Friday night Services – August updates

/in , /by

Services tonight are at 7pm, in which we will welcome the Shabbat with our special guest and Gabbai, Arthur Gurney who will lead services while Cantor Ben-Moshe is on vacation.   Services the rest of the month are as follows:
Every Friday night at 7pm for Kabbalat Shabbat. 
Saturday August 17:  Eli Cone will celebrate his Bar Mitzvah and the congregation is invited to attend.  Services will be led by Cantor Ben-Moshe at Holiday Inn Arboretum (only ¼ mile from Beth El), on 8901 Business Center Drive, 78759.  We wish the Cone family a hearty Mazal Tov.
Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly Message: Parshat Re’eh deals extensively with the laws that B’nei Yisrael were to follow once they entered the Promised Land.  Moses here continues his last instructions to his People.  In this parshah, he first commands them to perform an elaborate ceremony of blessings and curses on Mt. G’rizim and Mt. ‘Eival, outside the city of Sh’chem.  Mt. G’rizim is in fact the oldest Israelite sanctuary, and is still used to this day by the Samaritans.  Moses continues by warning against the dangers of falling into the idolatrous practices of the Canaanites, and of following false prophets.  Interestingly, the test of a false prophet is not whether his prophecies come true, but rather if he attempts to convince others to follow other gods.  The Torah actually admits of spiritual powers being divorced from worship of God-that it is not the spiritual power itself that is important, but rather the intention behind it.   Parshat Re’eh also contains laws about supporting the poor, the Sabbatical Year, the laws of kashrut and a listing of the holidays.  While there isn’t any narrative here, there is much worth studying, and many spiritual lessons to be learned.  I look forward to returning to Austin next week and resuming worship and learning with you all.  Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi Tarlow’s Weekly Parasha: This week’s parashah is called “Re’eh”.  You will find it in the Book of Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17. This parashah presents us with a host of challenges.  It challenges us to thinking about if we are making the right decisions. It challenges us to develop a sense of group.  It challenges us to observe G’d’s festivals and it challenges us to be wise enough to distinguish between ‘false prophets’ (those leaders who give the impression that they cannot be wrong; that they are almost Messiahs) and real prophets (people who place the national good before their own and do not ask of others what they do not ask of themselves).  This week’s section revolves around two major themes: (1) Seeing is not necessarily believing.  In fact we often see only what we choose to see/believe and (2) we must balance personal freedom with group responsibility.  Both of these themes run through the Biblical text and serve as a warning that we must think for ourselves and be wise enough to question what we read.  The text asks us to examine our leadership by the results of their actions and not by the superficial show which they create.   Throughout this week’s parashah we learn that false leadership can make us believe (Re’eh = See) that good is evil and evil is good.  For example, the media’s often poor (and all too often dishonest) coverage of the Middle East is an example of how the media pretend to be fair while in reality creating false impressions and illusions.  At other times we are mislead not by what we see but rather by what is not see.  How often do the media  simply chose not to cover a news stories that might hurt its favorite candidate? How often do major news stories not get reported, but “soft news” is given headline treatment?  Such disappearances ought to make us question if the media have placed their own agendum ahead of truth or taken facts out of context.  What we see/read must be carefully scrutinized. How often has Israel suffered due to the media’s creation of illusions that simply are not true? How often have the media throughout the world manipulated statistics to present a different story than what is true?   Re’eh is all about consequences.   It teaches us that when we dare not allow ourselves to be deceived, that  we must question everything that we read or are shown on television. Moses warned us concerning the consequences not only of our singular actions but also of our collective actions when he states at the beginning of the parashah Deut:11:26 and 11:32): “Behold I place before you a blessing and a curse ….therefore, take care to observe all of the laws and rules which I have set before you this day”.  How we act then touches not only our singular life, but also the lives of all with whom we live.  Do you consider the group results of your personal decisions?  Should you?  What do you think?

