- 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
…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…
…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…
…ral candidate and was previously a public sector consultant. Jess is the chair-elect of the University of New Haven’s public health department. Ainsley is in kindergarten in New Haven Public Schools, and we live in the East Rock neighborhood. Favorite parts of being Jewish for Tom are the food and social gatherings. Ainsley says she likes eating matzah. Jess’ favorite part is the community. Ainsley says she is also a fan of BEKI children’s program…
…th lists start with a broad thing to give up and then narrow it down: list number one — go from your land, your birthplace, your father’s house. List number two — take your son, your only son, the one you love, Isaac. This similarity led me to still others. One of the first, and most obvious, comparisons between the two instances of lekh lekha was that in both, God is sending Abraham on a journey. In the first lekh lekha, God is starting Abraham o…
…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…
…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…
…se have included large sculptural str uctures, floor drawings and video. Broell Bresnick has taught at Stanford University, University of New Haven, University of Bridgeport and the Educational Center for the Arts, where she served as Visual Arts Department Chair for 29 years. She has given lectures at a number of museums, galleries and universities. Anna Broell Bresnick was born in Hamburg, German, has lived in Vienna and Rome and currently resid…
…u plan to serve food, a list of approved kosher caterers is at the BEKI website. All kashrut policies, including BEKI’s fair trade chocolate policy, must be followed. The caterer’s delivery must be scheduled with the kitchen supervisor, and the inventory must bear the signature or seal of the caterer’s kashrut supervisor. No food can be brought into BEKI on Shabbat. You’ll be able to make arrangements with the kitchen supervisor for removing lefto…
…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…
…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…
