Parashat Tatzeveh and running with the Rabbi!

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Services Friday Night, 2/27, at 7:00 pm
Saturday Morning Services, 2/28 at 9:00 am with the Torah reading around 9:50 am.
Purim Wednesday March 4 at 7:00 PM

Running with the Rabbi…
As a fundraiser, Rabbi Michael Gisser has set a goal to run the length of Israel, from the north to the south, a distance of 263 miles. Starting with the Army Half Marathon this Sunday, March 1, and Rabbi Gisser hopes to reach this distance by the High Holidays. All funds collected will be split between Congregation Beth El and a charity in Israel selected at a later date. To donate to this fundraiser bring or mail a check to Beth El or go online at http://bethelaustin.wpengine.com/donate
Running the Army Half Marathon this Sunday with Rabbi Gisser will be congregants Kevin, Yosef, and Art. Good luck runners!

Shabbat Across America Friday Night March 13, 2015
Services at the Special Time of 6:30 PM Followed by a Community Shabbat Dinner

Cantor Ben Moshe’s Message
This week we read, in addition to our regular parshah, Tetzaveh, the additional reading for Shabbat Zachor, which is to remember what Amalek did to our ancestors on the way out of Egypt. This is always read on the Shabbat before Purim, when we read of Haman the Agagite-that is, a descendent of Agag, last king of Amalek. The Torah warns us to be always on guard against those who hate us and seek our destruction, to which the Hassidic masters added that we must also guard against hateful and destructive tendencies *in ourselves*. May it be God’s will that all causeless hatred disappear from the Earth, and be replaced with causeless love. Shabbat Shalom and Happy Purim.

 

Weekend services and Grandpa Abe’s Column

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Show your love for the shul – come to services this weekend! **Services Friday Night, 2/13, at 7:00 pm and Saturday Morning, 2/14, at 9:00 am

**Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly message:
Our parshah this week begins with the words “V’eleh hamishpatim”, “And these are the laws”, beginning a series of commandments about various aspects of life. The word (in Hebrew, prefix) “and” is significant. Last week we read of Revelation on Mt. Sinai and the giving of the “Ten Commandments”. Of… course, our Tradition teaches that there are 603 more mitzvot in the Torah, and that Revelation continued. That is the meaning of “And these are the laws”-the laws of our parshah were given on Sinai as well, and are just as important as the “Ten Commandments”. May we all fulfill as many of God’s mitzvot as possible. Shabbat Shalom.

**Grandpa Abe’s Column
The Loss of A Special Person
As you all know by now, Irene Kanter has left us. I have known Irene for over 35 years, maybe longer. My mother and dad used to live around the corner from them on Shoal Creek Blvd. Irene was an educator in the Austin Independent School District. Ordinarily, this would not mean a whole lot to me, but I remember one day that my son had to take the first half of a class to get credit as he had not taken it. Irene, or should I say, Mrs. Kanter was more than helpful getting him enrolled in summer school and back on track. I found her to be a very compassionate and all-around sweet person. Over the years, I would help the family out with some of their problems on their home. She and Marvin were most appreciative of whatever I would do for them. If any of you have ever been to Irene and Marvin’s house, it’s got to be the cleanest house in Austin. I realize that there were only two people living in that house, but what an excellent housekeeper. I know that Ann Richards once said, “when I go, I don’t want to be remembered for my clean house, but for what I did.” In this case, Irene did a lot. She, for years, took care of the grounds at the synagogue and headed up the Sunday School. We would not have a sprinkler system today if it wasn’t for Irene. She took so much pride in keeping the lawn looking good. I might add with her husband Marvin. We are a creature of habit. Irene and Marvin always sat on the right side, in the middle, near the door. Marvin with his baseball yarmulke and Irene looking like she just stepped out of a fashion magazine. Such an attractive woman. I think this story wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Irene’s daughter. Irene and Marvin had one child, Shelly. I met Shelly several times. She has taken on a lot of her mother’s traits such as being extra sweet and compassionate.

Dor V’Dor Grandpa Abe

**Movies in the Shul A Night With the King February 21, at 6:30 pm. Movie followed by a discussion led by Rabbi Michael Gisser.

