Beth El Second Night Passover Seder

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Just a reminder that the Beth El Annual Second Night Seder is tonight at 6:30 PM. 
 Passover Zoom Link:

Meeting ID: 859 6871 3636
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85968713636
 From Shereen and Hazzan Ben_Moshe:

Hag Pesah Sameah Beth El Friends,

We hope this finds everyone well and looking forward to the Festival of Freedom.  We hope that this will be the last time that we celebrate together virtually, and that next year will be, if not in Jerusalem, at least in person.  We pray that we will be able to gather with extended family, and together as a congregation for the second night of the holiday.  In any case, may our matzah be crisp, our knaidlach either fluffy or dense, as you prefer, our haroset sweet, and may we all enjoy old family recipes as well as new ones.  And of course, may we all remember and give thanks for our People’s liberation from bondage.  Hag Kasher v’sameah!

Here are some tips on how to prepare for Pesach:

Clean all hametz food items from the house-eat up/throw out/donate/put aside to be sold.
Clean the house, but not obsessively.  Dirt isn’t hametz!
Since Pesah begins on Saturday night, things are a little different.  B’dikat Hametz (searching for hametz) is done Thursday evening, and Bi’ur Hametz (burning hametz) is done on Friday, preferably by about 11:30AM.  Hametz may be eaten Friday evening and Saturday morning until 11:30-but it’s easier to eat kosher for Pesah food on Shabbat and use egg matzah (which can’t be used for the Seder) instead of bread.  If you do eat bread on Friday evening/Saturday morning, any leftovers should be put in the garbage or compost by 11:30.  The Seder should not begin until the end of Shabbat, 8:10PM at the earliest, and Kiddush includes the paragraph for Havdalah.
Join us for the 2nd Night Seder via Zoom:
We hope you will join us for this year’s interactive seder.
  
Getting ready for the evening:Prepare your dinnerPrepare your Seder plateSet your table (Elijah’s cup, candles, wine, pillows for reclining, Afikomen bag, matzah, matzah cover)Haggadah – bring your own or a copy of the Beth El Zoom Haggadah (included in this packet)Agenda for the evening – 6:30 pm 6:30 PM  Welcome & let the Seder begin!We will take a 30-minute break for dinner and then come back on to proceed with the Seder.Turn off your cameras or enjoy your dinner and chat with others who are also enjoying their dinner via Zoom.Seder resumesSing-a-long – join us for some of our favorite Pesah songs! 
We look forward to seeing you Sunday evening! 
Hag Kasher v’sameah from the Ben-Moshe household (Hazzan Yitzhak, Shereen, kids and dogs).

Passover 2020, Kulanu Jewish Community Havdallah

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How different this Passover is from all other Passovers! On all other Passovers we celebrate with family and friends gathered around the table-on this Passover we will celebrate with family and friends on FaceTime or Zoom. But celebrate we will – including our annual tradition of the second night seder on Thursday evening at 6:30 PM. Just as at the first Passover in Egypt, we look forward to a time of freedom and liberation. We of course miss the physical presence of family members and fellow congregants-and as at all holidays, we especially miss those who are no longer with us. But they live on in our memories, in family tunes for the Seder or in a treasured old recipe. May we all have a joyous holiday, and as we say “Next year in Jerusalem”, we will also say “Next year together!” Hag Kasher V’Sameah.

Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe

Please let us know if you would like the PDF of the Beth El Hagaddah (by Rabbi Rosenbaum) and we will happily send it to you. We will use it on the second night seder.

Please come to Friday night services via zoom this Friday April 10 at 7 PM. LAst week the sound was great thank you to a new mic generously donated by Craig and Jyl. It was so heartwarming to to see our congregants via zoom!

Congregation Beth El – Friday night Online Services

Please note that there is no Sunday school this week, due to Passover, and Sunday school resumes for all our BERS April 19. From Pre K to our Bnai Mitzvah

This Saturday night – April 11 at 8:30 PM join the whole Austin Jewish community, including our very own Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe, in a community wide Havdallah PASSOVER edition. www.shalomaustin.org/kulanu

Thank you to the awesome ladies who joined us for the Sisterhood Passover Exchange and cooking demo. We all had such a great time, as well as learnt some lovely recipes (which we shared in the Whattsapp group). Please let us know if you would like the recipes. We are planning a Beth El movie watchparty on Sunday evening April 12 at 7 PM. Details to follow.
Thank you so much to our dedicated and talented SUNDAY SCHOOL educators who so lovingly taught our children again last Sunday. Rachael joined every class to teach them Passover songs with her amazing guitar and sweet voice!

