- 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
…centage of Nobel prizes were awarded to Jews, and Jews earned distinctions way out of line with our numbers — in research, the professions and arts, business and government, pretty much as Mark Twain saw it at the end of the 19th. Will this continue to be true in the new century? Is separateness, the idea of being different or chosen, a mind-set that still has value for us and our children, or does it cause more harm than good? Aren’t we all one h…
…consider children’s understanding of the world to be limited much the same way. We go through a process of emerging and advancing consciousness. Our ability to understand our world is great compared to that of a dog, and incomparably vast compared to that of a worm. It is said that 500 million years ago, the most advanced life form on Earth was a multicellular worm. As humanity continues to evolve, someday people will reach new levels of conscious…
…texts, it is not chutzpadik to interpret the text, to read it and discover new meanings. To seek it’s relevance for ourselves, our community, our children, our world. It’s not chutzpadik; it’s our responsibility. Remember, the midrash says: The scholars who arise in every generation, each one of them received their teaching from Sinai. If we ignore the revelation we received – that we receive every day – we fail to bring Torah into the world. In 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…
…d rain, a night’s storm.” Avniel’s work was included the 2004 exhibition “Our Landscape: Notes on Landscape Painting in Israel” at the University of Haifa Art Gallery. Other exhibitions include the National Gallery in Washington, Tel Aviv Museum, New York University gallery,and numerous shows in galleries in New York, Montreal, Boston, Paris,and Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem. This retrospective exhibition coincides with the second yahrzeit of his…
…ience as an interim rabbi was in 2015-2016 at Shaarei Tikvah in Scarsdale, New York. Rabbi Astor, who grew up in Hewlett, Long Island, and attended the University of Pennsylvania, was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he also earned his Ph.D. in Rabbinic Literature (Midrash) in 1996. The Astors are the parents of three children, Sara, Avi, and Donny, and 6 grandchildren, located in Philadelphia, Barcelona, and Florida. The author…
…21 Mar Drive-By Food Drive and New Clothing Collection March 21, 2021 10:00 am – 11:00 am Home Page Interior Page NEW DATE! CLOTHING ALSO! Next food collection Sunday, March 21, 10 to 11 am, parking lot. Give away unopened, non-perishable hametz before Pesach to Downtown […] More Info…
…own unsavory past honestly, and truly reconcile with Esau, if he becomes a new man—not the old Jacob, but the new Israel. Or, as Aviva Zorenberg puts it, the mysterious assailant has come “to save [Jacob] from the condition of being Jacob.” Zorenberg interprets the wrestling match as an occasion for Jacob to discover and clarify the parameters of his personal strengths and weaknesses. The injury Jacob suffers actually empowers him to experience a…
…ey have been innocent victims of othersʼ drug abuse. As we approach the end of December, we are reminded of this danger. The qiddush cup is fine; beware of the “New Yearʼs Toast.” A person must stay away from things that harm the body. Maimonides, Deot 4:1…
…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…
