אבן עזרא — את שבתתי תשמרו ומקדשי תיראו אני ה'

Q — The closing pasuk of Behar ("את שבתתי תשמרו ומקדשי תיראו") seems disconnected from everything around it. The parsha is full of social and economic mitzvot — shmitta, yovel, redemption of land, treatment of the slave. How does Shabbat-and-Mikdash fit at the end?

A — Ibn Ezra offers two readings, preferring the second. (1) "שבתותי" = the shmitta years (which Vayikra 25:4 calls "שבת לה'"); "מקדשי" = the year of יובל (which Vayikra 25:12 calls "קדש"). On this reading, the closing pasuk is a thematic bookend recalling the parsha's opening. (2) The pasuk connects backward to the immediately previous pasuk (26:1) forbidding bowing on a stone of figures. The contrast is sharp: bowing on a stone of figures IN YOUR LAND is forbidden; bowing before God IN THE MIKDASH on SHABBAT is required ("מדי שבת בשבתו יבא כל בשר להשתחוות לפני" — Yeshayahu 66:23). The act of הִשתחויה is the same; place and time are determinative. Shabbat is the chosen TIME, mikdash is the chosen PLACE, and together they sanctify the act. The grammatical move Ibn Ezra makes elsewhere (one verse glossing another in disguise) sharpens here: 26:1 forbids the wrong way, 26:2 commands the right way.