- 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
…ains were replaced by one. An old refrigerator in the serving kitchen (upstairs) was replaced by a modern unit that has earned the ENERGY STAR®. Leaking heating and cooling pipes were repaired in the lower social hall. Broken window panes were replaced. Parking lot security lights were put under control of timers or photocells. Most CRT computer monitors were replaced with LCD monitors that have earned the ENERGY STAR. Incandescent bulbs were repl…
…world. Now, Miriam tells us that she refuses to fly. She won’t go near an airplane, and her daughter accuses her of spoiling their vacation plans. Miriam says, “Now I understand my mother in a way I never could before.” Isaac, his wife and children are a resilient family. Exposed to one of our nations most traumatic experiences, they carry on. They will never forget 9/11 but neither have they been psychologically damaged by it. How well did most…
…thing and Judaic pieces. She constructs garments and objects of hand-dyed, airbrushed, silk-screened, and embellished fabrics to address her perspective on Judaic themes. Objects, wire, machine embroidery, photo-transfer and other complex cloth techniques conceptually allude to ideas, messages and symbols. Klein’s touring exhibition, “All That Remains: A Holocaust Exhibition in Fiber”, is a fiber arts exhibit on the theme of the Holocaust. This s…
…y of Shabbat and weekday programs for children and youth expanded, and the number of minors grew from under 70 in 1994 to over 225 a decade later. A typical Shabbat morning includes simultaneous programs or services for children and youth, as well as youth participating in the main service and Shabbat Shalom Torah Study. In 2003, the congregation began a process of building renovations, aimed at improving accessibility, enhancing energy efficiency…
…ans as a result of seasonal heating in a typical year. That makes it a big number. In other words, as a byproduct of human exploitation of the land and other natural resources, we have crammed 51 years of solar heat into 50 years of solar time. I cannot help but feel that the earth will make up for this in due course, that the land will have its rest. The environmental responsibilities of each of us and of our congregation need to be understood in…
…ou all. Please help us again, this time by passing along our thanks to the number of congregants who are away this weekend of Thanksgiving, giving thanks of their own elsewhere. The morning of the surgery I prayed and learned another prayerbook lesson, this time explicit. At my request, Marsha had brought me a copy of our Siddur, Sim Shalom. Uncharacteristically, I admit, I started from the beginning of the Shaharit, or morning, service. There I d…
…ee (gezera) by Rabbenu Perez ben ‘Eliyahu (13th century, Corbeil),4 and a pair of responsa by Rabbenu Binyamin ben Matityahu Zev (born c. 1510, Turkey).5 This article discusses several aspects of the Rabbis’ response to wife-beating, including general moral judgments, claims of damages, purpose and mode of court intervention, presumption of guilt, forcing divorce, and conduct toward a “wicked wife.” This article can be a window into past legal dev…
…he message. Over the course of the school year, the kids would memorize a fair number of these. The sayings she chose reflected her particular take on Judaism, which tended to the ethical rather than the spiritual. In cleaning out her apartment last year, my sister Naomi and I came across some of these sayings, which I’ve brought with me to show you. Some of the pitgamim were easy to memorize and therefore were very popular with the kids: “Tov she…
…d not take on Judaism, that it would be too hard. However, we established fairly early on that each of us was to take on as much or as little as we were comfortable with. The expectation was for each of us to only take on what we could, which meant more for some, less for others. You’ll notice that I’m the one that gets to speak the most English today! In other words, a free will offering. The spirit of Shavuot is also one of renewal of commitment…
…lieve that the book of Isaiah was written during the Babylonian exile by a number of people in addition to Isaiah. Isaiah himself was a prophet of the nation of Judah and was one of the first to leave a written record of his prophecies, or proclamations. The book of Isaiah is one of the longest in the Bible, containing sixty chapters. The sayings of Isaiah are contained in the first 39 chapters. Most of the rest, written around 550 BCE, were poems…
