- 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
…nce from his extended family. We are so excited for him to also have the influence of BEKI, which seems to be deeply respectful of Torah and tradition as well as humanism and egalitarianism. Thank you for your work for our community! Toni Davis & Leslie Brisman Splitting our time between Westville and Madison, CT, we were looking for a vibrant area Conservative synagogue with an emphasis on learning and community, an interactive D’var Torah, and p…
…hei HaBesht (Tel Aviv: Devir) 5707/1947, 5735/1975, p. 35. A table of tale numbers and the corresponding page numbers in other editions is given at the back of the book by Ben-Amos and Mintz. 2. Violence is neither advocated nor condoned in these tales to any significant extent, whereas many tales strongly advocate the efficacy and advantages of nonviolence. The main exception to this generalization are a few of the first fifteen tales (pp. 39-51…
…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…
…d to do something crazy. If this is the case, Abraham passed the test with flying colors. I also think that God was testing Abraham’s faith, but not in that way. I think that the commandment to sacrifice his son was an invitation from God for Abraham to argue. Abraham argued with God on behalf of an entire city earlier in this portion, so God wanted to see if he would argue on behalf of his own son. It seems backwards that Abraham would argue on b…
…vents NOT on Shabbat Small Chapel* (no food allowed): $100 *or downstairs sanctuary space during renovation Main Sanctuary (no food allowed): $150 Catered meal in social hall (2 hours): $250 Additional per hour: $75 Fee includes kashrut supervision, use of the kitchen by a caterer, setting up and clean-up of the room, trash removal and standard custodial services. Security: $45 per hour, minimum 4 hours If 50 or more people are expected for your…
…the Torah and perform their aliya properly. If there were no limit on the number of people who may go up for an aliya at once, then what if a Bar- or Bat-Mitzva family were to want to send up a group of five or ten at once? And what if two groups of ten are called up in succession? The result might violate even our minimal demands of decorum. If we were to limit joint aliya to two people per aliya, then on the one hand we would run into some fami…
…s that the soul of a Jew is attached to Torah as a candle is attached to a flame (3:218b). When a Jew studies Torah, or prays, his or her body reflects the soul’s essence. Rabbi Moshe Isserles quoted Abudraham’s description of it in the sixteenth century: “Those who tried to be precise would sway when they read Torah, just as people trembled when the Torah was first given, and likewise when they pray, so that all one’s body will praise God” (Magen…
…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…
…ll do it that way, too. But this procedure often created a dilemma: If the number of qaddishes was limited, there might still be some who did not get to say one; if there was no limit to the number of qaddishes added, the service became burdensomely long. So after careful scrutiny the rabbis allowed all mourners to say qaddish simultaneously. This rabbinic solution was adopted only after careful consideration, and after it was determined that mour…
…bered my face and my name, after meeting me just once before, and only briefly. He even acknowledged Bruce and me at the end of services and encouraged the congregation to welcome us. I felt embraced, and I didn’t feel invisible anymore. One day I was speaking with my brother-in-law on the phone. I was talking about BEKI (which by this time I had joined) and the feeling that I have here. And I confided in him that one day I’d like to get up on the…
