- 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
…t is in our own tradition, surely we should add our collective voice and support to this global effort. ***************** With the general context thus set, I ask you to indulge me in the personal pleasure I have gained all year long from having been born in 1950. Not knowing that the entire society around me would be celebrating the Jubilee, I found myself a year ago contemplating the approach of my own 49th birthday. Having studied the yovel in…
…music in our homes, learning Hebrew and Jewish dance, studying Torah and supporting Israel, and by performing mitzvot, we do more than any army could to promote the well-being of our people and the success of our mission in the world. We are fortunate that American values validate cultural diversity. To live according to our own ways is now part of the American ideal. By right as Americans we can declare our Jewishness. By living fully as Jews, we…
…n one’s mind seeing figurative images in random or abstract shapes. He has compiled a book, Pareidolia, that challengers readers to see figurative form in abstract images. Judaism informs Oren’s art, “Just as it informs nearly everything I do to some degree. We are, after all, just ridiculous collections of our combined experience.” Watch Bruce’s video of the making of his Moshe marble sculpture Read reviews of Bruce Oren’s show in the news A Beav…
…censuses described in today’s parshah. Maybe my statement stands in stark opposition to it. In none of these censuses do they count the women. I think that sends a message about whether women count in general, but at the very least, whether they count for crucial purposes of defense and ritual service to G-d. My opposing, religious statement, and one that I also believe that is made, for example, by the rituals celebrating a women becoming a bat-m…
…t and present presidents, teachers, cops and rabbis, just about everyone, apparently, has inhaled (or not), injected or ingested substances prohibited by law. One reason I have avoided drugs is that many of them cause users to lose their inhibitions. I like my inhibitions. The ones I have are just barely sufficient to keep me from saying and doing utterly ridiculous, embarrassing and dangerous things, and only much, but not all, of the time. Anoth…
…14 Jan Schmooze with Rev. Bonita Grubbs January 14, 2023 12:45 pm Events MLKing Shabbat speaker: Rev. Bonita Grubbs of CCA will give the sermon on January 14. Then Rev. Grubbs and Charmain Yun will lead a schmooze at 12:45 […] More Info…
…mountain Before the eyes of all the community, kol ha-eydah. And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments And put them on Eleazar his son, And Aaron died there on the moutaintop, And Moses came down, And Eleazar with him, From the mountain. And all the community Saw that Aaron had expired, And all the house of Israel Keened for Aaron thirty days.” The differences are manifest: Sudden death, slow death; High death, low death; Silent death, mourning dea…
The practice of fasting on Yom ha-Kippurim is one among several strictures adopted to fulfill the Biblical requirement of “tormenting one’s soul” on this Day of Atonements (note the plural form). The purpose of fasting is to enhance our spiritual sensitivity and contrition on this Holy Day, and to force ourselves for at least a few hours to control our material desires and eschew sensual pleasure. The purpose is not to “cull the herd” of people f…
…or. Qaddishes were then added so that more of the mourners would have the opportunity to say a qaddish. We can say qaddish any time there is a minyan and we recite a Psalm or other passage from the Torah or Rabbinic literature. So they simply added a Psalm and followed it by qaddish. There were now several times in a service when qaddish was said, so that several mourners would have a turn. There are some communities that still do it that way, too…
…area to the bringing of the first fruits: When [the men of all the towns] approached Jerusalem, they sent messengers before them and adorned first-fruits. The officers and the prefects and the treasurers of the Temple went forth to meet them_. And all the craftsmen in Jerusalem would rise up before them and greet them, saying: “Brethren, men of such-and-such a place, you are welcome!” – The flute was played before them, until they reached the Temp…
