- 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
…rd and act appropriately. Perhaps the newspaper carrier did not have small children, and could not imagine why anyone would put such a sign over their doorbell. So she interpreted the message to be a personal invitation; perhaps she thought we were nice people who wanted to give her a cup of coffee at 4 in the morning. The miscommunication created by this note is not unusual or hard to understand. In his Dialogue with Phaedrus, Socrates points out…
…lt coloring books, Shabbat activities and inclusive-family story books for children. We also carry toys, games and plush torahs for children. You can find beautiful jewelry, gifts for celebrating simchas and something special for your host or hostess. The Giftshop provides BEKI Sisterhood with the unique opportunity to showcase the beauty of original Judaica created by local artists. We carry sophisticated Israeli silver wire-wrap kippot and jewe…
…habbat Blessings Blessing for Son(s) Blessing for Daughter(s) Blessing for Child(ren) (Num. 6:24-27) Va-Yekhulu: Introduction to Shabbat Evening Kiddush (Gen. 1:31 – 2:3) Amy Pincus Va-Yekhulu: Introduction to Shabbat Evening Kiddush (Gen. 1:31–2:3) Andy Schultz Kiddush for Shabbat Evening (Friday Night) Amy Pincus Kiddush for Shabbat Evening (Friday Night Andy Schultz Netilat Yadayim: The blessing at Washing of Hands recited before Birkat HaMotsi…
…eaching. To my mind, it’s no coincidence that there are a disproportionate number of gay clergy. Half of my ordination class was gay or lesbian. The process of coming out of the closet, the work we’ve done to become whole and unashamedly ourselves is deeply spiritual. Perhaps this is the Torah that gay men and lesbians have heard and give the world – the lesson that we all, gay or not, must be honest about our lives. And it’s a lesson that is usef…
…that Arab expulsion of Palestinian Arabs from Kuwait is more than half the number of Palestinian Arabs who fled or were expelled from Israel in 1947-49. The “Jenin Massacre” (2002) turned out to be a hoax; while it was reported that hundreds or thousands had been massacred, the reality was that about 55 Arabs (including 5 or 10 civilians) died, along with 22 Israeli soldiers. The headline story in mid-August (2009) of the Swedish daily Aftonbladen…
…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…
…he notes for the text that in many congregations, Shavuot is the time when children are initiated into the formal study of Jewish religion and Hebrew language. Some temples give children their first siddur [prayer book] at this time. The parallel here speaks for itself. You’ll note also that today’s parasha resounds with the number seven – the seventh year is the sabbatical year- the seven days of Passover, the seven weeks until the Feast of weeks…
…, a very complex distribution network. The way it operates is by a certain number of power plants producing energy, usually by burning fossil fuels, and then feeding it into the massive grid of electrical power lines. I think this is quite similar to the societal structure of the monkeys and the medieval Jewish court system, in that the majority of interactions, or in this case, power transmissions, are local, but the network is able to transmit p…
…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 people in NY deal with 9/11? There have been a few survey studies and it turns out that one month after 9/11 over 40% of those with direct exposure had not a single s…
…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…
