Friday Night Services 7/19

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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

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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

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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

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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.

Friday Night Services and Potluck Dinner

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On Friday night, October 19, please join us for our wonderful song filled Friday night services at the slightly earlier time of 6:30 pm this week, followed immediately by a dairy/parev potluck dinner.
What a great way to end the week and welcome in shabbat.
Please email bethelaustin@yahoo.com if you have any questions or what dish you would like to bring.