Friday Night Services 7/19

/in , /by

We look forward to seeing you for our regular Friday night services tonight, July 19th, at 7pm in which we will usher in Shabbat with our beautiful song filled services.   Shabbat shalom to you and your families.

Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Message:

This week we read Parshat Va’et’hanan, the second parshah of the Book of Deuteronomy, which begins with a moving account by Moses of his plea to God to enter the Land of Israel.  It is surely one of the great tragedies of the Bible that Moshe Rabbenu, Moses our Master Teacher, who worked so tirelessly to bring the People of Israel out of Egypt and to the Promised Land, was unable to enter the Land himself.   Our parshah contains a number of significant passages.  One is the Torah reading for Tish’ah B’Av, the Fast of the Ninth of Av which we just observed last week.  The reading begins with a warning that forsaking the Covenant with God could lead to exile from the Land which B’nei Yisrael were about to enter, a warning which came true in 586 BCE.  However, the passage ends with a message of hope-that even in exile, if we seek out God and devote ourselves to living up to our end of the Covenant, then deliverance will surely come, and exile will come to an end.    Parshat Va’et’hanan also contains a recapitulation of the Ten Commandments, with one notable change.  In the original account of the Revelation on Mt. Sinai, the Fifth Commandment begins with the words “Zachor et Yom HaShabbat l’kad’sho“-“Remember the Sabbath Day to make it holy”.  In our parshah, the wording is “Shamor et Yom HaShabbat l’kad’sho“-“Observe the Sabbath Day to make it holy”.  Of course, it is not enough to remember, to be aware of Shabbat-we must also observe the Shabbat, do the things which make Shabbat not just another day, or even a weekend day, but rather a holy day of rest and restoration of the soul.  The Midrash teaches that the words “Zachor“, “Remember”, and “Shamor“, “Observe”, were spoken and heard at the same time during the original Revelation, but were written down separately.  Both are of course,equally necessary.  The most significant part of Parshat Ve’et’hanan is the first paragraph of the Sh’ma’-“Hear (or Pay Attention!)  Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.  And you shall love….”  The Sh’ma’ is the very heart of our liturgy, of our prayer service.  Morning and evening, every day we declare our loyalty and fealty to God, and our recognition that God alone is the center of all being.  These words are so significant that they are ideally among the last words said by a dying Jew.  The Sh’ma’ is ultimately the answer to the destruction, loss and grief of Tish’ah B’Av-our faith in the One God endures, even if Temples and monarchies are destroyed.    May we soon see the Final Redemption, when all suffering will cease, and see the Day which is all Shabbat for all eternity.  Shabbat Shalom.

Audio files for the Friday night service

/in , , /by

Contact Cantor Ben Moshe if you have questions about the audio, and Morah Betsy (MorahBetsy@Gmail.com) if you have trouble listening to or downloading the files themselves.

Files are here.

B’Har and B’ Chukotay – Setting Limits in Time and Space

/in /by

A reminder of our regular Friday night services tonight, May 3rd at our regular time of 7:00 pm.  We look forward to seeing you all.

Rabbi Peter Tarlow’s Weekly Parasha:

We bring the yearly reading of the Book of Leviticus and the academic year to both their conclusions with a double parashah (Weekly Bible section) of B’Har and B’Chukotay. We find these two parashiyot (plural of parashah) in Leviticus 25;1-26:2 and 26:3-27:34. These sections deal with a number of issues, and perhaps one their themes, found at the beginning of the second of these two parashiyot acts as a unifying verse.

