- 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
…and I were visiting Yad Vashem, which is the national Holocaust museum in Israel. We were taking a tour and I noticed a display of Torah scrolls that were damaged in World War Two. I was studying one of the scrolls that had a bullet hole and seemed to be encrusted with blood. The Germans had raided a synagogue during a Saturday morning prayer service just like this one and shot the man who had been reading from that very Torah. The bullet must ha…
…f impulse, of falsehood. As Jews we strive to be children of Jacob–renamed Israel when he struggled with God–and to use our words, our intellect and compassion, our vision of a better world to counteract the violence that surrounds us. Our sages noted a play on words in the Hebrew text: The phrase “haqol qol ya`aqov — the voice is the voice of Jacob” can also be read “heqel qol ya`aqov” meaning “when the voice of Jacob is stilled, then the hands a…
…get away with, and then lives it up and has a great time. As supporters of Israel we sometimes feel this way, too. So many governments are engaged in brutality, arms exports and the drug trade — including Western governments — and few pay much attention, but whenever Israel does something wrong it is on the front page. Why do we bother trying to be good? When we try to do what is right and follow the rules, it is easy to become resentful of others…
…ah reading for Shavuot Second Day in Diaspora: Deuteronomy 14:22 – 16:17 & Numbers 28:26-31]. It begins with the commandment to tithe on a yearly basis, so as to provide for the needy among us, to take care of the Levites, to understand that our year’s bounty is not just a result of our great skill but also of God’s goodness, and to realize that our possessions are merely possessions- whose enjoyment comes from sharing them with others. The text g…
…of women. We found a woman in a reproduction of a lithograph by the Greek-Israeli artist Rafael Avraham Shalem, recalling a Greek Sephardic family preparing for Shabbat. We found women in the contemporary print by Deborah Joy of an egalitarian congregation. Women dance in a mid-century print by Sol Schreibman. Only one work, a print by the Israeli artist Simcha Nornberg, depicts a woman with a Torah. This is the only work of someone holding a Tor…
…brand kosher-certified water. The dilemma for the consumer: which brand is really more kosher? I was somewhat upset to receive these advertisements, not only because my Purim gags had been preempted, but also because these actual products suggest an unethical practice and are religiously misleading. Let us go back a step. The Torah outlines dietary restrictions, primarily the limitations on meat-eating and the prohibition against mixing meat and m…
…19 Aug Processing our Return to the Building: Our Hopes & Fears w/Rabbi Woodward (in-person) August 19, 2021 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm Home Page Interior Page We’re told that when we walk into a synagogue, we should say, “Mah Tovu” – how beautiful! But the reality is, returning to “a new […] More Info…
…e found this generous blessing still to give? Some would say that he never really wanted to give Esau a blessing, that he was not tricked by the ruses, but tricking himself, finding a way to empower a younger son who by rights should not have had the power. Maybe. But for me, there is a deeper explanation. Isaac has learned that the blessing of fruitfulness is not limited. It is not like the blessing of dominion, Which requires the dominant and th…
…ey about this subject in November 2021. This tells me that our congregants really care about our main sanctuary. For all these reasons, I believe that now is the time to redesign our main sanctuary to better reflect who we are. Two options: spend money or invest money. We can either spend money to make repairs piecemeal and end up with the same sanctuary we have now. Or we can invest money in a holistic approach and make the space suitable for our…
…ears ago, I was waiting in line at an ice cream store with Shai. He didn’t really want to stand still, not seeing the point to waiting in a line when the ice cream was at the front of the line. He accidentally pushed a woman and her teenage daughter, who were leaving the store. I, then about six years old, immediately apologized and explained that he had autism. They remarked as they exited the store, “Someone should teach that kid some manners. W…
