Rabbi Dan Levin
Rabbi Dan Levin
Rabbi Dan Levin serves as the senior rabbi of Temple Beth El, located in Boca Raton, FL, the congregation where he began his career in 1996. As the congregation’s leader, Rabbi Levin works to create a community where each member is inspired to lead a life of spiritual richness, meaning, purpose, and service. He seeks to build a congregation whose mission is to synthesize the innate questions and moral challenges of the world in which we live with the wisdom and power of centuries of Jewish tradition. It is this synthesis of tradition and the modern world that guides his teaching, worship, and pastoral care. Rabbi Levin believes that God is found in the intimacy of relationship, and seeks to build in the congregation a web of care, love, and oneness with each other, the community in which we live, and with the Jewish people here, in Israel, and throughout the world.
Blogs By This Author
Shabbat Message
Calling: Shabbat Message from Rabbi Dan Levin
Click here to listen to an audio recording of this Shabbat Message by Rabbi Dan Levin. I grew up in a committed Reform Jewish home – active in our synagogue, but not accustomed to traditional elements of Jewish practice. But, in my junior year at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, I fell
May 29, 2026
Shabbat Message
Everyone Counts: Shabbat Message from Rabbi Dan Levin
There is an adage we often hear from our more senior friends and family: “Getting older is not for sissies.” The human vessel is an extraordinary machine. Our daily prayers remind us to be grateful for the finely balanced network of the human body. But as we age, the body,
May 15, 2026
Shabbat Message
The Happiness of Fear: Shabbat Message from Rabbi Dan Levin
Recently, I find myself confronting a strange and unfamiliar feeling – fear. I’ve never been a particularly fearful person. As a kid, I would climb high trees, jump off the deck in the back of my house; and as a teen, let’s just say I would push the envelope a
April 10, 2026
Shabbat Message
You Shall Kindle No Flames of Fire: Shabbat Message from Rabbi Dan Levin
In this week’s Torah portion, Moses brings the people together to the Mishkan – the holy sanctuary in the midst of the camp. The first thing Moses does is to remind the people to observe Shabbat, and especially to remember the prohibition of kindling a fire. Fire is a powerful,
March 13, 2026
Shabbat Message
Garments of Forgiveness: Shabbat Message from Rabbi Dan Levin
My father wore a suit to work almost every day. Each morning he got dressed and put on a shirt and tie, before heading to the office. Most of his colleagues at the Department of Commerce’s Center for Fire Research were physicists and materials scientists, who spent their days in
February 27, 2026
Shabbat Message
Regular Holiness: Shabbat Message from Rabbi Dan Levin
The word “regular” has an interesting history. By the 16th century, drawing from the Old French reguler and the Late Latin regularis, “regular” meant “the opposite of secular … marked or distinguished by steadiness or uniformity in action or practice.” But I think the word must also have roots in
January 9, 2026
Shabbat Message
The Inner Light of Chanukah: Shabbat Message from Rabbi Dan Levin
In Jewish tradition, there are three major festivals: Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot. Two other holidays are called the minor festivals: Purim and Chanukah. For us, Chanukah doesn’t feel like a minor festival. It is among the most popular and practiced of Jewish observances. The sages teach that the minor festivals
December 19, 2025
Shabbat Message
Thanksgiving Message and Shabbat Message from Rabbi Dan Levin
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Scientists estimate that a human being has somewhere between 30-40 trillion individual cells, from our blood to our bones to our bladder to our brain. Could we imagine a conversation among the cells of our body? Imagine our brain cells declaring with pride: “Ours are the most important
November 27, 2025
Shabbat Message
The Vessel: Shabbat Message from Rabbi Dan Levin
This week we read the famous story of Noah’s Ark. The Torah teaches that the world had become lawless, violent, and corrupt. But in the midst of all the evil, there was a pure righteous man in that generation – who shared a close intimacy with God. So the Holy
October 24, 2025
Shabbat Message
Message on the Hostage Release: Message from Rabbi Dan Levin
“The whole community that returned from captivity made Sukkot and dwelt in the Sukkot … and there was very great rejoicing.” – Nehemiah 8:17 In Hebrew the word for “soul” is נשמה – Neshamah, and the Hebrew word for “breath” is נשימה – Neshimah. They are virtually the same word.
October 13, 2025