- 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
…arashat VaEthanan — Installation of Officers by Gila Reinstein Email President Gila Reinstein at gila.reinstein@yale.edu …
…and wonders. They’ve crossed the Red Sea and seen the Egyptian forces drowned. They’ve heard Miriam’s song and received mana. They’re shlepping toward Har Sinai and they stop at Refidim. They’re tired and thirsty and the oasis is dry. Despite the pillar of smoke by day and fire by night and all these other direct manifestations of God’s covenant with them, they begin to complain about the water. Why did God bring them here? “Is God amongst us or n…
…off in advance and leaves Sodom in the morning, before the city is destroyed. Next in the portion, Sarah gives birth to Isaac. In the portion before Vayera Sarah gave up hope that she would have a baby, so she told Abraham to have a child, Ishmael, with her hand maiden, Hagar. When Isaac is born, Ismael is in his teens. Sarah is afraid that Ismael will hurt Isaac out of jealousy. After all, if it weren’t for Isaac, Ishmael would be Abraham’s heir…
…a, as is traditional in many Orthodox schools, is the first parasha I learned. Through ten years of Judaic education I have learned VaYiqra three times so far and every time I learned something new. The first time I was four years old and in studying VaYiqra I learned how to read Hebrew, Rashi script, and I learned what the sacrifices were. The second time I was eight years old and I learned more about why there are sacrifices. Most recently, I le…
…estion was, who was entitled to the third aliya? The Kohen and Levi were needed for the Minyan (quorum), so they could not leave, and they were entitled to the first and second aliyot by virtue of their tribal status. That created competing claims for the one remaining aliya, viz., the third aliya, by each of the two bridegrooms. Had this been Shabbat, they could have simply added an extra aliya so each could have one. But on weekdays there is a r…
…d understanding, such that they will look back at us as primitive and limited. As Rabbi Levitas of Yavne says, “Be very very humble, for a human’s future is to be a worm” (Avot 4:4). Perhaps our destiny is to be seen by our distant descendants as being as significant and advanced as worms. The Torah can only stretch the minds of its readers and followers, but cannot try to vastly exceed our capacity for understanding. For that reason, every repres…
…sponsors that they will not support businesses whose revenues support hate-radio. Ken Hamblin regularly uses racist epithets to describe people and belittles those who disagree with him. Recently he attacked people who receive welfare using adjectives like “dark,” “dirty” and “hairy” and claimed that African Americans were incapable of serving American cities as decent mayors. It does not seem unreasonable to me, or an abridgement of anyone’s con…
…century B.C.E.; and the E strand probably written between 900 and 800 B.C.E.. The redaction or the compiling of the whole Torah is usually seen as occurring in Babylonia between 600 and 400 B.C.E. For our three passages only J and E are relevant — the first and third passages are usually attributed to J and the second to E. The first account, of Abraham and Sarah in Egypt, is most like a folktale; it is the simplest in structure. It shows a darker…
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…t solo exhibition. All of the photographs presented at BEKI have been created since 2019. More images on the artist’s Flickr page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/199350297@N03/with/53441581662…