**Save the Date PURIM Wednesday March 4 7:00 PM

**Save the Date Shabbat Across America Friday Night, March 13, 2015

Weekend Services

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Services Friday Night, 2/6, at 7:00 pm and Passing of Irene Kanter z”l

Congregation Beth El mourns the passing of Irene Kanter z”l earlier this week.   A memorial service will be held at 1:00 p.m. Sunday, February 8th, at the Weed Corley-Fish Funeral Home located at 3125 North Lamar, Austin, Texas.  Irene and her husband Marvin were founding members of Beth El and our congregation extends our heartfelt condolences to the Kanter family.  I n lieu of flowers, please feel free to make a donation to either Hospice-Austin or Honor Flight Austin.

Shiva minyans for Irene Kanter z”l will be held Sunday, 2/8, at 6:00 pm and Monday, 2/9, at 7:00 pm at Congregation Beth El at 8902 Mesa Drive.

News from the Dallas Holocaust Museum

Many of the works displayed in the Museum’s current special exhibition, Drawn to Action: The Life and Work of Arthur Szyk, have been loaned by two of our generous friends, but Gregg and Michelle Philipson have gone even further to donate two rare books to the Museum’s collection.  Ink and Blood: A Book of Drawings by Arthur Szyk and The New Order are compilations of Szyk’s intricate and colorful political cartoons. Both are on display now in the Museum’s special exhibits area.  The New Order was published in 1941, before the U.S. joined the war, and contains Szyk’s artistic call to action for the nation to stand up against Nazi tyranny. Polish-born Arthur Szyk considered his anti-Nazi cartoons to be “weapons of war.”  Ink and Blood was published in 1946, after WWII had ended. The illustration that inspired the title is the book’s first image. It is a drawing of Szyk drawing Adolf Hilter, who flows comically and belligerently from his pen. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda chief, stands beside him holding a microphone. Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tojo, Hermann Goering and Henrich Himmler are on the floor. Spanish dictator Francisco Franco is underneath Szyk’s desk. Other Axis leaders, including Benito Mussolini, are in the trash.
Save the Date – Shabbat Across America
Friday Night, March 13, 2015Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Message

In this week’s parshah, Yithro, Moshe learns an important lesson in leadership from his father-in-law, who tells him that he cannot bear the burden of leadership alone.  Moses needed to be told that there are limits to his ability to do his job, even though he was the greatest of all spiritual leaders.  If Moshe Rabbenu himself had to recognize his limits, how much more so do we need to avoid overfunctioning.  We must learn from the example of our greatest teacher-to accept help, to resist trying to do it all, to recognize that none of us is indispensable.  In our parshah, Moshe and B’nei Yisrael encounter God-and Moshe realizes that unlike God, he has limitations, as do we all.  May we always keep that in our awareness.  Shabbat Shalom.

Parashat Bo

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Services Friday night, 1/23, at 7:00 pm
Services Saturday morning, 1/24, at 9:00 am with the Torah Service around 9:50.
Parashat Bo – Rabbi Gisser will be giving the D’var Torah

Unveiling for Elinor Pusin z”l will be Sunday, January 25, at 2:00 PM in Pflugerville at Cook-Walden Cemetery
14501 North IH-35
Pflugerville, TX 78660

Ma’ariv services every Wednesday at 7:00 pm with Rabbi Gisser’s Class on Death and Afterlife following services on 1/28, 2/4, and 2/11

Movies in the Shul – The Pawnbroker – Saturday, January 31 at 6:30 PM
Movie will be shown followed by a discussion led by Rabbi Gisser

