- 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
…o provide – let’s provide. Let us see this next decade as our sanctuary in time. And let us use that time to rededicate this synagogue as our collective spiritual home, our sanctuary in space.” A year later, as Eric prepared for the end of his days in this world, he made a bequest to BEKI. To honor his vision, his bequest was used to establish the Eric I.B. Beller Environmental Fund. Income from the Eric Beller Fund is dedicated to making our phys…
…ou, God! I owe it all to You. But as I awaited neurosurgery, for the first time I felt that God did not owe me an uninterrupted high ride to be worthy of my affection. In other words, my illness stripped me of a layer of conditionality in my love of God. Here I was, facing dire possibilities, feeling blessed. You may ask, where did these feelings, be they odd or counterintuitive or otherwise, come from? Stanley Rosenbaum, our Congregation’s reside…
…hted at or before time given ** Indicates candles must be lighted by transferring existing flame ~ tilde indicates approximate time, usually +/- 15 minutes…
…hted at or before time given ** Indicates candles must be lighted by transferring existing flame ~ tilde indicates approximate time, usually +/- 15 minutes…
…hted at or before time given ** Indicates candles must be lighted by transferring existing flame ~ tilde indicates approximate time, usually +/- 15 minutes…
…hted at or before time given ** Indicates candles must be lighted by transferring existing flame ~ tilde indicates approximate time, usually +/- 15 minutes…
…t punishment. What happened? We can ask the same questions all over again. Did G-d lie? Did G-d make a mistake – a false prophesy? Or was it mercy again? As G-d reached down to that first child to put the mark of Cain on him, the mark of protection, when the intimate G-d leaned down to the face of that first child, did mercy overcome justice? And did that mercy allow the first city to come into being, and music? And did it also – and inevitably –…
…t we read, “Then came Amaleq.” Amaleqites were a fierce Bedouin people who did not live near Refidim. They didn’t have to attack. The Israelites were not an imminent threat. But they did attack and they are infamous because they did so in the most vicious way by attacking the rear of the column, the stragglers and the weakest. For the first time the Children of Israel must organize themselves for battle, and Joshua leads them in what becomes an ep…
…ider it. He was needed on the farm. So, at the age of 11, Moishe Dovid ran away from home. Not till the family gathered for dinner did they know he was missing. His father hitched up the wagon and drove toward Meretz. As he bumped along the dirt road in the moonless night, he sang tehilim – psalms – so that his son could recognize him. Through the forest he rode, his Psalms interrupted by the howls of wolves. Little Moishe Dovid clung tightly to t…
…s 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 than 120,000 persons who do not yet know their right hand from their left, and many beasts as well!” (Jonah 4:10-11) The Book of Jonah ends there, with God’s question to Jonah hanging. I’d like to begin a…
