Rabbi Levin's Blog

How do you value a human being?  In a bit of a shocking Parsha, the Torah addresses pledging the monetary value of a person as a gift to Hashem. .  (Vayikra 27:2-3)  “When a person expresses a vow, [pledging the] value of lives to the Lord, the [fixed] value ... shall be as follows:...” Then the Torah lists the values for different age groups and gender.  “Value of lives?”  What does that mean?  (One of my pet peeves is when people discuss a person’s financial net worth.  “This person is worth $...")   Isn’t a person’s value more than just a monetary amount?  On a basic level, one could explain that when someone wants to give a monetary gift to Hashem, He has set a fixed amount that represents a monetary gift appropriate to his or her status in life. But of course there is more, and I would like to share a mystical insight from the great Kabbalist and sage, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, the Rebbe’s father, as explained by Rabbi Dovid D...

Sunday (18 Iyar, May 26) will be Lag B’omer.  This is a day that is celebrated with great joy.  Traditionally children are allowed a day off school with field trips, parades and entertainment.  Bonfires and barbecues are held, often with music and dancing.  What is the joyous event we are celebrating?  Primarily the death of a great leader, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.   Which leads us to a few questions.  What is so special about Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai that his day of passing is celebrated more than any other great leader?  There are many great Talmudic scholars, including some who greatly impacted our history, whose date of Yahrzeit we don’t even know. Also, why are we singing and dancing and celebrating the death of a great Tzaddik?  Typically a yartzeit is not a day of celebration, and many fast, like for example on the seventh of Adar, Moshe’s Yartzeit.  Yet one of the greatest annual celebrations in Israel is held on Lag B’omer i...

There is an interesting paradox relating to the Jewish holidays which appears in this week's Parsha, Emor.   A Jewish holiday is not merely a “day off.”  And although every holiday marks an event - Pesach the Exodus, Shavuot the Giving of the Torah, etc., the day is not just marking a historical event.   Our Sages taught that every year, the holiday brings a new Divine revelation to the world, reminiscent of the first time the event happened.  For example, on Pesach, the day of our freedom from Egypt, a light of freedom permeates the world.  Every year on Shavuot, the light of Torah revelation is once again drawn into the world. Put another way, the day itself is a time of revelation, and the event that happened is related to that day’s revelation.  This may explain why in the holiday liturgy we say about Pesach “Zeman Cheiruteinu - the time of our freedom” (not the day of our freedom), and about Shavuot “Zeman Mattan Torateinu - the time of the Giving...

  “Be Holy.”  What is your first thought when you hear these words?  What do the first words, and the name of this week’s parsha, Kedoshim – “Holy,” teach us?  Probably how to meditate. How to pray. How to reach up to the spiritual worlds and connect to our souls. Is that not what is holy?   Well, when we read the Parsha we see many seemingly basic laws of how to behave toward others. Respect your parents. Don’t cheat with weights and measures. Don’t steal. Don’t lie. Don’t withhold an employee’s salary. Don’t be corrupt in judgment. Judge others favorably. Love your fellow as yourself. Don’t embarrass people. Love the convert and don’t offend them. Be moral in family life and intimacy.  Holiness in Judaism is not about escaping the mundane world. It is about being involved in the world in a holy way. And that is accomplished primarily in our human interactions.  There is an underlying theme that we see when it comes to how to treat another human ...

  Once a year, and only once a year on Yom Kippur, the Kohen Gadol (High Priest), and only the Kohen Gadol, would enter the holiest slave in the world, the Kodesh Hakadashim (Holy of Holies). This is the subject of the beginning of this week’s Parsha, which describes at length the order of the service of Yom Kippur by Aaron in the Sanctuary and later by his descendants in the Holy Temple.  The Holy of Holies was a unique room, the ultimate expression of Hashem’s presence. The entire Holy Temple was a “home for Hashem on earth,” and many visible miracles happened there every day. Examples include the fire on the outdoor altar not being extinguished by rain, the pillar of smoke rising from the burning offerings never being blown by the wind, and several more enumerated by the Sages in Pirkei Avot.  In the Holy of Holies the miracle was on another whole level. Let me explain. There is nature, and then there is beyond nature, the miraculous. When water covers the sea, tha...