Rabbi Levin's Blog

I’m on an airplane again. This time, returning from a shiva visit to the family of Sandy Klugman, of blessed memory, in Seattle. Sandy and her late husband Elliot were pillars of our community for many years. Today’s Dvar Torah is dedicated to her memory. In order to get the Jews out of Egypt there was no need for ten plagues. Moshe could have just led them out while Pharaoh stood by helplessly. In order to punish the Egyptians, Hashem could have skipped the first nine and gone straight for the Killing of the Firstborns. The main purpose of all the plagues, the Torah tells us, is for the world to know that Hashem exists and that He controls every aspect of nature.  The Zohar (the foremost book of Kabbalah) states that Hashem is “above above without end and below below with no limit.”  While it appears to us that the world is separate from the Divine and runs itself, the Divine energy that is beyond all of creation is also the life-source of everything in existence.  Scien...

  Sometimes when you read the Torah, you scratch your head and say “what?”  At the beginning of this week’s Parsha (Exodus 6:3) ,  Hashem says to Moshe:  “I appeared to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov with my name Kel Shakai, but with my name Havaye (yud kei vav kei) I did not make myself known to them.”   (Incidentally, if you look in the Torah, you will see that the names of G-d are different from how I just wrote them.  This is intentional.  There are seven names of Hashem that we are forbidden to destroy, or even to mention, unless it is part of a Torah verse or organized prayer.  We therefore pronounce and write them differently.  “Kel” is written alef lamed, Shakai is written shin dalet yud, and the name we call Havaye is written yud and hei and vav and hei, or yud kei vav kei.) So Hashem is saying to Moshe that until now, the name Havaye was not revealed.  Only now, that the Jews have been slaves and mistreated in Egypt, Hashem ...

  I’m on a plane traveling from Denver to Salt Lake City. Thank G-d this trip is for two very happy events. Last night Jasmine Joshua, who lived in our house for over three years while she was going to school in Palo Alto, got married to Dovid Braslawsce. It was a beautiful wedding. Tomorrow my new grandson Zippel will with Hashem’s help have his bris in Salt Lake City. Dena and I are thrilled to share the nachas for both.  Today is the Yahrzeit of my grandmother, the holy Rebbetzin Mariasha Garelik. She must be having a lot of Nachas in Gan Eden. As I settled into my seat on the very full plane, I was thinking that we find a connection and a lesson in the weekly Parsha to every event that happens in the world, there must be some connections here.  Sure enough there are references in our Parsha to weddings, bris, and my grandmother’s yahrtzeit (well, in a more general way). Wedding: Amram, the leader of the Jewish people in Egypt, did not want to bring children into a wor...

Some thoughts on the holiday of “Hei Teves,” the fifth day of the month of Tevet.  For context, please see here .   How valuable is a book?  Well, wouldn’t that depend on what kind of book?  Hardcover, softcover, new book, old book, classic book, antique book and so many other variables.  Some books sell for a nominal amount and some are much more expensive.  Some also have historical significance and will be more valuable.  A rare manuscript with great historical value would probably be sold at a high price at a professional auction.  All of the above is how a book dealer or collector would appraise a book, and every book has a market value.   Then there are holy books.  Yes, Torah books have financial value, but there is something much deeper about holy books that cannot be quantified in financial terms.  The first word of the Ten Commandments is “Anochi,” spelled with four Hebrew letters Alef, Nun, Chaf and Yud.  Our sages t...

There is a paradox relating to the Chanukah flames.  On the one hand, the purpose of the lamps is to spread light.  We are publicizing the fact that there was a great miracle and the oil burned for eight nights.  (Did you hear about the modern Chanukah miracle?  There were enough doughnuts for eight nights and they only lasted one!)     On a mystical level, the intense holiness which is evoked because of the Jews’ self-sacrifice to adhere to Torah is able to transform even the darkest place to light.  The Chanukah lights, lit after sunset, represent that transformation.  However you look at it, the light is there for us to see, and to learn from.   On the other hand, we are not permitted to use or benefit from the light.  One reason that we have an additional candle, the Shamash, is in case someone reads by the light of the Chanukah candles, they will be using the light of the Shamash and not that of the other candles.   ...

  Chanukah is coming!  What an exciting time for adults and kids alike.  Latkes, doughnuts, parties, Chanukah Gelt (money), and of course the most important observance – lighting the Menorahs.  We also add a special section in the Amidah prayer and Bentching, called “Ve’al Hanissim, say Hallel, and have wonderful parties, public Menorah lightings and sometimes a concert! (Pardon the interruption…. Have you heard about the fabulous events we are hosting during Chanukah? There’s a public candle lighting at City Hall, a Hakhel Concert featuring Yoel Sharabi, and so much more! Learn more at chabadpaloalto.com/chanukah ). It is indeed a wonderful holiday, with a universal message – the triumph of light over darkness, of good over evil.  When there is darkness, light a candle, and you will increase the light and defeat the darkness.   Someone asked me the other day: We focus so much on the message of light.  Why does there have to be darkness in the fir...

  Sciatica is a painful condition.  Anyone who has experienced it will not forget the pain and the difficulty walking, and perhaps that memory will last a lifetime.  Well, there is one episode of sciatica that is remembered for many thousands of years.  Yaakov, the Torah tells us, on the night before his potentially dangerous meeting with Esav, fought with a “man.”  This man, our Sages taught, was Esav’s archangel.  Every nation has its “ministering angel” that provides protection and spiritual energy for the nation.  Esav’s angel was trying to beat Yaakov in advance of his meeting with Esav. Yaakov wrestled with the angel and won, except that the angel was able to dislocate Yaakov’s hip and he suffered from sciatica.  This sciatica was cured soon after by the warming rays of the sun, which miraculously rose early on that day.  We remember this event not just by reading and studying about it.  There is a prohibition, one of the 613 Mitzv...