- 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
…ained by trickery, through a reconciliation with his brother Esau. Jacob’s flight from Esau, and his 20 years under the thumb of Laban, have not provided him fulfillment of Isaac’s blessing. In order for Jacob to become a person of real power and legitimate authority, a true leader, he must have the ability to confront his brother Esau directly and to embrace Esau steadfastly, even though in doing so he will expose himself to serious injury. Jacob…
…in dating, the J document is usually considered the oldest, written in the 10th 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 E…
For today’s services, a number of congregants have added touches of beauty to the synagogue and the services. In my Devar Torah, I would like examine the place of beauty and art in the Sanctuary. The sanctuary is a place where we pray together, where we venerate the wisdom of the Torah, where we tell stories that celebrate our shared past. It is also a place where our spirits and our community can be invigorated, nourished, and rested. It is a sa…
…(or more) puts it in the top 5%. So I realize that I am at least in the top 10% of American households with respect to annual income. (Data: DeNavas-Walt, Carmen and Robert, Cleveland, U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, P60-218, Money Income in the United States: 2001, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2002.) Even more: On the global level, I am in the top 1%. So when I say that the rich should pay, I am including mysel…
…e will be able to provide current pricing and other details. For additional 10 or fewer invited guests (Standard Kiddush): $320 For every additional 20 invited guests beyond those 10, expect to order prepared salads from an approved local kosher vendor. Additional options available: Hummus OR guacamole OR cream cheese OR bruschetta: $50 each Herring OR stuffed grape leaves: $40 each Whitefish salad: $100 extra Lox with platter of onion/tomato/cucu…
…th lists start with a broad thing to give up and then narrow it down: list number one — go from your land, your birthplace, your father’s house. List number two — take your son, your only son, the one you love, Isaac. This similarity led me to still others. One of the first, and most obvious, comparisons between the two instances of lekh lekha was that in both, God is sending Abraham on a journey. In the first lekh lekha, God is starting Abraham o…
…of all the people. Imagine if the parshah has told us, tribe by tribe, the number of people in each tribe, and separately, the number of males, 20 and up, who were fit for service. Would that kind of census send a different message to us, a message saying, “everyone counts”, including all the women? The second census, what I’ll call the redemption census, I find a strange one. It requires counting of all the male Levites who were at least a month…
…ll do it that way, too. But this procedure often created a dilemma: If the number of qaddishes was limited, there might still be some who did not get to say one; if there was no limit to the number of qaddishes added, the service became burdensomely long. So after careful scrutiny the rabbis allowed all mourners to say qaddish simultaneously. This rabbinic solution was adopted only after careful consideration, and after it was determined that mour…
…se have included large sculptural str uctures, floor drawings and video. Broell Bresnick has taught at Stanford University, University of New Haven, University of Bridgeport and the Educational Center for the Arts, where she served as Visual Arts Department Chair for 29 years. She has given lectures at a number of museums, galleries and universities. Anna Broell Bresnick was born in Hamburg, German, has lived in Vienna and Rome and currently resid…
…emptying the house of unwanted items on Ebay, which he has been doing since 1998. Our children remarked at their bnai mitzvah that “Dad would sell us on Ebay if it weren’t for Mom!” Allison Jacobs & Joshua Kuhr and Noa and Oren We live in Westville. When we came to BEKI, we were excited to see the large number of children and families that were local to the Westville community. Having a place for the kids and us to learn and socialize is important…
