- 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
…roups. Most of our problems are just the Jewish version of universal human problems. Our own problems may appear more acute to us than they really are in comparison to those in other cultures because as insiders we see and experience our own faults more clearly and feel them more directly. Jewish society, Israel, and the Synagogue community, though not perfect, are worth fixing. It is mitzva to work toward the spiritual betterment of Jewish commun…
…not have an aliya together. Joint aliya creates a series of new unsolvable problems. We would be creating a situation in which some but not all couples could have a joint aliya, or, alternatively, we would violate the privilege extended to the Kohen or bat-Kohen. A person called for an aliya is supposed to follow along with the Torah Reader in the scroll. That is why the Torah Reader shows the honoree the spot where he or she is reading, and that…
…ance, we looked pretty good. But from close up, we see we’ve got problems. Problems that derive from the erosion of our separateness. Problems that touch me, personally, and perhaps you, too, if you have children who are teenagers or young adults. I’ve heard it said that the worst danger to the Jewish people today is not anti-Semitism, but assimilation, and that the answer to “Who is a Jew?” is not someone with Jewish mother, but someone with a Je…
…ulted party; Apology made directly; Apology via messenger 50/63 Must solve problems at home rather than emigrate to Israel; Praying for one’s antagonist 56/68 Strict adherence to law as impediment; Pride as impediment 67/90 Divine punishment for failure to achieve 68/90 Divine punishment for failure to achieve 137/139 Preferred to revenge; Exploiting others’ suffering as impediment; Rhetoric as impediment 158/144 Restitution made personally 210/15…
…ontinue working their land, the registration did not concern them. But the problems arose not just because the land was not registered; they arose also because the land was often registered in the name of someone other than the rightful owner. This occurred several ways. The widespread practice of mushā` (collective land tenure) led to misregistration. Often a community’s lands were registered in the names of a few individuals or even in the name…
…back to the French zoologist’s Murex Trunculus, the snail. There were two problems with this creature that seemed to disqualify it from being the Hilazon described in the Mishna. First, it did not look like the ocean, which is what the Mishna specifies. Instead, its shell was white with brown stripes. This problem was solved when people found that when this snail was in the water it covered itself with a slime that made it look the color of the s…
…urate accounts, and in the absence of other reliable sources or unsolvable problems in their accounts, there is no reason not to accept their overall presentation of what happened. Even if the incidents did not happen as they describe, the fact that they could credibly present them as what could have happened is in itself remarkable. 1. Samuel Kennedy Eddy, The King is Dead — Studies in Near Eastern Resistance to Hellenism, 334-31 B.C., (Lincoln…
…to deal with a small portion of the population, that is, those with legal problems too complex or important for the lower courts. In a schematic sense, picture a circle of courts, with the litigants on the outside. Most of the judging for cases among the people would be dealt with by the outer layer of judges; if there were broader ramifications of the decision made in a particular case, it would be brought to an inner court. If need be, Moshe wo…
