Rabbi Levin's Blog

Long winded lessons.  Lectures that go on and on.  Repetitious and boring sermons. Sound familiar? You may have heard the story of the Rabbi at the pulpit, and one of the congregants in the front row started snoring.  The Rabbi asks the guy sitting next to him to wake him up.  “You put him to sleep, “answers the congregant, “you wake him up!”  I think it’s safe to say that this is not the most effective way to teach.  But would you believe that the Torah addresses this? One of the subjects in this week’s Parsha is kosher.  The Torah tells us the signs to determine a kosher animal - if it chews its cud and has split hooves. The Torah then lists all the kosher animals.  For birds, the Torah simply gives a list of non-kosher birds.  For fish the kosher signs are given - fins and scales.   (As an aside, it is interesting to note that the Torah definition of scales is different from the English definition.  There are fish that h...

  This Shabbat, the 20th day of the month of Av, marks the 80th Yahrzeit of the towering saint, scholar and Kabbalist, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson. Besides his own greatness, he was the father of our Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson.  Rabbi Levi Yitzchak was the Rabbi of Yekatrinoslav, known today as Dnepopetrovsk, capital of Ukraine, at the height of the rule of the Communist butchers. The Soviets put tremendous pressure on the Rabbis to go along with their vicious antisemitic rules, but Rabbi Levi Yitzchak stood strong and refused to succumb in any way.  One remarkable story that the Rebbe told stands out to me. In order for us to grasp the magnitude of the sacrifice and strength of character that Rabbi Levi Yitzchak showed, we need to put ourselves in the shoes of the Jewish people at that time. The Soviet Union was determined to wipe out any trace of religion. The “Yevsektsia” - the Jewish section of what was then the NKVD, was tasked with wiping out any trace o...

  Is it so terrible if I want something that you have?  What would happen if a poor person walks past a mansion and wistfully wishes they could live there?  In the Parsha this week, we read Moshe’s recounting of the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai.  In his account, Moshe elaborates a little on the way it was written the first time.   The tenth commandment is “Lo Tachmod” - do not covet.  As usual the English language struggles to accurately translate the Biblical Hebrew words.  We associate the word covet with desiring someone else’s things.  But the definition of “covet” according to Jewish law is to take an action to get something that someone else has. For example: if someone has an item that you like and you ask them to sell it to you and they refuse.  You offer them more money, and perhaps give them an offer they can’t refuse.  When the transaction happens and you purchase the item, even though you paid for it ver...

We are in the period of mourning known as the Nine Days, from the first of Av until the ninth - Tisha B’Av.  Tisha B’Av, a(n almost) 25 hour fast which spans this Monday night and Tuesday until nightfall, is the saddest day on the Jewish calendar.   In addition to fasting, we observe mourning practices.  We do not wear leather shoes (belts and other leather clothes are fine), we do not bathe or wash ourselves except for our fingers when necessary, we do not rub any lotions onto our bodies.  (There are some exemptions for health reasons.  Consult your Rabbi if you have a medical issue.)  We also refrain from intimate marital relations.    Five major historic calamities are recorded by our Sages as having happened on Tisha B’Av.  The spies whom Moshe sent to scout out Israel came back with a bad report (except Yehoshua and Kalev), and the Jewish people cried all night, losing their faith in Hashem and demanding a return to Egypt....

The Jews were about to go into the land of Israel. After 40 long years of wandering in the desert, Moshe was preparing for the end of his life, handing the reins over to his successor Yehoshua. Along comes another hitch. The tribes of Gad and Reuven did not want to go into the land.  The east bank of the Jordan, which the Jews had captured on their way into Israel, was very appealing to these two tribes. They were shepherds, and the lush pasture land was perfect for their abundant sheep. So they approached Moshe and asked him to give them this land instead of having them cross the river into the Promised Land.  Moshe was upset. 39 years ago, he said, we had a similar situation. We were ready to go into the Land in a few days, and then the story of the spies ruined everything. They (ten out of 12 actually) told the people that they would not be able to capture the land, and the people got frightened and lost their faith in Hashem. This delayed the entry into Israel until now....

3,295 years ago, Hashem told Moshe how to divide the Land of Israel amongst the tribes.  Each tribe was a different size and had a different lifestyle, and therefore each received an appropriately sized lot.   Now usually in a situation like this, there would be a committee of experts to decide how the land should be apportioned. There was, in fact, such a committee, composed of one leader per tribe, and managed by Yehoshua and Aaron’s son Elazar (Bamidbar 34:16-29).  But this division was done in a very unusual way. While the portions of the land were divided based on size and need, it was not the committee that had the final say on who got which portion.  The land was divided by a lottery.  Specifically, the names of the tribes were written on pieces of paper and placed in one box, and the portions were placed in another box, and one paper was drawn from each box.  Whichever portion came up for that tribe was theirs.   Now this seems strang...

  A profile or two antisemites: Balak, the king of Moav, is afraid.  The Jews are coming and are going to perform genocide on his people and take his land.  It was a fabrication.  Hashem had warned the Jews not to go to war against Moav or take their land, because it was not to be part of the Promised Land until Moshiach comes.  But that didn’t stop Balak from trying to employ a greater antisemite than him, Bilaam. Bilaam was a known curser.  Hashem gave him great prophetic vision, and our Sages taught that in terms of prophecy he was on the level of Moshe.  But he didn't use it for good.  The Mishnah describes him as an arrogant man with an evil eye.  He had figured out the exact second of every day when Hashem’s wrath is revealed in the world, and he knew that in that moment any curse he gave would be fulfilled.   He had proven himself previously when the Emorites fought a war against Moav.  He cursed the Moavites, and the Em...