By Rabbi Mordechai Levin

Years ago, my wife and I traveled to Israel. After visiting the northern city of Haifa, we spent the night and planned to leave the next day to visit Safed and Tiberias, on the western shore of Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee).

When I awoke … More

By Rabbi Mordechai Levin

The following facts have long been unacceptable to many Arabs: that the land of Israel is the Jewish people’s ancestral homeland; it is where we had a Jewish kingdom for centuries; there is now a Jewish state within Israel, with Jerusalem as its capital.

Even after … More

By Rabbi Mordechai Levin

The recent release by the Rabbinical Assembly — the international organization of Conservative and Masorti rabbis — of the book, The Observant Life: The Wisdom of Conservative Judaism for Contemporary Jews, offers an answer to the question, ‘What does it mean to be a Conservative Jew … More

By Rabbi Mordechai Levin

In contemporary times, the  words “tikkun olam” – repairing the world – have become synonymous with social action, but this is a recent development. What is the origin of these words? What does “tikkun olam” really mean?

Rabbi Gilbert  Rosenthal wrote about the evolution of this … More

By Rabbi Mordechai Levin

I have good news for you, if being exonerated from a crime we did not commit can be considered good news. Pope Benedict XVI wrote in his recently-published book, Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week, that we are not guilty for the death of our fellow Jew … More

By Rabbi Mordechai Levin

In a few days we will commemorate Yom Hashoah v’Hagevurah, the Holocaust and Heroism Day. On this day, we remember the six million Jews murdered by the German Nazis and their collaborators in Poland, Ukraine, the Baltic states, France, etc. In 1951, the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, … More

By Rabbi Mordechai Levin

Thanks to YouTube, I recently was able to watch and listen to Jewish psychiatrist and neurologist Victor Frankl (1905-1997), founder of the school of existential psychotherapy known as logotherapy. He wrote 39 books which were published in a variety of languages. The first and most famous … More

By Rabbi Mordechai Levin

Jerusalem has national and religious significance to the Jewish people. This significance is first shown in the Hebrew Bible, as the name “Jerusalem” is mentioned 658 times; “Zion” – one of the hills of Jerusalem –  is mentioned 175 times; and “City of (King) David” is … More

By Rabbi Mordechai Levin

One Shabbat at my synagogue, a woman approached me after the service to tell me she would not be able to attend an upcoming class I would be teaching. “Sorry I will not be able to attend the class,” she said. “In a few words, could … More