Rabbi Levin's Blog

  One of the things, our Sages said, that helped the Jews in Egypt merit the Exodus from Egypt, was Shabbat observance. This merit will also help bring the redemption from our current exile. In honor of the Parsha Vaera, where we read about the beginning of the process of redemption, I would like to reprint a story that was published today by Rabbi Mordechai Lipskier.  He wrote that he heard the story from Rabbi Moshe Raitport, who heard it first hand. A few years ago, a woman called the Shomrei Hadas Funeral Chapels in Brooklyn to arrange her husband’s funeral. “Before going ahead with the arrangements, I have a request to make. May I tell you a story?” This woman had gotten married in the early 1940s in Brooklyn. It was difficult for a Shabbat observer to hold down a job, so like many other Jews, her husband was pink-slipped from one job after the next. (They would often take a job on Monday, and when they refused to come on Shabbat, they were fired.) Their struggle worsened...

Our forefather, Jacob, passed away and was buried in Israel, as he had requested. Time passed, the Jews settled into Egypt, and then Yosef passed away. He did not get to be buried in Israel like his father. He was “placed in a coffin in Egypt.” This is the final verse in the Parsha Vayechi and the final verse in the book of Bereshit.  Not a very happy ending.  This is perplexing, especially in light of the teaching of our Sages that we should always end on a positive note.  The Parshiyot are divided so that we always end on a positive note, and if this is ever not the case, there has to be a good reason.  For example, when we read the Parsha of Ha’azinu. Some of the breaks are at a negative point, and there is a large discussion as to why that is.  Another example is when we read the Parsha of the “tochacha” – the curses that are foretold in the Torah, we don’t break in the middle.  We read all the way through with no break until the final, positive verse....

  People are faced with challenges every day, and the way we deal with them can have very small consequences or sometimes can be life-altering.  A community leader’s decisions in the face of adversity can often have a major impact on the community, and a world leader’s actions can impact the entire world.   Our history is rich with great leaders whose strength and tenacity, and unwillingness to allow anything to stop them from leading the Jewish people forward, brought Jewish life back to its full strength after very difficult times.   Such a leader was Rabbi Dovber of Lubavitch.  His birthday and his Yahrzeit are both on the ninth of Kislev, which we will celebrate this Shabbat.  On the tenth of Kislev, he was released from prison.  He was arrested, as was his father Rabbi Schneur Zalman and just about every major Chabad leader, due to false accusations made against him by people trying to stop him from his work of building the Jewish community and mo...

Friday is the first day of the month filled with light - Kislev!   At the end of the month we have Chanukah,  the beautiful “Festival of Lights,” with its message of increasing light.  There are also two celebrations of redemption relating to this Chanukah message.  The “Alter Rebbe,” Rabbi Schneur Zalman, first Rebbe and founder of Chabad, brought a new light of Torah to the world.  He enabled us to deeply understand the mystical secrets of Torah, thereby combatting the darkness that enveloped the Jewish world and preparing the way for the revelation of Moshiach.  This light was almost extinguished when he was falsely accused of rebellion against the Czar and arrested on capital charges.  On the 19 th of Kislev he was released with great honor, and the light expanded much more than it had before.   His son Rabbi Dov Ber continued to spread this light after his passing,  who was also falsely accused of rebellion and arrested.  He was re...

There are always questions that come up when we study Torah.  Every word of Torah, including the stories, teaches us how to live as Jews and fulfill our mission on earth.  There are many layers of meaning to each word, and asking questions is an important part of learning.  There are some questions that I like to call head-scratchers.  We read something and wonder what on earth it means, what the purpose is and what we can learn from it.  Or we read a story and scratch our heads and wonder why the story happened and what it is teaching us.  One such example is the story of Avraham in relation to the city of Sedom.    The people of Sedom and the surrounding four cities were so wicked and corrupt that Hashem decided to destroy them.  There are many stories told about the cruelty of those people, the way they mistreated any visitor and their horribly corrupt system of “justice.”  The last straw, the Torah teaches us, was when they caught a ...

I’m thinking about how lonely Avraham and Sarah must have been. It’s always hard to come to a new place where you know nobody and nobody knows you, all the more so at an advanced age. This is true today, when we are able to keep in touch with our friends and family, and we can do research in advance about the place we are going to and the people there. Let’s imagine what things were like for Avraham and Sarah. Avraham was 75 and Sarah was 65. They had a large following where they lived in Charan. Hashem tells them to leave their home and go to “a place that I will show you,” not even telling them where they would end up. Now it’s true that initially they did have many of their students come along with them, but then when they got to Canaan there was a famine and they were forced to move once again to Egypt. (This was one of the ten tests of faith that Hashem gave Avraham and Sarah. As soon as they came to the place where Hashem led them, they were forced to leave.). Now they go to anot...

There are facts and there are interpretations of facts. We often confuse the two.  And the truth is that we interpret facts based on our own feelings.  The Torah teaches us a powerful message about this relating to the Great Flood.  Hashem decides to destroy the world with the exception of a family and one or seven pairs of each living species.  Then after the flood, when Noach brings offerings in gratitude to Hashem, He makes a covenant never again to destroy the entire world.  What is uncanny is that the reason that Hashem used to destroy, is the same reason He made a covenant to never again destroy. The words in each case are almost identical.   (Genesis 6): 5 The Lord saw that the evil of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of his heart was only evil all the time. Then in chapter 8, after the flood, Hashem states in the covenant:   21 And the Lord smelled the pleasant aroma, and the Lord said to Himself, "I will no longer curse the ...