Rabbi Levin's Blog

  Teshuva – sounds frightening.  Do you think of teshuva as beating your chest and announcing how horrible you have been?  Is it shame and guilt and feeling like a bad person? Is it changing your life to become righteous?   What is teshuva anyway?   Usually translated as repentance, that is not exactly what teshuva means. Merriam-Webster translates “repent” as follows:  To feel regret or contrition; to change one's mind; to feel sorrow, regret, or contrition for, all implying regret for the past and trying to change, etc. But the translation of Teshuva is “return.”  This implies returning to your true self..  According to the actual definition of Teshuva, all the other things we have done that are not compatible with our Jewish mission represent a deviation from our self.  I recently read a study that says that what we think we want is not necessarily what we really want.  The author of the study developed tools to teach us how to f...

  Unity. Is it just a catchphrase nowadays?  The very same people stressing the need for unity seem to do everything they can to undo it. We live in a polarized world where everything and everyone is categorized by politics, race, gender and religious factions, just to name a few. It’s incredible how many ways we allow ourselves to be divided.   I have had many discussions with people about the need to step back from a dispute in order to create unity. Often the person will wholeheartedly agree and state that indeed, the other party should stop whatever it is they are doing that is causing disharmony. But why does it have to be that way? The Torah teaches us that the greatest vehicle for blessing is unity and peace. This is especially important as we approach Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Judgment. ( Speaking of upcoming holidays, have you reserved your Lulav and Etrog yet? There’s still time to order at chabadpaloalto.com/mylulav ) Our tradition teaches, and the Rosh Hashan...

Have you ever planted tomatoes?  They say they are the most expensive tomatoes you’ll ever eat. But they taste much better than what you buy in the supermarket and they are the product of your own work.  You dug a hole in the ground, delicately placed the plant, added soil and fertilizer, and then watered it and protected it. You waited for a while to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Finally you see a ripe tomato. The moment you’ve been waiting for. You take the delicious fruit and savor every morsel.  Imagine if it was a grape vine or a fig tree. You had to wait even longer for the tree to develop and the fruit to grow, and for the first three years the fruit is forbidden. The experience of tasting that first grape or fig would be much sweeter than the tomato.  Well, in the Land of Israel, you would need to control that urge and take the first fruits to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and give them to the Kohanim (priests) as a gift to Hashem. How would you feel about t...

  Why marry?  Why not live and enjoy life together as long as it lasts, and split when it’s not working anymore?  This is a question that many young (and not so young) people ask themselves today.  As a matter of fact, Rambam tells us that the institution of marriage began at Sinai.   In the laws of marriage (Mishneh Torah Kiddushin 1:1) , Rambam writes: “ Before the Torah was given, when a man would meet a woman in the marketplace and he and she decided to marry, he would bring her home, conduct relations in private and thus make her his wife. Once the  Torah  was given, the Jews were commanded that when a man desires to marry a woman, he must acquire her as a wife in the presence of witnesses. [Only] after this, does she become his wife. This is [alluded to in  Deuteronomy 22:13 ]: ‘When a man takes a wife and has relations with her.... ’” Each word in the Torah is exact, and any seemingly extra word or even extra letter teaches a...

Justice.  What does true justice look like?  The Torah’s requirements for judges, litigants and witnesses are extremely rigorous, as outlined in this week’s Parsha.  These laws are codified in many places in the Talmud, and there is an entire tractate – Sanhedrin – dedicated to this subject.   Let’s look at a few of the Torah’s conditions. Judges must be recognized throughout their community as righteous, wise, and non-materialistic people who detest any kind of financial incentive.  They must follow the laws of the Torah in their personal lives as well as in all their dealings in court.  Judges cannot have any kind of financial stake  in the case in any way, and they cannot be related to any of the parties.  Anything that smells of bribery or favoritism is unimaginable for a judge. Everyone must be treated equally.  The story goes that a judge opened a court proceeding in a multi-million-dollar case as follows:  Mr. Smith, I receiv...

  “Do not test G-d” (Devarim 6:16) .  “Test Me please with this, says Hashem” (Malachi 3:10) .  Isn’t this a direct contradiction?  The Talmud (Ta’anit 9a) is troubled by that question.  The answer the Talmud gives is that the verse in Malachi is giving us the one exception when we are indeed allowed to test Hashem.   That verse says: “ Bring the whole of the tithes into the treasury so that there may be nourishment in My House, and test Me please therewith, says the Lord of Hosts, [to see] if I will not open for you the sluices of heaven and pour down for you blessing until there be no room to suffice for it .”  In other words, while we may not test Hashem in general (details of that are for another time), when it comes to the blessings for giving tithes, it is appropriate to test. The above Talmudic discussion is based on two words in this week’s Parsha:  “Aser Te’aser” – Tithe you shall tithe, referring to the tenth of the produce, known a...

Gratitude. It’s something particularly at the forefront of my mind this week. I am writing this on Wednesday night as I prepare to return home from New York, where we celebrated the engagement of our daughter Esty to a wonderful young man, Rabbi Dovid Geisinsky. My heart is full of gratitude to Hashem for bringing us to this day. Gratitude is talked about a lot these days by psychologists as a way to achieve happiness. It has emerged as a powerful tool to overcome depression and despair. Well, as is the case with so many of our brilliant “recent discoveries,” it is a central theme in this week’s Parsha in the Torah. By the way, this past Shabbat I spoke on the theme of conflict resolution and the lessons the Torah teaches us about it in Talmud and Kabbalah. What I said was based on the teachings of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, our Rebbe’s father, one of our greatest scholars, Kabbalists and leaders, who was exiled by the Soviets and passed away in exile on the 20th of Av, which we ...