- 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
…25 Jan The Afro-Semetic Experience January 25, 2000 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm BEKI Join us for An encore concert IN ANTICIPATION OF THE DAYS OF AWE David Chevan, Warren Byrd and the AFRO-SEMITIC EXPERIENCE CONGREGATION BETH EL – […] More Info…
…excitement of little ones further adds to the pleasure in feeling that Am Yisrael Chai! Tom Goldenberg & Jessica Holzer and Ainsley Tom is a New Haven Mayoral candidate and was previously a public sector consultant. Jess is the chair-elect of the University of New Haven’s public health department. Ainsley is in kindergarten in New Haven Public Schools, and we live in the East Rock neighborhood. Favorite parts of being Jewish for Tom are the food a…
…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…
…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…
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…
…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…
…es not appear in the Balaq/Bilaam story at all and we never get inside the Israelite camp. We see the Israelites only from a distance, and that provides an unusual perspective. This episode is so different from rest of BaMidbar that some scholars thought it was a separate book. It’s set off with a row of samekhs in the Hertz Humash, instead of the usual fays. It all starts when Balaq, king of Midian or Moab, attempts to hire the local prophet Bila…
…scovering) what a Synagogue has to offer, drawing closer to God, Torah and Israel through the Synagogue. It is my sincerest hope that this “drawing closer” will be a lasting effect of my tenure as Rabbi at this congregation. One might escape certain problems by abandoning the Jewish community, but one who does so gives up more than one gains, and one is sure to encounter other (or the same) problems in other communities and social sub-groups. Most…
…amus). The words can be translated different ways. I grew up with: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” In this translation, the stress is on God’s one-ness, indivisibility. More commonly used today is, “Hear O Israel, Adonai is our God, Adonai alone.” This version affirms two ideas — that we believe Adonai is God, and that God is unique. Rashi wrote that Adonai Elokenu refers to now, and to the God of the Jewish people; and the sec…
Landscapes of Israel Mordecai Avniel (1900 – 1989) was an Israeli artist who devoted most of his long life to expressing his love for the Israeli landscape in paintings. One of the founders of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, Avniel emigrated from Parychy (currently Belarus) in 1921. Relocating to Haifa in 1935, he founded a law firm while maintaining an active art career from his studio on Mount Carmel. Later, Avniel joined th…
