According to Levingston, not only did going to Harvard help him get into JTS, but it also helped him deal academically. Even though his Hebrew background was weak, Levingston says he still had some advantages over his classmates.
"I found, being from Harvard, that people extended to me credibility I didn't deserve," he says. "Professors found I could write even if I couldn't study Talmud."
Whereas Harvard emphasized intellectualism and critical thinking, Levingston says that rabbinical school added a new dimension that was sometimes difficult for him.
"Talking about theology was exciting," he says, "but the assumption that these commandments might come from God was difficult."
" I have innate skepticism and having gone to Harvard and Exeter just added to it," he says.
Yet the very skepticism and critical thinking that Levingston learned in college has allowed him to reach out to his adolescent students.
After his ordination, Levingston became the principal of the Rebecca and Israel Ivry Prozdor, a Jewish after-school program for high school students for six years.
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