Leviticus (Heb. vayiqra)
Like the others, the title of the Pentateuch's middle book, which has
twenty-seven chapters, comes from its first word, vayiqra, "He (God)
called." The Rabbis referred to it aptly as torat hakohanim, "The Priestly
Instruction." Leviticus treats the laws of holiness and sanctity: sacrifice,
the appointment of the priesthood, purity and impurity, the Day of Atonement
and the other sacred days of the calendar, and the fallow year (Heb.
shemittah), and the jubilee. Accounting for roughly half of the commandments
of the Torah, Leviticus has particular importance for Jewish tradition.