Shabbat Re’eh, Friday evening services, and high holiday planning

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Congregants,
As we do every Friday night, we will have services tonight at 7:00 pm.
Cantor Ben Moshe’s Message The week to come marks the beginning of the month of Elul, when we begin to think about the upcoming High Holidays.  We turn our thoughts inward, toward self-improvement and repentance.  The shofar is sounded in the morning, calling us to wake up and examine our ways.  Currently, our sanctuary here at Beth El is being renovated.  Come Rosh Hashanah, we will be meeting in a renewed and revitalized space.  This is also a time to renew and revitalize ourselves.  Unlike the synagogue building, though, we humans have the privilege of being able to renew ourselves every year, and indeed every day.  While we temporarily pray in the social hall, let us remember that renovation is not only for physical space, but for the spirit as well.
High Holiday Schedule 
Rosh Hashanah is a little over a month away and we have begun preparations for our services.   See attached schedule for times and dates for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot.
You can also prepare for the high holidays by buying the high holiday cards children created.  More information here:  Cards

We look forward to seeing everyone at services tonight at 7pm.
Shabbat shalom,
Congregation Beth El
8902 Mesa Drive

Beth El Updates and Services Tonight and Tomorrow

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Congregants and Friends,

A reminder of our regular Friday night and Saturday morning services this weekend, August 19th and 20th.  Friday night services start at 7:00 pm and Saturday morning start at 9:00 am.

SANCTUARY RENOVATION – Beginning Monday, August 22, we will take our sanctuary out of service while we install new chairs, new carpet, a new ark, and other improvements.  During this renovation, we will continue to hold Friday night services in the social hall.  If all work goes as scheduled, services will resume in the sanctuary on the weekend of September 16 and 17.

Thank you to everyone who have generously donated, invested time, and helped on these improvements.

Cantor’s Message – This week’s parashah, ‘Ekev, contains the famous words “Man does not live by bread alone”.  The Torah is teaching us that material things, while important, are not of ultimate importance.   We also need the metaphysical, the spiritual.  In a similar vein, the sad observance of Tish’ah B’Av teaches us that the Temple in Jerusalem was not as important as God, to Whom the Temple was dedicated.  As we prepare to celebrate our last Shabbat in the current configuration of Beth El’s sanctuary, let us remember that a congregation is much more than the building in which it meets, and that a congregation’s ultimate purpose is the worship of God.  Still, we also rejoice in the opportunity to fulfill the hopeful words read at the end of the Book of Lamentations-“renew our days as of old”.  Shabbat Shalom.
 
Congregation Beth El
8902 Mesa Drive

Shabbat Devarim

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Dear Congregants and Friends,

Just a reminder that we will have services this weekend August 5th and 6th at Congregation Beth El.

As we do every Friday night, services tonight will begin at 7:00 P.M.

Tomorrow Shabbat morning services will begin at 9:00 a.m. with the Torah reading around 9:50 am.

Please join us.

Shabbat Shalom.

Congregation Beth El
8902 Mesa Drive
Austin, Texas 78759

This is an excellent D’var Torah on this week’s parsha. —Betsy

Shabbat Service tonight at 7

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Dear Congregants and friends,
Please join us tonight, July 29, for Friday night services at our regular time of 7 pm.  Next week, August 6,  we will be having our shabbat morning services starting at 9 am.
We look forward to seeing you all.
Cantor Yitzhak Ben-Moshe’s Weekly message:
This week’s parashah is Mas’ei, the last of the Book of Numbers, Sefer Bemidbar.  The parashah begins with a list of the way stations during the journey of the People of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land.  Why give such an accounting?  If we travel from Austin to Dallas, we’re unlikely to tell people that we went from Austin to Pflugerville, from Pflugerville to Round Rock, from Round Rock to Georgetown, etc.  We’re more likely to mention only our final destination.  I believe though, that the Torah is teaching us a lesson.  While our destination matters, our route matters as well.  We need to pay attention to the process by which we arrive at our destinations, whatever they may be.  The People of Israel may have been bound for the Land of Israel, but it was the journey in the wilderness that made them into worthy inheritors of the Land. So too, our journeys are what make us who we are, before we arrive at our final destination.  Shabbat Shalom.
Congregation Beth El
www.bethelaustin.org

Shabbat Matot – Services Tonight & Tomorrow

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Services Friday at 7pm & Saturday & 9AM, with a light kiddush lunch.

 

From the Cantor:

This week finds us in the period of “Bein HaMetzarim”, “In the Narrow Place”, the Three Weeks before Tish’a B’Av, the Ninth of Av.  This is a mournful period on the Jewish calendar, as we are approaching the day of mourning for the destruction of the Holy Temple.  The Haftarot, the Prophetic readings for the next three Shabbatot are rebukes to the People of Israel for wrongdoing and prophecies of the coming destruction.  As every year, Tish’a B’Av reminds us that nothing on this Earth is permanent-a good lesson to remember as summer begins to wind down to the High Holidays in the fall.  Shabbat Shalom to everyone.
Cantor Yitzhak Ben-Moshe
8902 Mesa Drive
Austin, TX 78759