Sofia’s Bat Mitzvah

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Friday Night Live! Tonight @ 7PM! 
Shabbat Morning Services this Shabbat at 9 AM. Please join us as we celebrate Sofia’s Bat Mitzvah. Mazel tov to her family, Yosef, Claudia, Vania and Nathan. There will be a delicious meat kidush immediately following services, sponsored generously by Sofia’s family. “Shabbat Shul Storytime” with Morah Shereen for the children during services.

Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly Message.

The end of this week’s parshah, Tzav, details the ordination ceremony for Aharon and his sons as Kohanim, priests. Moshe offers his last sacrifice as his brother takes over that role, and the trope, the cantillation note over the word “vayish’hat”, “and he slaughtered” is sharsheret, a long, drawn-out tone that is used only four times in the Torah, and always indicates hesitation. Moshe is sad that he has to give the sacerdotal function away. Transfer of power is not easy. In the Megillah which we just read on Purim, the king takes his signet ring from Haman and gives it to Mordechai, signifying the transfer of power as prime minister. In the Megillah, Haman has to die in order for Mordechai to take his place. The Torah describes an orderly transfer of power. May all people everywhere be blessed to live under a system which transfers power not through assassination or violent revolution, but through democracy. All of the human family deserve this. Shabbat Shalom.
Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe 
Shabbat candle lighting at 7:26 p.m.

Thank you to all who helped make our Purim Party so much fun and so very meaningful.

From the teens who organized the children’s arts and crafts stations, to the Hazzan for a great Megilla reading, to the wonderful families that attended.

As Yosef mentioned, without you guys, we are just a building.

With you all, we are a community/kehilla!

A few photos of our Beth El campout last weekend. Save the date for the fall campout in November 23-25.

Please Join Us: Wednesday May 1
Internationally acclaimed Guest Speaker Itzhak Brook. Beth El at 7 PM. All are invited!

You’re Invited: Second Night Seder at Beth El.
Please send your RSVP’s to bethelaustin@yahoo.com.
It fills fast – but there’s always room for you!

Announcements for the End of Passover

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On Thursday night, we begin the concluding days of Pesah, the Season of our Liberation. Friday’s Torah reading is the dramatic tale of the Crossing of the Sea of Reeds, usually identified as the Great Bitter Lake on the border of the Sinai Peninsula. Worthy of note is the aggadah, the Rabbinic legend, that the Sea did not split when Moses raised his staff pver the water. According to the legend, God performed the miracle only when one man, Nahshon ben ‘Amminadav, was brave enough to wade into the water. God does indeed provide for us-but we need to meet Him halfway. I hope to see everyone Friday night at 7:00, and Saturday morning at 9:00 for the conclusion of Passover and for Yizkor. Shabbat Shalom and Hag Sameah.

Cantor Yitzhak Ben-Moshe
8902 Mesa Drive
Austin,TX. 78759
cantorbenmoshe1@yahoo.com

Announcements for Passover

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image via http://grade5js.edublogs.org/2008/04/13/mon-thurs-414-1708-9-12-nisan-5768-last-post-before-pesach/

image via http://grade5js.edublogs.org

Dear Congregants and Friends,
We hope you can all join us this Friday night, March 30 at 7pm for our regular Kabbalat shabbat services and Saturday morning, March 31 at 9 am, with the Torah service at 9:45, for our shabbat services.  Also, don’t forget to send your RSVP by replying to this e-mail for the second night seder at Beth El a week from Saturday – April 7 at 6 pm.
Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly message:
This week we read in Parshat Tzav more of the rules of sacrifices-how they were to be offered, and for what reasons. This parshah, as well as most of the Book of Vayikra, Leviticus, are rather hard reading for us, living nearly 2000 years after the last sacrifice was offered in the Temple. What we need to do is to look at the Hebrew word for sacrifice-korban, meaning something that is brought near, or more to the point, something that brings us near to God. Our ancestors offered sacrifices in order to come near to God. How can we do so in our time? That is the central question that is raised by the Book of Leviticus, and a very important question for all Jews at all times.
This Shabbat is also Shabbat HaGadol, the Shabbat before Pesah. The Season of our Liberation is at hand, and we will be discussing the traditions and the meaning of Pesah this Shabbat.  Please join us Friday and Saturday.
Before services on Friday night, a sign-up sheet will be available for anyone to make me their agent for selling hametz to a non-Jew for the duration of the Festival.
Shabbat Shalom.
Cantor Yitzhak Ben-Moshe
8902 Mesa Drive
Austin, TX 78759