In Leviticus 26:3 we read “Im b’chukotai telchu v’im mitzvotai tishmru va’asitem otam/If you walk in (follow) My laws and keep (watch over) My commandments and you do them…”. The basic theme is what is Biblical scholars call: “the historical perspective on history”. This theory argues that G’d intervenes in history according to our actions; that history contains both personal and national “tits-for-tats”. If we follow G’d laws then we live lives filled with blessings and if we choose to ignore these laws then we suffer the consequences of our decisions.
This verse, however, is more complicated than it might appear to be at first. Grammatically, it presents us with several conceptual problems. If we read the verse carefully in the original Hebrew text, we note that the verse’s first two verbs have a subjunctive sense (expressing doubt). Thus, it is unclear if we shall or shall not follow G’d’s laws, but the third verb (to do), however, has a declarative sense “You will do them” no questions asked!
How come? Is the Torah portion teaching us an important lesson in life? Is it hinting at the idea that to be an adult means to do the right thing even if you do not want to do it? Is the text teaching us that to be an adult means getting beyond one’s own feelings? The theme that to be an adult is to learn to live in a world where we do not always get our way, is a major theme of the entire text.
Leviticus, and this section in particular, seem to be telling us that to be holy is to know limits. The text offers us the hypothesis that when humans enter a world of “if it feels good, then do it” they enter a state of social anarchy leading to “tohu va-vohu” or the state of chaos prior to creation. Leviticus, like so much of the Hebrew Bible, reminds us that we are merely guests on G’d’s land/earth; mere sojourners in G’d’s space and time. Leviticus reminds us that to exist civilization needs limits in time and in space, and without these limits we lack the freedom to create.
Many of the Biblical personalities, such as Noah and Abraham, demonstrated greatness when they walked with with G’d even when it was inconvenient. Greatness, then is not measured by what we say or feel, but rather in the end by what we do within the boundaries of time and space set for us by G’d. Do we need limits in order to be free? What do you think?
Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Message:
This week we read a double parshah, the last two of the Book of Leviticus, B’har and B’hukkotai. B’har begins with a description of the sabbatical year, which was the seventh year in which fields were to remain fallow and debts were to be forgiven, and then goes on to a description of the Yovel, the Jubilee, which was every fiftieth year. On the Yovel, which took place after the seventh sabbatical year in a cycle of 49 years, Israelite indentured servants were freed, and property that was part of tribal inheritance (to the exclusion of houses in cities) reverted to its original owners. By this law, the Torah sought to limit hereditary wealth and to prevent hereditary poverty. Once the tribal structure disappeared, after the Assyrian and Babylonian conquests, the institution of the Yovel went into abeyance. However, the concept continued on, whether in the term ‘jubilee’, meaning a fiftieth anniversary, or in the use of the term ‘Day of Jubilee’ (or ‘Jubilo’) by slaves in the American South to refer to the hoped-for day of Emancipation. Of course, the commandment to proclaim the Yovel is found on one of the most famous symbols of the United States-‘Proclaim liberty throughout the land, and to the inhabitants thereof’, found on the Liberty Bell. It is indeed a wonderful thought that though the institution of the Yovel disappeared more than two millenia ago, it endures as a symbol of freedom and hope even into our days.

 

Shabbat Services 12/21 and 12/22

/in , /by

Congregants and Friends,

We are having our regular Friday night and Saturday morning services this weekend, December 21 and 22.  Tonight, Friday night services start at 7:00 pm. Tomorrow, Saturday morning services start at 9:00 am with the Torah reading around 10:00 am.  Tomorrow, we are going to celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of Adam and Ilana Heller’s grandson Isaak Heller.  We wish Adam, Ilana and his whole family a hearty Mazal Tov.  Please join us in this exciting simcha.

Cantor Ben Moshe Message:  In this week’s parshah, Vayigash, we see one of the most beautiful turns of phrase in the Torah. Judah, explaining to Joseph why he cannot face his father’s grief if he fails to bring Benjamin home, says “…nafsho k’shurah b’nafsho”, “…their souls are bound together”. Indeed, our souls are bound together with those of our loved ones-we share in their joy as well as in their grief. If we take a wider view, the souls of all of the People of Israel are bound together, and those of all the human family.  Our souls are bound up with those of those families affected by last week’s horror in Newtown, CT-not only the Jewish family that lost a child, but all of those whose loved ones were senselessly taken from them. May God comfort them along with all those who mourn, and may we as a society take every possible step to ensure that events like these never reoccur.