- 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
…senator] of uttering ‘hate speech’ and said he needed to apologize to the country for accusing Mr. Bush of what amounted to treason. Senate leaders said the criticism threatened the military’s mission.” (New York Times 24 September 2003) Well, it’s a free country, and they can say that, just as long as they don’t actually charge anyone with treason for saying it. But anyone who is critical of the President’s policy is at risk of being called a tr…
…ene. Each member of the household has their own Hanukia, and each lights a number of lights corresponding to the number of the day of the holiday. We are fortunate that we are able to do this mitzva in such a complete and beautiful way. But what of the poor person who can not afford all of this “hidur mitzva” but must struggle to light even one lamp? The Mishna Berura, written at the beginning of the twentieth century by the Hafetz Hayim, comments…
…rray is oriented 100% optimally toward True South, and the tilt toward the sun is 91% of optimal. The roof is virtually unobstructed allowing more than 95% of the sunlight to reach the panels; the adjusted solar exposure (ASE) is 97%. The rate of return on the investment (excluding the CCEF‘s support) is expected to be about 5% to 6%, or a payback period of about 15 to 20 years. However, factors such as electric rates, hurricanes, major earthquake…
…uth. Israel is small enough that we were able to drive from one end of the country to the other on a single tank of gas. (Small country, small car, big gas tank.) Both my dad and Tsvi especially enjoyed the tank museum (basically a big parking lot for tanks) at Latrun and the (formerly) Syrian and Israeli bunkers in the Golan. A highlight of our travel was a visit with Dr. Elaine Solowey of the Arava Institute at Qibbutz Qetura just north of Eilat…
…A.S.A.P. Even if I did believe that it was God, would I willingly go to a country that I’d never heard of, at the command of a God that was supposed to be the only God, after a life of paganism, a life where there are gods for the sun and moon, as well as for food and wealth? To do that would be like complying with a voice commanding you to start praying to idols. Abraham was above all that, though. He not only had the faith to believe that God w…
…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…
…of all the people. Imagine if the parshah has told us, tribe by tribe, the number of people in each tribe, and separately, the number of males, 20 and up, who were fit for service. Would that kind of census send a different message to us, a message saying, “everyone counts”, including all the women? The second census, what I’ll call the redemption census, I find a strange one. It requires counting of all the male Levites who were at least a month…
…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…
…or covering and seating? The committee will seek congregational input on a number of items, including the seating and potentially floor covering. The committee will make the final decision based on a variety of factors, including cost, durability, sustainability, and congregational input. Sound and Acoustics How will we handle room acoustics? We will work with the architect and potentially with an acoustical engineer. Is the space intimate enough…
…him very happy. The next morning, God sends a worm to kill the plant. The sun beats down on Jonah; again he begs for death. Again God challenges him: “Hativ hara lakh?” This time Jonah answers that he is angry enough to die. God responds: “You cared about the plant, which you did not work for and which you did not grow, which appeared overnight and perished overnight. And should I not care about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more t…
