- 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
…Parashiyot Aharei-Mot Qedoshim – by Maytal Saltiel, 13 Iyar 5778 – 28 April 2018 The 613: Parashat Eqev – by Ella May, 20 Av 5777 – 12 August 2017 Israel: My Positions – by Alan H. Lovins, 24 Tamuz 5776 – July 2016 Parashat BeHa`alotekha – by Noam Benson-Tilsen, 19 Sivan 5776 – June 2016 Parashat Pequdei – by Bruce Oren, 2 Adar II 5776 Parashat BeMidbar – by David Kuperstock Parashat Huqat – by Jonathan M. Freiman Parashat Toldot – by Jonathan M….
…om the ola (burnt offering), made “a sweet savor unto the Lord”; the Jews knew that God was pleased, that is to say, because they knew that they had made a true offering of something of value that came from their hearts. Perhaps it is an ethical advance, as Maimonides suggests, to have put an end to the slaughter of animals; but it is no ethical advance if the sacrifice is not matched by an equivalent commitment of our hearts, our hands, our subst…
…0 Valley of the Leaves $700 The View from Above $1,000 The Book of Life $600 Huppa $2,000 Kaleidoscope $400 Round Matzah Cover $150 Click here to download a printable list of prices…
…distributed so that you can see them together, and can compare them. I’ve decided to focus on Isaac’s deception of Abimelech along with the two earlier passages of deception. Abimelech had already been deceived by Abraham in a similar scenario a couple of chapters back. Maybe Abimelech had a memory problem — but then Abimelech may be a dynastic name and the stories really involve two different Kings with the same name. The story in today’s parsha…
…s with “dignity and respect.” She wanted them to feel that BEKI was their “spiritual and social home.” She and BEKI spiritual leader Rabbi Jon-Jay Tilsen procured an $18,000 grant from the Jewish Foundation of Greater New Haven to start up a two-year program, which will offer Jewish education for adults with developmental disabilities and for adults with chronic mental illness in the greater New Haven area. ‘Kulanu Ke’Ehad Havura’ The program star…
…essage. 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 shem m’…
…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…
…ften dropped when the phrase or verse ends in a open syllable. This is for phonetic reasons. Thus, the sheva (English: Shewa) represented by “e” in “lekha” becomes a long vowel, the qamatz represented by “a” in “lakh,” and the long vowel “a” at the end of “lekha” drops off altogether. “Lakh” and “otakh” are thus masculine singular forms, as we know from the rest of the sentence. Dear Rabbi, Is the prayer “ya`ale ve-yavo” added to Birkat HaMazo…
…is to say nothing about helping others at the expense of our own pleasure, spiritual satisfaction, or bank account — we’re talking mitzva here. Like the Biblical Yosef, if we flaunt — or simply enjoy — our material blessings while our brothers and sisters go without, we run the risk of being thrown in a pit. It may be a physical pit, or it may be a spiritual pit. Many Americans are facing a relatively challenging fiscal climate. We are feeling tha…
…have to look at what is important in life. Family, friends, and religion, and don’t forget money. But I look at Deborah and Miriam and see women who knew themselves and knew how they wanted to live, and I have to admire that….
