Rabbi Levin's Blog

The Great Flood had happened.  Noach and his family were back on dry land, and in appreciation, Noach offered sacrifices to Hashem.  The Torah tells us Hashem’s reaction (Bereshit 8:21): “G-d [figuratively] smelled the appeasing fragrance (i.e., He acknowledged Noah’s appreciation), and in response, G-d said to Himself, “[I hereby swear that] I will never again curse the soil because of humanity, for the inclination of a person’s heart is [challenged by his] evil [inclination] from his [earliest] youth. Never again will I strike down all life as I have done.” Because the evil inclination challenges us from our youth, Hashem will be merciful and never again destroy all life. Now, let’s take a look at a remarkably similar statement in last week’s Parsha, and the end of Bereshit (Bereshit 6:5):  “And the L-rd saw that the evil of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of his heart was only evil all the time.”  Therefore, "I will blot out man, whom I created, ...

One of the descriptions in the Torah for Sukkot, the holiday we just celebrated, is “Chag Ha’asif” - the Harvest Festival. The literal translation of the words is “holiday of ingathering.“ Another verse says: “Make for you a holiday of Sukkot when you gather in [the produce of] your granary and your wine press.” As the Midrash tells us: Although it is a Mitzvah to be joyous on all the festivals, the Torah does not tell us explicitly to be joyous on Pesach, it says once “you shall be joyous” on Shavuot, and three times “you shall be joyous” on Sukkot.  This is because on Pesach the crops are still in the fields and we don’t know yet what the harvest will be like. By Shavuot we are celebrating the successful grain harvest but the fruits are not yet ripe. On Sukkot, however, the Torah tells us three times to be joyous, because now all the fruits have been harvested and we can enjoy all the produce.  (Jews around the world celebrated this holiday the ingathering of the remaining l...

We connected to Hashem in Elul, we accepted Him as our King on Rosh Hashanah, we did Teshuvah over the Ten Days of Repentance, and we bonded with Him and started with a clean slate on Yom Kippur.  This all brings us tremendous joy, like a child reunited with his or her parents after a period of distance.  We can imagine what joy both parents and child feel. This joy is expressed in the next phase of our holidays, the “Time of our Joy,” Sukkot.  It is a beautiful holiday with many wonderful observances, culminating in the joyous day of Simchat Torah. This is how we express our joy in our connection with Hashem, by observing extra Mitzvot.  And this holiday has several.  Sitting and eating - actually “dwelling” - in the Sukkah, shaking the Four Species, special prayers and meals, including kiddush and challah, parties and gatherings, cutting back on work and dancing with the Torah. This joy, and the “tying it down” with the physical observance of the joyous Mitzvo...