouth (the Oral Law). This verse therefore tells us that all (both) of them were given by God to Moses on Sinai (Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 8 10).

אלה החקים, all the commandments recorded already before the commencement of the portion of בחקתי, which began with the words אם בחקתי תלכו, are part of the “package” consisting of statues, social laws and moral/ethical laws the observance of which will be reflected by the Jewish nation either receiving blessings or, G’d forbid, curses. This is the covenant to which Moses referred in Deuteronomy 28,69 when he wrote: “apart from the covenant which He concluded with them at Chorev.”

בהר סיני ביד משה, just as the whole chapter commences with the subject of the sh’mittah legislation (25,1) so it concludes with linking the retribution as being the result of neglect of that important commandment. The subject matter of both the portion Behar and Bechukotai deals almost exclusively with the release of the land or the slaves, freeing slaves (Jewish ones, not bodily owned) and freeing land which had been sold only due to economic necessity. The importance the Torah attaches to these commandments is underlined by their being repeatedly mentioned as originating at Mount Sinai.

ביני ובין בני ישראל, G’d had vowed to bestow the blessings if the people merited them, and the people accepted the curses as being deserved in the event that they would not obey G’d’s instructions. However, the legislation which follows now, regarding the evaluations of people in terms of subjectively defined vows, in terms of the firstborn and in terms of their donating property to the temple treasury, etc., all of this was only legislated after the covenant had already been entered into, even though the words “at Mount Sinai” have been used by the Torah in describing this legislation. When the Torah repeats in chapter 27,34 “these are the commandments G’d commanded Moses to relate to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai,” it added these words to make clear that although these laws also originated at Mount Sinai, they were not part of the laws covered by the covenant, i.e. laws which if violated might bring on the terrible retribution described in chapter 26.