- Congregation Beth El–Keser Israel
85 Harrison Street, New Haven, CT 06515-1724 | P: 203.389.2108 | office@beki.org
85 Harrison Street, New Haven, CT 06515-1724 | P: 203.389.2108 | office@beki.org
A Letter to Senator Lieberman Dear Senator Lieberman, I am writing today to ask your help in getting me appointed to a government death panel. During the debates before the enactment of Obamacare, several leading public figures, mostly Republican, including Sarah Palin, promised that once the law came into effect, life-and-death decisions would be made for the elderly and infirm by government death panels. From our personal acquaintance, you may…
…by farmer Ahmed in 1930 might have to be divided among his 60 descendants today, creating miniature plots too small to farm. As Fakhri Abu Diab, Director of Jerusalem’s Al-Bustan Center, noted in the context of the Jerusalem municipality’s restrictive building codes, “My parents had a house of 602 square feet. They had ten children, each of whom has married and had more children. Does the city really think that all of us can live in 602 square fe…
…ement of our sages from the Talmud: “The only difference between the world today and the world after the messiah comes is that when the messiah comes we will be free of foreign subjugation.” Given this definition there are no grounds for debate with Christians over the authenticity of their messiah. It was clear to all their leader was not politically the “King of the Jews.” As he failed to provide physical, political salvation, in declaring him m…
…He would have murdered all the Jews though they were not to blame, sir Oh today we’ll merry merry be. Purim is a memorial observance of attempted genocide. For a generation growing up in the ashes of Auschwitz, with a memory of the Ottoman government’s Armenian Genocide in 1915, the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, and other recent travesties as well, there is nothing amusing about attempted genocide. Many of us remember Purim 1996 (5756) when terrori…
…enty years ago it was a big deal if a dinner guest had some special needs; today we take it in stride. But in most of the world, if you live among a certain people and don’t eat their food, you won’t fit in. If you are served rat in Rangoon and you refuse, your hosts will be deeply offended. If the French farmer offers fresh frog legs and you refuse, you will not be offered dessert. People are really touchy if you don’t eat their food. And if you…
…ffered from the front of the room on behalf of a largely passive audience. Today we are reclaiming another model, recognizing that the ten people required for our services are equals and that the Torah is meant to be accessible to all. The book of Proverbs teaches b’rov am hadrat hamelekh, the splendor of God is among the people. What would it look like if our spiritual space were designed to express our values — to express that at BEKI, and in ou…
