- 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
…opportunities for connection and shared ritual with our friends and family. Also bagels. We hope to be able to sit in the main service as a family sometime in the next decade! Jon would look for someone who enjoyed board games. Caleb would look for another baby whose socks he can try to steal. Both have already made a lot of great progress. Coretta & Naftali Caplan and baby Jonah Caplan We live in Westville. Baby Jonah is going to have many diffe…
…products, pat Yisrael and stam bread products are served. Items produced in-house are bishul Yisrael, although no representation is made concerning “store-bought” items; caterer or vendor-provided items depend on the caterer or vendor. Those concerned are invited to check with the event’s sponsor or the mashgiah on duty. No representation about kashrut is made concerning items served at off-site events (such as a LaG BaOmer Kumsits or an Erev Shir…
…look through the make-up and clothes and dye and see a naked, shivering run-of-the-mill girl who’s trapped in her mind, trying to get out of a contradiction in itself. Beverly Sills, an opera singer, once said, “A happy woman is one who has no cares at all; a cheerful woman is one who has cares but doesn’t let them get her down.” I guess that’s why some people identify me as a pessimist and others consider me odd. I can swear and curse and disresp…
…fifties, and officials for tens.” A few verses back, Yitro, Moshe’s father-in-law, had suggested this judicial plan as a solution to Moshe’s volume problem. Moshe was supposed to judge every case among the Israelites, civil or criminal, by himself, from dawn to dusk. Yitro knew that Moshe wouldn’t last for long that way, and came up with this system. I conjecture that the basic premise in Yitro’s plan was that the people needed Moshe’s authority,…
…inations should be officially forbidden from falsely using the title “rabbi.” Houses of study where people are allowed to collect dirty diapers for the purpose of throwing them on other people should be closed permanently and dispersed, and never again allowed to be called “yeshivot.” All the people involved in such practices worship themselves alone and no transcendent God, they bring disgrace on Jewish tradition and endanger the Jewish people an…
…eligions. The other reason is that you don’t have to be Jewish to be Jewish. A non-Jewish person is genuinely welcome to all of the classes and services at the synagogue and to serve on various committees and volunteer projects. We even accept their often generous donations – how much more welcoming could we be? Sincere effort is made to be kind and respectful to extended non-Jewish family members at life-cycle events. Indeed, many non-Jewish peop…
…who speak out courageously when others are silent, they can never say enough. Each of us must make heard the voice of Jacob. (c) Jon-Jay Tilsen…
…effect. When her son is arrested by the Romans, Mary says, “Ma nishtana ha-laila ha-ze – Why is this night different from all other nights?” But please donʼt laugh aloud in the theatre, as the other viewers will not think this is funny. The filmʼs use of Latin, on the other hand was a bit bizarre. Icelandic would have been an equally appropriate choice, as Icelandic was spoken in Israel about as much as Latin in that period. Even more bizarre, I…
…n, including Sarah Palin, promised that once the law came into effect, life-and-death decisions would be made for the elderly and infirm by government death panels. From our personal acquaintance, you may know that I am experienced and credentialed in the realm of “who shall live and who shall die.” Beyond my rabbinic training and ordination at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, I served for a summer as an intern (pastoral field worker) a…
…d ask where any blessings began. The first brocha of the Torah comes from G-d. G-d blesses “the great sea monsters, and every living creature that crawls, with which the waters swarmed, according to their kind, and every winged fowl.” G-d blesses them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply,” P’ru urvru. Whatever blessing is, it does not need a human being on either side, as subject or object. G-d repeats this blessing of fruitfulness A few lines later…
