- 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
…ormational experience. * * * * The Jacob we have come to know, as we begin today’s parashah, is not a very attractive fellow. His deceitful behavior in conning his brother Esau out of his birthright, and tricking his father Isaac into bestowing upon him the blessing that belonged to Esau, has portrayed him as a liar, a cheat, a trickster, a crafty, dishonest manipulator. Jacob’s brother threatens to kill him, so Jacob flees from his home in Canaan…
…I was intrigued by this story and its placement, and decided to discuss it today. Perhaps its position in Leviticus is meant to make us question and give it attention. If so, it worked for me, and I enjoyed the variety of opinions and the privilege to decide for myself what I choose to believe. I recently saw the Broadway play Wicked. The author of the book Wicked, Gregory Maguire, writes books based on the point of view of an alternative characte…
…s mitzva is so important that the Shulhan Arukh, the sixteenth-century law code that serves as the common base for modern law, describes the obligation in this way: ‘ One needs to take great care in lighting the Hanuka lights; even a poor person subsisting on charity pawns or sells their cloak and buys oil for lighting. Shulhan Arukh O.H. 571 Lighting the Hanuka lights is so important that a poor person is instructed to take on additional hardship…
…ich is an Italian word that basically means “beanie.” Zucchettos are color-coded skullcaps worn by Catholic clergy: priests wear black, bishops wear purple, cardinals wear red, and the Pope wears white. The Jewish practice of covering the head dates back to ancient times when the kohanim in the Temple wore special headdresses. The morning blessing “oter Yisrael betifara – who crowns Israel with beauty,” was originally said before putting on the tu…
…movement, indeed all of modernity, finding its origins in Biblical times. Today’s Parshat [weekly Torah reading], Ki Tavo, provides our proof text. The very first section of the Parsha contains the declaration known as miqra bikurim, the “Recital of the First Fruits.” As Nehama Leibowitz, of blessed memory, points out in her Studies in Devarim, [t]he Israelite farmer who brings the first fruits of his soil does not say: “My fathers came to the la…
Our choice, Moshe tells us today at the end of Parshat Nitzavim, is between life and death, between the blessing and the curse. Teshuv el Adonai Elohekha — return to the Lord your God — and Hashem will give us abundant food and wealth and children. And if we turn away? Brimstone, salt, burnt earth and death. Again and again, the parsha urges us to return to God and hearken to God’s voice. Two weeks from now, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, w…
…ting the land in the seventh year, called shmita. Still others speak to us today as Jews and equally as Americans, as modern men and women. These ancient laws direct our behavior. They operate across the full range of our experience, calling on us to achieve the purpose of Torah — Tiqun `Olam, the perfection of the here and now. With my mom’s help [as the reader of the sources], I would like to share some examples of these mitzvot. Although they d…
…endent of their husbands’ control, among other phenomena. All of the major codes of halakha deal with legal principles that jurists apply to this specific type of crime. Among the major sources on this issue are a series of responsa by Rabbi Shlomo ben Avraham Adret (Rashba, c.1235 – c.1310 Barcelona),3 a decree (gezera) by Rabbenu Perez ben ‘Eliyahu (13th century, Corbeil),4 and a pair of responsa by Rabbenu Binyamin ben Matityahu Zev (born c. 15…
…from flying apart was a Zionist Chief Rabbinate that made conversion easy. Today , unfortunately, the office and its rabbinic courts have fallen into the hands of the ultra-Orthodox, who ruthlessly conspire to do everything in their power to obstruct passage from one status of Jewishness to the other (witness fewer than 350 conversions in 1996). A few years ago, a number of Russian Jewish families approached the Conservative movement in Israel out…
…the blessings would have been for him like in the first lekh lekha as well as for his descendants. I would like to thank everyone for coming to celebrate with me today. I would especially like to thank everyone who helped me prepare for today. Shabbat Shalom! …
