page_title: Acharei Mot
section_title: The Weekly Maqam
hierarchical_section_title: Acharei Mot / The Weekly Maqam
context_page_description: Acharei Mot is the 29th weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. It is the sixth weekly portion in the Book of Leviticus, containing Leviticus 16:1–18:30. It is named after the fifth and sixth Hebrew words of the parashah, its first distinctive words.
  The parashah sets forth the law of the Yom Kippur ritual, centralized offerings, blood, and sexual practices. The parashah is made up of 4,294 Hebrew letters, 1,170 Hebrew words, 80 verses, and 154 lines in a Torah Scroll.
  Jews generally read it in April or early May. 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, parashah Acharei Mot is read separately on the 29th Sabbath after Simchat Torah. In common years, parashah Acharei Mot is combined with the next parashah, Kedoshim, to help achieve the needed number of weekly readings.
  Traditional Jews also read parts of the parashah as Torah readings for Yom Kippur.
context_section_description: In the Weekly Maqam, Sephardi Jews each week base the songs of the services on the content of that week's parashah. For parashah Acharei, Sephardi Jews apply Maqam Hijaz, the maqam that expresses mourning and sadness, because the parashah alludes to the deaths of Nadab and Abihu, the first two sons of Aaron.
caption: Ezekiel (1510 fresco by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel)
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