Shabbat shalom ya all and happy first week of school! Check out our High Holiday schedule and weekend services. Read all about it…..Friday Night services tonight, August 25 at the regular time of 7:00 PM. We hope to see you.
Shabbat morning services are THIS Saturday August 26 at 9 AM. We will have the Torah service at around 9:45 AM and a children’s service/story time with Morah Shereen at 10:30 AM. This week’s lovely kidush lunch is generously sponsored by Yosef and Claudia Aguilar in honor of the new school year starting up for their children, Vania, Sofia and Nathan.They wish all our children a successful and great year ahead.

Cantor Ben Moshe’s Message
This week, as we read Parshat Shoftim, we are now into the month of Elul, the month of preparation for the High Holidays. This week we continue reading the Haftarot of Consolation, as we have been since Tish’ah B’Av, and in this week’s prophetic reading, we see a word appear three times-“awake”. The prophet Isaiah is telling the People of Israel to awaken from the nightmare of exile, of course, but in the context of the calendar we may read these words in a different way. At this time of year, as we begin to blow the shofar and begin in earnest to examine our lives, we are called upon to wake up-wake up from our delusions, from our mistaken ideas about our lives, and to seek the truth. As we see the words “hit’oreri” and “uri, uri” echoed in the hymn “L’cha Dodi” on Friday evening and again in the haftarah itself on Shabbat morning, let us resolve to be truly awake and aware. Shabbat Shalom.
Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe
Parashat Hashavua from Rabbi Dr. Peter Tarlow, Rabbi Emeritus Texas A&M, and Director of the Center for Jewish Latino Relations.

The name of this week’s parashah is Shoftim (meaning: Judges). You will find this week’s section in the Book of Deuteronomy 16:8-21:9. The section deals with the rule of law, its administration, the right of appeal, or the concept of going to a higher court, regulations to stop blood feuds, and perhaps the world’s first attempt at creating “moral” rules of war.
On a primary level this week’s parashah sets the basis for Jewish jurisprudence. It gives us the principle that once the law is decided, assuming it is decided in a fair fashion, then the decision is the law. In other words, a society needs a certain amount of consistency for order to flourish and for the citizen to know what is or is not expected of him/her.
Underneath this legal guide, however, there is a still more important principle. The text assumes that where there is life and law, there are also those who might try to take life so as to destroy the law. In other words, this text is teaching us that where there is no realism then idealism cannot exist. Is this text a reaction to humanity’s early failures as noted in the Book of Genesis where all too often idealism failed because humanity chose to ignore reality?
Is the text teaching us that societies need laws because without these laws that form the basis of a civil society humanity loses its way and in the end self-destructs? This Biblical text reminds us that humans are by their very nature capable of greatness but also fallible and capable of horrendous deeds. Law then becomes the protective edge of humanity. To be human, to be just a bit below the angles, we must have structure and both personal and group regulation.
This week’s parashah teaches us that there is evil in the world; that some people are capable of doing a great deal of evil. To fail to confront evil is evil; to refuse to face reality is to become allies of those who seek to undermine stability and social norms.
There is also a flip side of humanity, for just as we are capable of creating horrors so too are we also capable of greatness and acts of kindness. The Biblical text thus describes humanity as both good and evil, of being capable of descending to deep ethical lows of climbing to great ethical highs. Is this text teaching us that we may never be able to eliminate strains of evil from the world and therefore we must be constantly vigilant? The question that has faced humanity since Cain murdered Abel is how do we regulate and control our evil impulses, both on the personal and on the societal level?
What do you think? What does this passage teach us about war and relations between both people and nations in our own age?
Please consider a donation/Tzedakah to your amazing little shul!
http://bethelaustin.wpengine.com/donate/

Friday Night Shabbat Services 
Friday 7/28, at the regular time of 7:00 PM. We’ll light shabbat candles together just before services and enjoy a glass of iced tea. We are having lay led services this week and thank Bam for leading services.

