85 Harrison Street, New Haven, CT 06515-1724 | P: 203.389.2108 | office@beki.org
…is core purpose. For a society based on such a system to work, there are a number of requirements. One is that the law must be accessible to everyone, that the system and the logic behind it be available to everyone. This seems unremarkable to us as Jews, but keep in mind that this is not the case with some other major world religions or governments. It is the mark of the undemocratic government to conceal, obfuscate and mislead the public — and I…
…Books of Moses verse by verse in 1994, and by 2007 had reached the end of Numbers, and concluded I Samuel at Passover 2015. Several other weekly and occasional study groups formed or were developed during these years. The Shabbat Shalom Learners’ Minyan (later renamed “Shabbat Shalom Torah Study”), initiated in the 1980s, continued to attract a diverse and loyal following. In 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 BEKI won Energy Star Awards and was designated…
…30s Havura, thanks to the initiative of Miriam Benson and the support of a number of program participants such as Eva Landau. It’s a nice way to bring people together and to help people locate their cohorts in the sea of members. The number of formal members does not tell the whole story. There are many families or individuals who identify BEKI as “their” synagogue, even though they are not formally members. For at least some purposes, we should t…
…verall within the same space, how will we feel more intimate? Reducing the number of seats means that (in non-Covid times) we will all sit closer to each other. Nobody will be in Alaska, Florida, or Nova Scotia. The design and placement of the ark and ark platform will also make the room more human-scale. Why can’t we integrate pews AND movable chairs, to accommodate all of our needs and interests? The redesign committee considered combining fixed…
…e sort that a throng will commonly engage in. He thereupon ordered a large number of soldiers to be dressed in Jewish garments, under which they carried clubs, and he sent them off this way and that, thus surrounding the Jews, whom he ordered to withdraw. When the Jews were in full torrent of abuse he gave his soldiers the prearranged signal. They, however, inflicted much harder blows than Pilate had ordered, punishing alike both those who were ri…
…nk, To the deaths of Miriam and Aaron. * * * One thing to notice About the number 14,700 Is that it promises reduction: It moves toward its own diminishment. There is a half-life logic to it, An inherent halving: 14 in the thousands category, Then 7, half-14, in the hundreds. In this promise of reduction, We move toward zero, Though we will never reach it. Just after the number of dead is given, Parshat Korach turns suddenly. G-d tells Moses to ta…
…r friends, neighbors and families wished to exact.35 Similarly, an unknown number accepted induction but made private arrangements with the administration whereby they could avoid actual combat or use of weapons, or could avoid serving in the occupied territories. At the same time, thousands of others found other ways to avoid the military altogether, through Yeshiva deferments, emigration, and faked medical or psychiatric exemptions.36 Moreover,…
…to the assassination of Mr. Rabin. Before Yigal Amir pulled the trigger, a number of Orthodox rabbis had stretched medieval Jewish law beyond all reasonable limits to classify Mr. Rabin as a “pursuer,” whose life could be taken in self-defense. The same body of medieval law explicitly sanctions the killing of Jewish heretics as the Union of Orthodox Rabbis surely knows. To publicly denounce Reform and Conservative Jew as apikorsim in the current h…
…re preparing to sell their house, which was next door to ours, and move to Florida. None of us had directly told Shai that they were moving – we had only spoken about it among ourselves, perhaps while Shai was in the same room or in the car with us; though he never appeared to be listening or reacting to what we were saying. One day, though, when my grandparents were sitting in our kitchen with us, Shai came in and said “Grandma and Gramps are not…
Phone: 203.389.2108 Fax: 203.389.5899 Postal Address: Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel 85 Harrison St. New Haven CT 06515-1724 Office Manager Peggy Hackett Ext. 114 Education Director Annie Norman-Schiff Ext. 113 President Russell Epstein Rabbi Eric Woodward Ext. 120 Ritual Committee Chairperson Bruce Spierer Youth & Family Programming Director Annie Norman-Schiff Ext. 113 BEKI Bulletin bulletin@beki.org Cemetery Association cemetery@beki….