April 2, 2020
A Tribute to Mosaic’s Founding Editor
By Rabbi Meir SoloveichikMeir Soloveichik reflects on Neal Kozodoy and his accomplishments.
עַל-חוֹמֹתַיִךְ יְרוּשָׁלִַם, הִפְקַדְתִּי שֹׁמְרִים–כָּל-הַיּוֹם וְכָל-הַלַּיְלָה
On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed guardians by day and by night.—Isaiah 62:6
Long after I was first blessed by Neal Kozodoy’s mentorship, I discovered our most important commonality: he is, like myself, a descendent of the biblical tribe of Levi. Today, at Congregation Shearith Israel, the synagogue we share, our ancestry means that Neal’s family stands in the sanctuary side by side with my own in order to assist in the ministrations of the priestly blessing. I cherish those moments. They recall the sacred tasks that Levites were charged to perform when the Temple stood in Jerusalem. Levites were, in rabbinic Hebrew simultaneously shor’rim and sho’arim, that is they were singers of the Temple’s songs and guardians of its gates. Levites gave voice to the psalms, sounding Israel’s literary genius, and they were stalwart defenders against enemies of its most sacred city.
