- 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
…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…
…Schiff March 24, 2021 Singing Around the Seder Table Rachel Adelstein March 17, 2021 Inaugural Book Talk: “A Beginner’s Guide to America” Roya Hakakian March 10, 2021 BEKI town hall style meeting Presentation by the Rabbi Search Committee March 3, 2021 Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation Adam Rothman February 17, 2021 Gavriel Savit discusses his journey as a writer and his book “The Way Back” Gavriel Savit February 3, 2021 Let’s Talk about Trees!…
…of his believers for all time. When the Temple was destroyed, the central book of our Torah was stripped of its earthly referent and its specific, tangible meaning. And not VaYiqra alone, of course, but most of Bamidbar (Numbers), from which our additional reading comes; a large portion of Shemot (Exodus), and Devarim (Deuteronomy), as well. Our world was rent asunder, smashed into a thousand pieces. The parallel of Temple worship with the synago…
…have long beards and long black coats and they are all huddled over a big book. “Can they see you?” she asks me. “Do they know you’re there?” Yes, they know I’m there. But they won’t look at me and they don’t let me in. “Listen to them then. Can you hear what they’re saying?” I listen and I hear them. They’re asking God, “What do you want us to do with her? She doesn’t know the language! She doesn’t know the code! What are we supposed to do with…
…a rapid decline in symptoms over time with less than 2% at four months and 1% at six months. People who study resilience point out that there are a number of factors that can predict how well someone will handle severe trauma. These come from studies of hospitalized survivors of motor vehicle accidents, combat veterans, people who lived through the Los Angeles riots, the Oklahoma City bombings and many other tragedies. While degree of exposure is…
…ie’s characters. Time permitting, I would also have included the remarkable 1970s Israeli movie, I Love You Rosa, rich in allusions to the Book of Ruth and the Song of Songs. Here, in reading Abraham Joshua Heschel’s luminous book, The Sabbath, in preparation for the course, I gleaned that: To Israel the unique events of historic time were spiritually more significant than the repetitive processes in the cycle of nature…. The God of Israel [is] th…
…lieve that the book of Isaiah was written during the Babylonian exile by a number of people in addition to Isaiah. Isaiah himself was a prophet of the nation of Judah and was one of the first to leave a written record of his prophecies, or proclamations. The book of Isaiah is one of the longest in the Bible, containing sixty chapters. The sayings of Isaiah are contained in the first 39 chapters. Most of the rest, written around 550 BCE, were poems…
…inyamin Zev, pp. 247 and 248. 10. Saul Lieberman, Tosefta, Baba Qama ch. 9, 1975. 11. Sefer Niziqin, hilkhot hovel umeziq, 4:16. 12. See for example SMa”G, mitzvot ase, 147:3, citing the Geonim, and Rabbenu Yeroham ben Meshulam (14th century, Provence) in his Sefer Meisharim, 40 13-5 58:2. 13. SMa”G, 147:2-3. 14. Even HaEzer, hilkhot ketubot 83. The citation given in Kesef Mishne in Frankel’s edition is 85 but 83 seems more to the point. 15. Even…
…d of Torah about a word of Torah. The Aliya and the Word If we turn to page 166 in Etz Hayim, our new Humash, let’s look at the first aliya, which starts at [Genesis] chapter 28, verse 10. In last week’s parasha, upon the instigation of Rivqa, Yitshaq instructs Ya`aqov to head to Paddan-aram to take a wife from among the daughters of Lavan. Now, in compliance, Ya`aqov leaves home. Night falls along the way. Finding himself in barren terrain, Ya`aq…
…nse of peacefulness, awe, community, mystery, and religiosity. There are a number of factors that could conflict with our wish to achieve beauty and art in the synagogue and sanctuary. One is the expansive interpretation of the second commandment. The literal words of the commandment are, Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image nor any manner of likeness that is in the heaven above or that is in the earth beneath. My reading of this is that t…
