- 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
…ministration, and finally actualizing this veiled threat. That is, it may fairly be asserted that the approach of the “Jews at large” and their representatives was essentially nonviolent, inasmuch as their only mention of violence was in the context of an appeal to Pilate to cooperate with them to help prevent the outbreak of violence from a third group. Serious doubts have been cast on the veracity of this account altogether. Solomon Zeitlin argu…
…t will shape our congregation for generations to come. What needs to be repaired right now? Our drafty single-pane windows are not energy-efficient. Our noisy HVAC system doesn’t even bring in fresh air. It needs an upgrade. Some of our seats have the stuffing coming out of them. The back divider is falling apart and is held together by a hope and a prayer. All of these things require immediate attention. Doing nothing is not an option. What are w…
…First, the lights need to be in a straight line, in at least one vertical plane, so that they can be distinguished from each other. This precludes a round Hanukia, but you don’t have to use a micron ruler to make sure your candles line up. The point is that the flames should be distinguishable from each other at the normal viewing angle. Second, the shamash must also be separate and distinguishable, and preferably higher than the others, because…
…his way: “My children, everything that I have created has been created in pairs: heaven and earth, the sun and the moon, Adam and Eve, this world and the world to come. But My glory is one and unique in the world, hence, Adonai Ecad, the Lord, alone.” A lot of commentaries deal with the significance of the word, ehad. For a couple of minutes, I’d like to focus on another word in the Shema, and particularly on the grammatical form it takes. The wor…
…the 10th century B.C.E.; and the E strand probably written between 900 and 800 B.C.E.. The redaction or the compiling of the whole Torah is usually seen as occurring in Babylonia between 600 and 400 B.C.E. For our three passages only J and E are relevant — the first and third passages are usually attributed to J and the second to E. The first account, of Abraham and Sarah in Egypt, is most like a folktale; it is the simplest in structure. It show…
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…erent. Everybody does something behind closed doors, whether it be write a cheap romance novel or go to some forbidden site on the Web. The thing I do behind closed doors is write poetry. Long and involved, they usually represent some flaw in humanity or in myself or just some tragic love poem. Words spurt out of my mouth and I have to write them down or else I lose them, the ideas slipping through my fingers like grains of sand in an hourglass. I…
…s that, in many respects, the world we live in is broken and in need of repair. Such is profoundly the case, I would argue, with today’s regular reading, Tsav. “Vayomer Adonai el Moshe lemor: Tsav et Aharon ve-et banav torat ha-ola And the Eternal said unto Moses, Command Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the law of the burnt offering.;” According to Rashi, the expression tsav, “command,” always implies an order that takes effect immediately, a…
…r 2003, John O’Neil, “Hygiene: The Filthy Truth About the Hands”) that “in airport bathrooms … In five American cities, only 70 percent of men and 80 percent of women washed their hands.” If it is demonstrable that women are at least as clean as men, then the ruling of that medieval German rabbi has no bearing on our community, and, as it turns out, there is no compelling reason for women not to wear tefillin, and there is abundant permission for…
…d his sacrifice while accepting his brother Abel’s, God challenges Cain to air his grievance. Sin is at your door, God warns; but you can conquer it. Cain does not take God up on the invitation. Instead he kills Abel and is sent into permanent exile, the opposite of at-one-ment. Later in Genesis, Abraham — normally ready to argue with God — falls silent when God orders him to kill his beloved son, Isaac. After narrowly averting the intended sacrif…