Shabbat morning services are Saturday August 12 and 26
as per our schedule.

Candle lighting in Austin is at 8:09 PM and
Havdallah is Saturday at 9:38 PM Motzei shabbat.

Cantor Ben Moshe’s Message

This week we begin Sefer D’varim, the Book of Deuteronomy, with the parshah of the same name. Shabbat D’varim is also Shabbat Hazon, the Shabbat before Tish’ah B’Av. This Shabbat we allow a note of mourning to enter Shabbat-we customarily sing L’cha Dodi to the tune of the dirge “Eli Tzion”, and the haftarah is chanted to the cantillation of Megillath Eichah, the Book of Lamentations. We even chant one verse of the Torah to that tune-the verse “Eichah esa’ l’vadi…”-Moses saying “How can I bear this burden….”. That word, “eichah”, “how”, is the plaintive cry that begins the Book of Lamentations, the cry of the prophet who cannot understand how his people came to this state, the cry of God Himself. Next week we will observe the Fast of Tish’ah B’Av, from sundown Monday to sundown Tuesday, to commemorate the destruction of both Temples. As we read the Book of Lamentations, let us concentrate on the second-to-last verse, which we repeat at the end. “Hashivenu Adonai elecha v’nashuva, hadesh yameinu k’kedem”-“Return us to you, o Lord, and we will return, renew our days as of old”. As we begin the seven-week countdown to Rosh Hashanah, let us look at how we may have left the proper path-“eichah”-and how we can return to God. Shabbat Shalom, and may we and all the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem be comforted.

Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe

Beth El Hebrew school starting in the fall. First day BACK September 10th!

For our Hebrew speakers: a Hebrew Immersion class is starting up. We also continue our one of a kind school, Sundays at 10 to 12. Come check us out!

We also have a teen program starting up! This will be a once a month program for children post Bar and Bat Mitzvah and will be focused on volunteer work and group projects.

בית הכנסת ״בית-אל״ מזמין את המשפחות הישראליות/ אמריקאיות, להירשם לשנת הלימודים הקרובה 2017-2018.
כמו כן, בפעם הראשונה ולאור הביקוש הרב תיפתח כיתה לילדים דוברי עברית.
הילדים ימצאו חממה חינוכית וערכית עם אוירה מיוחדת ואישית.
מורות ישראליות עם נסיון רב בלימוד מבתי הכנסת השונים עד לאוניברסיטה.
בית הספר שם דגש רב על חברות ועזרה הדדית ושימור הזיקה היהודית למסורת.
התכנים מועברים בצורה חוויתית אינטראקטיבית כמו בישול, אפייה, אומנות, שירה עם מיס קרול נטיעת גינה בבית הכנסת וטיפול בה והזמנת מרצים אורחים לשיחה בנושאים שונים (כמו ישראל) והשתתפות בפרוייקט ״תיקון עולם״.
בשנה שעברה הילדים בחרו לאסוף שמיכות ולתרום אותן למקלט לבעלי חיים .
כולם מתקבלים בברכה.
גילאים: 5-13
שעות פעילות : ימי ראשון :10:00-12:00
PLEASE HELP SPONSOR A KIDUSH MEAL! Send us an email to info@bethelaustin.org

Thank you to all the Beth El helpers. We have some new paving stones on the front lawn that were kindly donated by Tam as well as new swings in the playground, graciously donated by Hebrew school parents in appreciation of the wonderful education received at the school. The organic gardens are looking and tasting great and the yard over all is looking well loved (thank you Yoaquin et al)! Kudos also to the lovely congregants who helped cook meals recently for a family in need.

To quote JFK rather badly, “ask not what your shul can do for you, but what you can do for your shul?” Seriously, we have a community with truly amazing folks who ask that very question and help in so many ways. There are many more ways to help the shul and all of them are truly appreciated!

In the following inspiring podcast, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks discusses what role spirituality should play in an increasingly secular West.

http://rabbisacks.org/cultural-climate-change-rabbi-sacks-…/