It is difficult to write about Rabbi Levy in the past tense.
Rabbi Levy was a fountain of knowledge and he never missed a beat. I will miss his distinguished presence in the OK office. I will miss his guidance, his wit, his tough love. I will miss his eye for detail and his ability to quickly cut to the heart of the matter.
One of the first things I noticed when I started working at the OK was how unyielding Rabbi Levy was when it came to kashrus principles. Rabbi Levy made abundantly clear what his life mission was: Kashrus without compromise. This is the path which he prepared for us and entrusted us to follow.
Rabbi Levy liked making connections between people. One of my last interactions with him occurred shortly after his return from a kashrus trip to Malaysia, when he stopped me on the street and gave me regards from a friend of mine there whom I hadn’t been in touch with for a while. This was typical yet remarkable to me, considering how many other (bigger) issues of the kashrus world were on Rabbi Levy’s plate.
Rabbi Levy’s influence and generosity was felt well beyond the confines of the kashrus industry. The world is poorer for his loss. May we soon merit to witness the fulfillment of Yeshayahu’s prophecy: “He will eliminate death forever; Hashem will erase tears from all faces.” We need it now more than ever.