- 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
…ver $150 Click here to download a printable list of prices…
…s Abimelech who then confronts Abraham. Abraham offers his defense and Abimelech releases him and Sarah, but only after enriching both of them. God lifts the plague of infertility which he had apparently imposed temporarily on Abimelech and the Philistines. The third story, now describes similar events occurring to Isaac and Rebekah. It is often considered an amalgam of the first two although it is the shortest of the three. Most commentators see…
…ave just as much right to live on these shores as the native born, then surely Israel, like any society, has a right to define itself and protect itself from inundation by larger surrounding ethnic groups. Some “working groups” of Israelis and Palestinian Arabs have proposed that Palestinian Arabs can be mollified with some symbolic implementation of this “right of return.” Even the settler’s movement, in its plan to annex certain Palestinian popu…
…n we moved to New Haven, I attended the “Egal Minyan” at Yale Hillel by myself as well. In 1989 we were blessed by the arrival of Rachel, and two years later, of David, both from Pusan, Korea, adding two more souls to the house of Israel. (Ironically, Joanne is the only member of the family who has never been in the miqva.) As is so often the case, having children became an impetus for greater religious involvement, and Joanne and the baby started…
…o that now — had so many prophets. Miriam, Deborah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Elijah are the major prophets. Just as I read that Deborah is the Prophet of War, some texts give us a shorthand way to think about each of them. Miriam is the prophet of water. Isaiah is the prophet of redemption and the Messiah. Elijah is the prophet of mitzvot and Gemilut Hasadim [kindness]. Ezekiel is the prophet of post-temple Judaism. Someone once told me that…
…e paintings, the artist reflects on the complicated relationship to her homeland, Israel. The gallery space at BEKI, Safran-Hon hopes, will draw these questions of home and belonging into a Jewish context, evoking the role of the congregation as a spiritual home, and of the synagogue building as a symbolic home in our tradition, as well as the political and ethnic ideas behind the making of a Jewish collective Home. In these pieces, Safran-Hon com…
…eceased, other callers attempted to make conversation with me about completely unrelated but pleasant matters. How can I, in the future, stick to the halakhot [rules] of paying a shiva call, while not seeming to reject, ignore or insult others who want to converse about tangential matters, and who are apparently unaware of the shiva halakhot? Normally I enjoy discourse about the topics that these others were raising; it was just not appropriate be…
…would create numerous additional halakhic problems. None of these is overwhelmingly important in and of itself, but they are worth noting. For example, it is the custom among many Ashkenazic communities (although not at BEKI) not to allow relatives of the first degree to have consecutive aliyot. That is, you cannot call up two siblings or a parent and child one after the other. The reasons for not calling them in succession would apply even more f…
…a physical pit, or it may be a spiritual pit. Many Americans are facing a relatively challenging fiscal climate. We are feeling that in Connecticut. Several of our officers are currently looking for work. Economic dislocation can be very difficult. But none of our BEKI families are facing hunger due to these conditions. The same cannot be said of our neighbors in the New Haven area. Our state is facing a severe budget deficit. This is happening at…
…in Italian Zucchetto. The kippa has no religious significance in and of itself — it is merely one type of hat. It is nothing more than a beanie. Today, we follow a moderate path and make a point to keep our heads covered during prayer, study, meals and other religious acts, such as playing baseball. Although he wears a kippa, the Pope is not Jewish. And although we wear Zucchettos, we are not the Pope. Once again we see that you don’t have to be J…
