Jerusalem – Family Members Share Rabbi Kalman Levine’s Legacy

Jerusalem – In the aftermath of Tuesday’s barbaric slaughter in Har Nof, the daughter of one of the four victim said that her father would have wanted the senseless attack to become a greater catalyst for unity among the Jewish people.

Michal Levine, a Miami resident, told Arutz Sheva (http://bit.ly/1upOHfT) that her father, Rabbi Kalman Levine, taught his nine children to see the good in every situation.

“It is not the first time that people of our nation are murdered and every time there is a war or pain…he called us together and said let’s look within us and see what action and responsibility we have to take upon us in order to implement change…and there was always an action that he took upon himself to help another person.”

Recalling his immense devotion to his learning, Michal Levine related that for her father, the Torah was a blueprint for life.

“He studied that path of how to implement that unconditional love in which many people talk about but it is hard to reach through the study of the bible, the Torah, in a very ,very authentic way and he dedicated himself so much to it…any energy that he had he spent knowing more of it and putting it into action.”

Below video: Arutz 7 interview with Michal Levine:

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Michal Levine described her family’s pain as “intolerable” but said that her father leaves behind a legacy of peace and unity.

“He died because he was a Jew without harming anyone and it is painful but yet every person we still see as good,” said Michal Levine. “We leave his physical body with pain but not with any anger towards anyone and that is a message that we want to be known.”

While Michael Levine remembered her father as a man who displayed enormous love towards everyone, her seven year old daughter Yafaat, a second grader at the Rabbi Alexander S. Gross Hebrew Academy in Miami Beach, shared a memory of her grandfather with Miami’s WSVN via a Skyped interview from Jerusalem.

“There’s two ways to go to the Shul he goes to,” said Yaafat Levine. “He goes the long way, to get more mitzvot.”

According to the Jewish Journal, Rabbi Kalman Levine was born in Kansas City, Missouri on June 30, 1959. Rabbi Levine’s childhood friend and former brother in law Shimon Kraft recounted how Rabbi Levine’s life was forever changed after spending six months at a kibbutz following his high school graduation from the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy. Kraft recalled his brother in law, who was then known as Cary and grew up in a Conservative family, as having a sharp sense of humor and a devoted fan of the Kansas City Royals.

“We lived at Royals stadium in the summer,” Kraft said. “We used to trade baseball cards.”

After his return from Israel, Rabbi Levine planned to become a dentist, enrolling at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, but his plans changed after he forged a friendship with Rabbi Zvi Block, who established the first branch of Aish HaTorah in Los Angeles. Rabbi Levine dropped out of college and began to learn full time.

Below video: Michel and her Daughter Yaffet speaking to Florida TV station WSVN

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Rabbi Block, who recalled Rabbi Levine as one of the brightest student he ever met, felt that the best way to encourage his students in their yiddishkeit was by sending them to yeshiva in Israel. Both Kraft and Rabbi Levine decided to go to yeshiva in Israel together, learning there for two years before moving back to Los Angeles and settling in to learn at Yeshiva University Los Angeles. Rabbi Levine made aliyah in the 1980’s and in addition to his full time Torah studies, he organized a group of men who would gather together to work on self improvement and their middos.

“He was truly great,” said Kraft. “He was so unusual, so special.”

Rabbi Levine’s death in a synagogue struck a chord with Kraft.

“He died in the Beit Medrash, which is where he lived his whole life,” observed Kraft. “It was where he lived and died.”

After hearing of Rabbi Levine’s death, Rabbi Block recounted that he had received two seforim from Rabbi Levine as an expression of his gratitude, one of which bore the following inscription:

“Dear Rabbi Block, here is a small token of appreciation for sending me to Eretz Yisroel. If it wasn’t for you it is very possible I would never have had the opportunity to learn Torah. Thank you for changing my life, Kalman Levine.”