- 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
…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 off on his career as God’s prophet and messenger to people on earth. The fir…
For today’s services, a number of congregants have added touches of beauty to the synagogue and the services. In my Devar Torah, I would like examine the place of beauty and art in the Sanctuary. The sanctuary is a place where we pray together, where we venerate the wisdom of the Torah, where we tell stories that celebrate our shared past. It is also a place where our spirits and our community can be invigorated, nourished, and rested. It is a sa…
…ifornia Land Use Attorney who works on various planning, zoning, and entitlement issues for clients in Southern California. Lisa and Mike moved to Woodbridge in mid-2022 and are enjoying “country” living and taking their granddaughters back and forth to school, shul, and home, and entertaining their grandsons from Washington, DC (think choo-choo trains, Legos, and forts). Mike and Lisa are excited to be a part of the BEKI Community!…
…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…
…re to include everyone. As it is, if such a family may pick only a limited number of people to honor, everyone who does not receive an honor understands that the family was limited. However, if the family is essentially unlimited, by being able to call up more than one person at a time for an aliya, then anyone who is not called up has greater grounds to feel slighted. A second reason for wanting joint aliya is that one of the proposed honorees do…
…abbath years while you were dwelling upon it. A short while ago, in the 24 March 2000 edition of the New York Times, I noticed an article about a study on world ocean temperatures. (The chief author of the study is Sydney Levitus – one wonders if the family name got shortened somewhere along the way from Leviticus!) By excavating literally millions of data points from ships’ logs and other previously overlooked sources, Dr. Levitus and his collabo…
…_,” the majority of these works are representations of men, usually Ashkenazi bearded men. In viewing the collected art works we are touched by nostalgia, by the call of tradition, which after all is key to what Judaism is for many of us. If we all stood at Mount Sinai, then did we not also live in the Shtetls of Europe, the vibrant cities of Greece, and even twentieth century America? Surveying the large number of works in the BEKI collection en…
…ar Rabbi, The following notice appeared as a “special alert” in Kashrus Magazine (March 2004 p. 7): “Manischewitz Chocolate Coins (‘OU-Pareve’) bear the words: ‘In G-d We Trust.’ A number of leading rabbonim have Paskened that one may not eat them nor throw away the chocolate and wrappers, if they too have those words. Consult your rabbi.” So rabbi, I am consulting you. What should I do if we have those coins? Signed, In R-bbi We Trust Dear Trust,…
…evision programs around the world some months ago depicting an Israeli Telephone Company employee stuffing faxes into the Western Wall. It is in fact a custom among many of our brothers and sisters to insert small handwritten personal notes and petitions to God between the stones of the Kotel, the Western Wall of the Temple in Jerusalem. The service provided by the phone company allows people unable to visit the Wall in person to fax their petitio…
