- 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
…mprehension. We would like to feel uplifted. I think we would like to be reminded of things that are God created, not man created. In the sanctuary we might like to be surrounded by the natural rather than the artificial. The sanctuary space should be clearly different from the familiar day to day. A BEKI sanctuary should be warm, orderly, and quiet. It should be respectful of tradition, have qualities of timelessness. The physical symbols and dec…
…d, 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 mourner’s qaddish is not one of the types of public prayers that can be said by only one person at a time, su…
…uy him tefillin.” In general, we encourage pre-benei mitzva to begin performing mitzvot (religious obligations) as soon as they are “age appropriate,” even though minors are not technically obligated until they reach the age of majority. For some mitzvot, such as marriage and raising children, we generally encourage people to wait until after their teenage years. In the days of the Temple, kohanim did not serve in certain capacities, and men were…
…heir Holiday Candles — glowing in their windows, then we are truly fulfilling the mandate of Hanuka: Pirsuma Nesa, Proclaiming the Miracle….
…ole confessional of Yom Kippur. Indeed, the Prayer of Moses for his sister Miriam is pointed to as an ideal prayer: “Please God, please heal her.” In Hebrew it is five single-syllable words. The traditional prayers are valuable in that by reciting them we are habituated to prayer, we learn the vocabulary of prayer, and we fulfill our obligation to recite the Shema and Amida which are statutory prayers. But beyond the “fixed prayers” one should say…
…a She`arim? “Gimme loot, Ḥasidim!”] This fall, we are launching a Hesed Committee, chaired by Board member Muriel Banquer. This committee will not have a lot of meetings to discuss the theory of hesed. It will coordinate acts of kindness, so that no one in the BEKI family falls through the cracks. Some people in the congregation have a support network of friends and family nearby who help each other out, and this wonderful, informal network is the…
…r in an office setting. Under the leadership of BEKI members Carolyn Kohn, Mimi Glenn, Charlie Ludwig, Saul Bell and others, the Wardrobe was housed at BEKI during the Summer and Autumn of 1997. Located just blocks from the Community Action Agency, the Congregation provided a convenient and well-equiped venue for participants to find and try clothes stored in the synagogue building. See news story in BEKI Bulletin July 1997. Abraham’s Tent – In 20…
…nything. He won’t tell them to let me in. He doesn’t interfere. He’s just smiling. “Why is he smiling?” she asks. I think that God finds it amusing in some way…his children amuse him. And I think He’s smiling because he knows it’s not time, for them or for me, and that I have to wander a bit more. When I planned this date for my Bat Torah, I had no idea what the Torah portion would be. Maybe it was destiny that on this day I would sing the Song of…
…bbat lunch or for the High Holiday meals. (BEKI provides clients with free tickets for High Holiday services.) In the summertime, Kulanu participants may have a joint program with one of BEKI’s social action committees—they will clean up Beaver Pond Park in southern Connecticut, where congregants have held Tashlich services during Rosh Hashana. Kulanu also plans to provide a job training sight at BEKI for adults with developmental disabilities who…
…s. BEKI believes in taking a robustly welcoming stance toward interfaith families. Coming from an interfaith and multi-racial family himself, Rabbi Woodward considers the inclusion of non-Jewish relatives in the community to be deeply important. The same goes for Jews of all income levels. Membership at BEKI is not about money. While BEKI does rely on members’ dues to pay the staff and to keep the building open, nobody is turned away because of in…