Rabbi Tarlow’s Weekly Parashah from the
Center for Latino – Jewish Relations.
Due to a busy travel schedule this week we study two sections that normally are not studied together. We look at Parashat Bo (Exodus 10:1-13:16) and also next week’s section, Parashat B’shalach. (Exodus 13:17-17:16). Although these two long weekly sections seem disconnected, if we read them carefully we can see that in reality the two sections are, in many ways interconnected.
Parashat Bo speaks of the last three plagues to consume Egypt, culminating in the death of Egypt’s first-born sons. It is a time of liberation for Israel and a time in which the average Egyptian saw the collapse of his/her society. Perhaps no one was ready for the changes that would take place. For Israel, this would be a time of freedom; for Egypt the realization that its leaders had taken the nation on a catastrophic path of destruction.
Perhaps we can understand this “divergence of history” by the two forms of bread found in these two Bible sections: matzah and manna. Why did the Israelites have to bake bread at the last minute? Did they not know that the time of their liberation was soon to come? Perhaps the answer lies in the way slaves versus free people understand the concept of “time”. Slaves live in an eternal present; free human beings develop collective pasts and futures. Thus, the leitmotif found in the first of these two sections may well be a “constant present of fear” without hope for a better future.
The second section studied, Parashat B’Shlach, on the other hand, is about the act of taking risks as part of life. Reading this parashah, there is the clear sense that our future is never separated from our past, rather the future is our collective past and projected into time. This parashah is the first section in the Bible where Israel is now a free nation and faces the need to become responsible for its collective future. Israel can no longer cling to the “flesh pots” of Egypt, it must now enter the “Midbar” meaning the “wilderness of time and space”. It is the emptiness of space and time that now becomes Israel’s responsibility to fill.
Both Bible sections deal with bread, known in the Bible as the “substance of life”. In parashat Bo, the bread is “matzah.” baked in haste and without leaven. It is called the bread of affliction, the bread of slavery. In the second section, Parashat “B’Shlach”, the bread is called “manna.” This is the bread of freedom, the miracle bread, the bread of many different tastes. Manna is a gift of G’d, and unlike matzah that tastes the same to each person; the manna of freedom offers uniqueness of taste to all who eat it.
Perhaps these two types of breads symbolize the difference between slavery and freedom, between being an infant and becoming an adult. The slave, is the eternal child afraid to plan for the future, he/she lives shackled by the past and in an ever-present state of fear. The free person, the adult, sees the present as gift and just as artist does, the free person sees the emptiness of time as a way to sculpt an ever-evolving future.
These two Biblical sections pose a challenge to each of us: are we slaves in an “Egypt of our own making,” shackled by our lack of reality and fearful of building a future as partners with G’d? Are we G’d’s partners building bridges upon which we cross the Red Sea, and begin our own journey across the desert of fear toward the redemption of the Promised Land? What are you?

Cantor Ben Moshe’s Message
This week we observed Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, when we celebrate the life and legacy of the great leader of the Civil Rights Movement. King of course drew his inspiration from the story in our parshah this week, Parshat Bo. The narrative of Israel’s liberation from Egyptian bondage was of course an example for King and the other heroes of the Civil Rights Movement in their struggle to liberate African-Americans from the bondage of segregation. We should be proud that our story inspires others to seek their freedom – and we should be proud that Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and many other Jews marched with King and joined the Freedom Riders. Our Torah teaches that God wants human freedom – let us continue the legacy of Moshe Rabbenu, Moses our Teacher, and of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., and always work for the freedom of all. Shabbat Shalom. Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe

 

Parashat Ve’era – Special Friday services

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Dear Congregants and Friends,

We would like to invite you all to our Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat service, tonight at 7pm. We will have our regular service, but invite the children of the congregation to come and join us in singing Lecha Dodi and getting a special blessing. We will have coffee, juice and cake at the end.
NEW E-MAIL: – PLEASE READ. We are transitioning to a new e-mail in order to better serve you. It is news@bethelaustin.org. Please subscribe to this email when you receive it as it is the only way that you will be able to get the e-mail. As always, we don’t send many, so you will never receive too many, but this is a very important way of communication. Please also bear with us as we transition.
On Sunday morning, we will have Sunday school at 10am.
PLEASE NOTE that there will not be an Intro to Judaism class this week though.
HOLD THE DATE : We will have another work day on Sunday January 25 and could use as many people as possible.
Wednesday evening davening will be at 7pm and the very popular class on Jewish concepts of Death and the afterlife will immediately follow.
Movies in the shul – remember our next one is motzei Shabbat, January 31, at about 6:30pm when we will be screening The Pawn Broker.
We are forming a Hebrew conversation class on Thursday evenings – please let us know if you are interested ASAP so we can get an idea of numbers and interest.
Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly message:   This week’s parshah, Va’era, begins the narrative of the Ten Plagues, which came down on Egypt as a consequence of the continued enslavement of B’nei Yisrael.  The plagues begin as annoyances-water turning to blood, frogs, lice-and progress to dangerous and at the end deadly.  They come in three sets of three, and they are all natural phenomena, except the last Plague of the First-Born.  In this way, God proves the futility of worshipping the forces of nature.  None of the gods of Egypt, from the river-god of the Nile to the frog-goddess of fertility, to Ra, the sun-god, chief of the Egyptian pantheon, had any power.  Only the Creator of the Universe has that sort of power.  As Jews, we are called on to witness that there is only One Supreme Power, Who alone is worthy of worship.  As for Nature, we may see God’s presence there, but Nature is not God, and while we recognize that we are part of Creation, we look beyond the material world to the Spirit which is beyond.  Shabbat Shalom.