- 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
…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…
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…The Kiddush reception following the service may last an hour or more. Telephone, Electricity, Smoking, Cameras Shabbat is distinguished from the rest of the week, in our synagogue as in many others, by not operating electronic items (although there is a telephone available for emergency use and for physicians on call). Similarly, writing and smoking are prohibited. Photography and video recording are not permitted anywhere in the building on Shab…
…f responds: Be informed: If it is established by witnesses that he hit her time and again, the court is obligated to chastise him and say to him, “We hereby inform you that you are not allowed to hit her and if you repeat your cruelty she will be divorced with full alimony.” They leave her with him along with an observer (ne’eman), and if he repeats his cruelty she is divorced with full alimony.17 Rashba gives a similar response to a similar case:…
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…ty that does not clearly exhibit the same problems. The temptation to walk away may be great; how much more likely to leave are those who are in effect driven away. I am reminded of two Israelis discussing the hardships of life in modern Israel. “Four weeks a year in the Army Reserves, sky-high taxes, rock-bottom salaries, meshuga drivers, terrorists, corrupt politicians, rampant sexism, poor postal service, rude and lazy bureaucrats — who can sta…
…the absence of such compliance on our part and the part of others, and sometimes even with compliance, we are all vulnerable to the smallest and greatest of sufferings. When we have stripped away the projections of violence, instead of fearing what G‐d might do to us, we can instead focus on compassion with our neighbor who suffers. We can acknowledge the meaninglessness of the suffering—the should‐never‐have‐beenness of it—and we can, through act…
…m Tilsen was born in 1951. He was more than ten years older than me, and I did not know him as well as did my siblings who were his contemporaries and his classmates in high school. Nick was a talented chef, and when he lived in the San Francisco Bay Area he had a catering business. Nick was fit and energetic and had developed an extensive network of friends who cared deeply about him and about each other. He was an essential part of his community…
…conversion). Many people have heard that the potential convert is turned away three times, in order to ensure that only the truly determined succeed in their quest. But as a rabbi who guides many converts, I don’t do that, because I find that when, upon further study and experience with the real Jewish world, candidates encounter plenty of realities that would turn them off, and turn them away. The realities are harsh enough to sober the greates…
…the language spoken by the people when those prayers were written. In the time of the Mishna, 2,000 years ago, the question arose as to what to do if one were, say, climbing a tree or riding a donkey when it came time to say the Shema. According to our sages, one can pray almost anywhere — even up a tree. Now, it is a good idea to come to shul, because community adds a whole new dimension, and it is great to pray near the Temple site in Jerusalem…
