Rabbi Levin's Blog

Someone asked me yesterday:  “How do I prepare practically for the New Year?  I always make all kinds of resolutions, and just like my January 1 resolutions, they don’t last more than a few days.”  I told him the allegory that the Ba’al Shemtov (founder of Chassidism) told relating to the sound of the Shofar.  In short, a king had an only son who was raised in the sheltered lifestyle of the palace and he wanted to expose him to the real world.  He sent him off to travel with some servants and lots of money, but the prince squandered the money and dismissed the servants, and descended into a life of depravity.  His royal clothes ripped and he started eating bad food, forgetting all the manners he learned in the palace.   One day the prince realized how far he had strayed from the royal life that was his heritage, and decided to return to the palace.  But at the palace nobody recognized him and they wouldn't let him in.  He had even forgotten h...

There is something special about the beautiful Mitzvah of “Bikkurim” - first fruits.  This Mitzvah is the opening of Parshat Ki Tavo: “It will be, when you come into the land which the Lord, your G-d, gives you for an inheritance, and you possess it and settle in it,  You shall take of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you will bring from your land, which the Lord, your God, is giving you. And you shall put [them] into a basket and go to the place which the Lord, your God, will choose to have His Name dwell there.” (Devarim 26:1-2.) Rambam describes how this Mitzvah was carried out.  “ How are the first fruits brought to Jerusalem? [In each regional area around the country], all of [the inhabitants of] the towns in that area gather in the area’s central town, so that they will not ascend to Jerusalem as individuals, for [Proverbs 14:28] teaches: "The glory of the King is among the multitude of people." ...An ox with its horns glazed with gold leads the proce...

  There are some Mitzvot that carry as much weight as all the other Mitzvot combined.  Refraining from idol worship is one, as is Shabbat.  Perhaps a more surprising one is Tzitzit, the Mitzvah of wearing strings on the edges of a four cornered garment.  “ You shall make yourself twisted threads, on the four corners of your garment with which you cover yourself.” (Devarim 22:12.)  This verse in this week’s Parsha is one of the times it is mentioned in the Torah.   Another is in the third section of Shema that we say at least twice daily.  In those familiar verses Hashem says: “Speak to the children of Israel and you shall say to them that they shall make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations...when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord to perform them...So that you shall remember and perform all My commandments...” (Bamidbar 15:38-40.) This Mitzvah applies to men, because it ...

“Set up for yourselves judges and police officers, in all your ‘gates’,”  opens this week’s Parsha, stressing the need for law enforcement, courts and judges, in all cities in Israel.  The judges were the ones who determined the law, according to Torah, and officers ensured that the law was carried out. In one of Isaiah’s prophecies about the end of exile and the final redemption of the Jewish people, he says: “I will return your judges as at first and your advisors as in the beginning.”  It is interesting that he does not mention law enforcers, and instead he says “advisors.” The distinction is interesting.  Whereas in the past they enforced the law, in the future they will advise.  This fits well with the vision of what the future redemption will bring.  As Rambam says, there will not be any war or jealousy, and everyone will spend their time pursuing knowledge of Hashem.  There is no need for enforcement of law and order in that type of society....

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...