- 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
…vice usually concludes by noon. Services today may run a little longer because of the ceremonies recognizing the b’mitzvah. 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). Simila…
…involving Isaac and Rebekah in Toldot. By the way, to avoid confusion (because God changes their names between the first and second stories), I’ll use the enlarged names for Abraham and Sarah in this talk. I’ve put the three passages into a handout which has been distributed so that you can see them together, and can compare them. I’ve decided to focus on Isaac’s deception of Abimelech along with the two earlier passages of deception. Abimelech ha…
…te without further comment.35 Most of the discussion about the wife who refuses to do her work focuses on whether she has the right to do so, and under what circumstances, rather than on the question of whether the court or the husband can force the wife to do her job by using the rod. There is one case in which the husband is explicitly permitted to hit his wife. Rabbi Yisrael ben Petihyahu Isserlein (1390-1460) was sent this question: One who he…
…d, “That man is you!” What Nathan meant was that Batsheva was the lamb because King David had caused the death of her husband. To understand the intensity of Nathan’s statement, one must know that sheep were something that people might have an emotional attachment to. King David, Moses, Abram, Itzchak, and Yakov were all shepherds. All of them were influential Jewish figures who started their lives out as shepherds. That alone should tell us that…
…based on the prophecy of Hosea taught that the bad behavior of men would cause HaShem to refuse to judge the actions of women in cases where courts could not act without the testimony of witnesses, as is the case with the sota in our Torah reading. There, at verses 23 and 24, the power source for the ceremony’s “bitter waters” is detailed as follows. Then the kohen shall write these curses — which are the penalty for her perjure in God’s name — on…
…okhi lo yada`ti Surely the Lord is in this place, and I, I did not know. I use the double “I” in translation to follow Rabbi Lawrence Kushner in his book by that name. Ya`aqov continues, Ma-nora ha-maqom haze, ein ze ki im-beit Elohim ve-ze sha`ar ha-shamaim. How awesome is this place! This is the house of God, and this is the gate of Heaven. There we have it. Ya’aqov, no longer able to stay home, leaves. Night falls in barren terrain. He puts his…
…here, we are still waiting for someone else to take care of us. I know because my yovel year has clued me in to my own feelings about this. It may have taken 50 years plus or minus a few to realize it, but we’re the adults now! Coming of age in Samoa? Early teens. Coming of age in the second half of the 20th century in America? Well, hopefully before we start collecting Social Security! I do not mean by this that we have to or should stop feeling…
…k, for Qaddish and for daily services. No action was taken on building because of the delay in acquiring the property. Meanwhile, the Benton School property had been acquired. Dr. Herbert Winer, led a crew of men who rehabilitated the yellow house on Harrison Street to serve as a temporary synagogue, school and rabbi’s office. Martha Goldman was tireless in organizing the religious school. Joan Gelbert was the first Sunday School teacher. A nurser…
…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 greatest idealists. There was a long period in which proselytizing, that is, actively encouraging gerut, was the norm. From the time of Abraham and Sarah throu…
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