Rabbi Levin's Blog

Tomorrow, Friday, we experience a rare phenomenon - a public fast on a Friday.  The tenth of Tevet is a fast day commemorating the beginning of the Babylonian siege on the City of Jerusalem in the year 587 BCE - 3175 from creation. (Pardon the interruption.  The “year 3175 from creation” may sound strange to some, given scientific studies that show the age of the universe to be billions of years.  This subject will be discussed at length by our remarkable guest speaker Rabbi Krisch, scientist, former science writer for the New York Times and Rabbi, this Saturday night.  Please see the details here .) Fasting on Shabbat is generally not allowed, because it is a day of joy and pleasure.  A day when the physical becomes elevated to a higher level, and it is a Mitzvah to enjoy food on Shabbat.  The only exception isYom Kippur. The prohibition against fasting begins right at the beginning of Shabbat, at sunset, and we therefore make sure to at least eat or drink...

Happy end of Chanukah!  May the light of this holiday permeate our entire year and dispel all the darkness.  In a few days we will celebrate another holiday - the Fifth of Tevet, this Sunday.  I will start with some background. How would you define the word “book?”  I looked up a few dictionaries, and got some interesting definitions.  A common one is something like this:  “a set of written, printed, or blank sheets bound together between a front and back cover.”   In Judaism, our holy books are much more.  The holy Tablets that Moshe brought from heaven were more than just stones containing words.  The stones themselves were considered holy because they contained the Ten Commandments.  Even after the tablets were broken, the pieces were kept in the Holy Ark along with the second, unbroken tablets. A Sefer Torah (Torah scroll) is our most sacred item.  That includes the parchment, not just the content.  If G-d forbid a Tor...

  There is something strange about Chanukah.  We start the first night of candle lighting with one light (not including the Shamash), then light two on the second night, until on the eighth we light eight lights.  Now what’s strange about that, you might ask, that’s the way it’s done.   Well, do we do that with any other Mitzvot?  Imagine someone coming to the synagogue on the first day of Sukkot with a lulav, then on day two with a lulav and etrog, then on day three he adds willows, ten on day four the myrtles.  Or perhaps on Shabbat - one week we call one person to the Torah, then two the next week, then three, etc.  It doesn’t work that way.  We are consistent with these observances.  Four species every day of Sukkot, seven aliyot plus maftir every Shabbat, and so it is for all the Mitzvot.  Only on Chanukah do we increase the number of lights every day. There is another aspect of the change in the number of lights.  (I say ...

It was a very moving and beautiful moment.  Two brothers who had been estranged for a long time meet after 35 years.  There was great tension and fear in anticipation of this meeting.  Yaakov had hoped that Esav had forgiven him for “stealing” the blessings, which were actually rightfully Yaakov’s, and had sent him messengers of peace.  He was warned that Esav was coming toward him with 400 warriors to fight. Yaakov prepared himself in many ways, dividing the camp, praying and sending lavish gifts to appease Esav.  As the Torah says, Yaakiv was afraid and distressed - afraid that he might be killed and distressed that he might be forced to kill.  Because even though it would be in self-defense and he should be fully justified, Jewish nature is such that we are distressed when we have to kill our enemies. This all followed on the heels of Yaakov’s fight with Esav’s guardian angel, from which he emerged with a wound in his sciatic nerve.  We can imagine ...

A woman has been married for many years and not been able to have children.  For many decades she has suffered, seeing all her friends with many children and yearning for a child of her own.  Finally the miracle happens and she becomes pregnant and gives birth to a healthy boy.  You can imagine her intense joy and happiness, and she expresses that in the name she gives her son.... Give me another one? This seems to be exactly what our mother Rachel did.  After many years watching her sister Leah give birth to seven children and the house maidservants have two each, she finally has a son, and she names him Yosef, which means “he will add.”   The Torah clearly states her intent - “Yosef Hashem li ben acher,” typically translated as “May Hashem add for me another son.”  While of course there can be many explanations for this, like perhaps that she was excited about her ability now to have children and was praying to be able to augment her part as a mother...

Dedicated to the memory of the holy martyr Rabbi Zvi Kogan, may Hashem avenge his blood.  Esav was an unsavory character in many ways.  In contrast to his holy brother Yaakov, he was a murderer, a rapist, and a lot more.  A word that came to my mind recently to describe him in modern terms is “entitled.”  He was the epitome of entitlement.   There are many Midrashic and mystical explanations for why the whole story with the blessings happened as it did, why Yitzchak favored Esav and why Yaakov had to trick his father to “steal” the blessings from his brother, but let’s look at the narrative on a simple level.   Yitzchak was planning to give the greatest blessings ever bestowed on anyone to his firstborn son, in order for him to use those blessings to improve the world.  Esav had tricked his father into believing that he at least had some righteous tendencies or potential.  He showed tremendous respect and deference to his father.  A...