- 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
…the theatre, as the other viewers will not think this is funny. The filmʼs use of Latin, on the other hand was a bit bizarre. Icelandic would have been an equally appropriate choice, as Icelandic was spoken in Israel about as much as Latin in that period. Even more bizarre, I am told, is the negative portrayal of Jews in the film. Not just the deicide – that “the Jews” are assigned responsibility for the death of the filmʼs protagonist – but worse…
…overnment death panels was made by Republicans, I turn to you for help because you are the closest thing we have in Connecticut to a Republican, no offense, and because you are by all accounts highly regarded among your Senate colleagues. I would add that I once supported a Republican in his race for the Senate, and even though he was sentenced to one year of probation after his admission of misuse of public funds, I don’t regret supporting him, s…
…the coins collected at card games which are given to the person in whose house the game is played. This person collected the coins and used the money to have a Torah scroll inscribed. This turned out to be the case. The Besht said that there was no way to correct it and it would be defective forever even if it were corrected over and over again.22 This story similarly illustrates the Talmudic concept of “a mitzva done by way of a transgression is…
…has also been used to restrict the harmonies of songs that are sung or the use of choral music during services. Because our time is short, we will not have time to debate the validity of these points of view. Perhaps we will be able to do this some other time. For today, I would like to recognize that there are also strong forces within Judaism that embrace art, embrace a wider view of religion that encourages the inclusion of beauty in the synago…
…qorban hatat which was a female cow. We substitute a cow for ourselves because we know God could justifiably destroy us because of all our sins. A cow represented a fair amount of wealth. You would sacrifice this cow, which was like being fined a good percentage of your savings account, and you’d learn not to make that mistake again. There were less costly sacrifices for those who couldn’t afford such an expensive animal. Of course everyone still,…
…cts of hesed, kindness. I think we can do that a little better…. [But, because I can’t resist a bad pun, heres a small digression: What did the bank robber say when he held up a bank in Me’a She`arim? “Gimme loot, Ḥasidim!”] This fall, we are launching a Hesed Committee, chaired by Board member Muriel Banquer. This committee will not have a lot of meetings to discuss the theory of hesed. It will coordinate acts of kindness, so that no one in the B…
…were more but smaller. This would decrease the probability of a blackout caused by grid overload. This is a real problem, as we experienced a few years ago when a tree fell somewhere in Iowa and the whole east coast had a blackout. I’m not saying we should all open private power plants in our backyards. There is a certain economy of scale involved in the production of power, thus the large power plants. But we could use solar panels. It will take…
…ught by his father, a novice at blessing: He fails miserably, not just because he blesses who he doesn’t want to bless, and curses who he meant to bless, but because he sows enmity between his only sons, a deep hatred between his twins. By the end of the chapter, Rebecca has plotted against her son; Esau is crying and enraged, planning murder; Jacob has fled to Laban – of all people – the first man to offer a blessing of power to this family. A bl…
…s” And then “the earth opened its mouth And swallowed them up with their households, All Korach’s people and all their possessions. They went down alive into Sheol, With all that belonged to them The earth closed over them And they vanished from the midst of the congregation. All Israel around them fled at their shrieks, For their said, ‘The earth might swallow us!’” Immediately afterward, Korach’s people Were destroyed as well: a fire from the L-…
…world, it may be readily understandable that a military census was only focused on males. However, by having a census that only focuses on military needs, it seemingly implies, at least to me, that it is not important to have a census 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 di…
