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.
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Episodes
Each episode of Essential Questions with Rabbi Dan Levin will pose an essential question and invite a conversation with remarkable people in the Jewish world and in our community to consider what those questions and answers mean.
Episodes
Jun 11, 2025
Jun 11, 2025
51 min
In this episode of Essential Questions, Rabbi Dan Levin speaks with Gayle Weiswasser—book blogger, podcast host, and bookstore owner—about the deep connections between literature and Jewish identity. Together, they explore how stories can cultivate empathy, mirror Torah values, and create powerful emotional bonds with characters whose lives are far from our own. From their favorite reads to the transformative magic of fiction, this conversation delves into how books shape who we are, how being Jewish can shape the way we read, and how the role of books continues to evolve in a world increasingly shaped by technology.
Jun 4, 2025
Jun 4, 2025
44 min
What is it like navigating Jewish identity on a college campus in 2025? Rabbi Dan Levin speaks with Maya Harpaz, a senior at the University of Pennsylvania, Rabbi Jonah Zinn of University of Florida Hillel, and Rabbi Andrea Steinberger of University of Wisconsin Hillel about how Jewish campus life has shifted, especially after October 7th, 2023. They discuss changes in students' comfort expressing their Jewish identity, strained relationships with non-Jewish peers, and the broader challenges of navigating college life amid rising tensions.
May 28, 2025
May 28, 2025
45 min
In this episode of Essential Questions, Rabbi Dan Levin sits down with artists Bonnie Cohen and Zachary Oxman, whose works Birkat HaLev and Soaring Wisdom are featured at Temple Beth El’s Schaefer Family Campus. They explore their creative paths, the meaning behind their art, and how Jewish values and identity shape their work—revealing that Jewish art isn’t defined solely by its audience or commissioners, but by the stories and spirit it carries.
May 21, 2025
May 21, 2025
38 min
In this episode of Essential Questions, Rabbi Dan Levin sits down with Rabbi Alan Litwick of Temple Sinai in North Miami Beach for a discussion about the deep connections between wine, spirituality, and Jewish tradition. They explore how wine reflects our partnership with God, why it plays such a central role in rituals like Kiddush, and how even beginners can engage with wine as a spiritual experience.
May 14, 2025
May 14, 2025
48 min
There are times when the challenges we confront in life can feel overwhelming, when the situations we face feel so difficult that we fall prey to the darkness of despair. Today, Rabbi Laila Haas and Rabbi Dan Levin sit down with noted author and teacher Rabbi Naomi Levy, whose remarkable work can show us how to find hope and cultivate resilience to move through life’s most challenging times.
May 7, 2025
May 7, 2025
43 min
We find ourselves in a time of significant turmoil. The administration has imposed dramatic and sweeping change to longstanding norms and government policies on a wide range of issues. Antisemitism and anti-Zionism continues to roil college campuses and plague Jewish communities. Israel continues to fight the longest war in its history, with hostages languishing in captivity, and rifts in Israeli society grow ever wider. Considering the impact so much of this turmoil imposes on our individual lives, and the moral challenges we are facing, join Rabbi Dan Levin, Rabbi Greg Weisman and Rabbi Laila Haas for a conversation about how rabbis should meet the moment.
Apr 30, 2025
Apr 30, 2025
50 min
In this episode of Essential Questions, Rabbi Dan Levin speaks with Rabbi Nir Barkin and Rabbi David Azoulay of our sister Reform congregation, Kehillat YOZMA in Modi’in, Israel. They discuss their unique experiences and their congregation’s response to October 7th, the work they do to help their community, and what Reform Judaism contributes to Israeli society and Jewish life in Israel.
They also encourage everyone to VOTE REFORM in the World Zionist Congress election, which ends on Sunday, May 4. Your vote is a powerful way to support our Reform movement and strengthen the future of Reform Judaism in Israel. For $5 and 5 minutes of your time, you can advance the issues we care about – religious pluralism, freedom, peace, democracy and more – in Israel and beyond. If you haven’t voted already, please VOTE REFORM today at ZionistElection.org.
Apr 23, 2025
Apr 23, 2025
49 min
In this episode of Essential Questions, Rabbi Dan Levin speaks with Amanda Berman, CEO of Zioness. Zioness is a multiracial coalition of Jewish activists and allies that fight for the advancement of social, racial, economic and gender equality in America and for the inclusion of Zionists in social justice spaces. Rabbi Dan and Amanda discuss what it means to be a progressive Zionist, the history and definition of Zionism, and how the Zionist label affects Jewish Americans today
Rabbi Dan Levin
Rabbi Levin is a past president of SEACCAR, the southeast region of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and serves on the Budget and Finance committee of the CCAR. He is proud to be a member of the President’s Rabbinical Council of the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, and serves on the Alumni Leadership Council. Previously, he served as a member of the Reform Movement’s Think Tank, a group seeking to create a visioning process for the future of Reform Judaism, and as a partner in the Kalsman Institute for Judaism and Health. He has mentored younger colleagues through the CCAR, The Wexner Foundation, and the CLI Fellows program of CLAL – the Center for Learning and Leadership.
Locally, he has served on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County, as a board member of Ruth and Norman Rales Jewish Family Services, the American Jewish Committee, and the Mathew Forbes Romer Foundation. He was a featured writer for the Union for Reform Judaism’s Ten Minutes of Torah, and blogs.
Rabbi Levin is a Senior Rabbinic Fellow with the Shalom Hartman Institute. A recipient of the prestigious Wexner Graduate Fellowship, Rabbi Levin studied at the Jerusalem, Los Angeles, and New York campuses of the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, and was ordained in May, 1996. He graduated from Colgate University with a degree in Philosophy and Religion in 1991, and also studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He and his wife Aimee are the parents of three children, Ari, Meredith, and Eliana.