- 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
…C. With such a high ceiling, fans would not be effective unless they were truly massive (and truly deafening). Will there be a menorah? Ornamentation — including ark doors and/or curtain and other decorative elements — will come in the next phase of the design process. What happens with the organ loft? The storage rooms flanking the current bimah — one of which formerly held an organ and choir — are not part of the redesign mandate. Name(Required)…
…d’s first words to people are a blessing. and then a positive commandment pru urvu – be fruitful and multiply. And a gift: all the seed-bearing plants and fruit trees to eat. And here, after this story – the blessing and the positive commandment and the gift – G-d sees that it’s very good. The first time that anything is very good. We don’t know if the blessing is verbal. Maybe G-d blesses in nonverbal ways. But we know that the commandment to be…
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…h-century work on Jewish mysticism (Qabbala). The Torah text explains that humanity had become corrupt and irredeemably sinful. But why should the innocent animals be washed away with the guilty people? The question assumes that there is some value to the life of the individual animal. After all, Noah rescues at least two of each kind of animal, insuring species survival. It may be that in ancient times the Torah was suggesting that species surviv…
…ing the BEKI sanctuary. Research other congregations that have undertaken similar projects. Present information and ideas to the BEKI community, and gather feedback. Provide consistent updates. Synthesize community feedback into sanctuary design. Present conceptual designs and collect feedback. Produce a design that has the support of the congregation and Board of Directors and is ready to implement. Name(Required) First Last Email(Required) Com…
…toward the other tradition: the blessing of fertility and increase, the p’ru uvru blessing offered to the first people, the other half of the oddly twined Akeidah blessing, the tree, perhaps, of vital potions. This is Isaac’s lineage: v’eyleh toldot yitzchok. Isaac will still bless – He will not be the father his father was. But his ordeal has taught him – the anger about to tear his family apart has shown him – what blessings of dominion can do….
…se of HaShem the past and the future are one. The statement “Let us make a human” means “Let us make Israel,” who are called “human,” “in our image,” i.e., in the image and form that was inscribed in HaShem’s imagination. The statement “in our likeness” means that a human will now be made in the likeness that was previously in HaShem’s mind (Sefer Ba`al Shem Tov § 56). In other words, when God says “Let us make the human in Our image” what is mean…
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…biological and partly cultural. If the God of Torah is not created by the human mind, that God is perceived and thereby shaped and edited by the human mind. It could not be otherwise. At the same time, there are certain experiences that cause some people to suppose that there must be a great Force in the universe. For me, contemplating the wonders of the cosmos and the quantum, the miracle of life and love, and my own consciousness (not to mentio…
…eople’s relationship with God. I think that BEKI’s sanctuary should have a design in which such feelings are nourished. I think we might want a sanctuary design that evokes an awareness of the spiritual even the supernatural, of forces and concepts beyond our comprehension. We would like to feel uplifted. I think we would like to be reminded of things that are God created, not man created. In the sanctuary we might like to be surrounded by the nat…
