Junior Congregation Archives - Page 2 of 57 - Congregation Beth El Austin ק״ק בית אל

Tu Be Shevat at Beth El

January 10, 2021/in Junior Congregation /by betheladmin11

Shabbat Shalom to you all! See you tonight at services. We rescheduled last week’s speaker, Jami Dajman, to this evening, and we look forward to having her share her inspiring story of her family’s survival of the Holocaust. Jami will say a few words during tonight’s Dvar Torah. We also send our thoughts to Barry for a refua shlema, a speedy recovery. Get well soon and we are all thinking about you! Our Sunday school families will join us this Sunday for our hybrid Sunday school, and our sisterhood will enjoy our book club meeting at 7:30 PM this Sunday. Happy 93rd birthday to our founding member Minnie Rice! Ad 120! We hope you have a safe, healthy, and restful shabbat. Tonight’s Friday evening services will begin at 7 PM. Can’t wait to see you in person or on zoom.Friday Night Zoom Link:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82884019311PASSWORD: shalomCantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly Message:Our parshah this week is one of two that are named after non-Israelites. Parshat Balak is actually named after a villain, the Moabite king who hires the non-Israelite seer Balak to curse the People of Israel (of course, his curse is turned into a blessing). This week’s parshah though, is named after a hero-Yithro, Moshe’s father in law. Yithro comes to Mt. Sinai after the Exodus, accompanying Moshe’s wife Tzipporah and their sons Gershom and Eli’ezer. He notices that Moshe is spending long days hearing every question and dispute of the People, and suggests a system of lower courts to reduce the burden on Moshe and the Israelites. Moshe takes his advice, born of years of experience in tribal leadership, and sets up the court system.Moshe could, of course, have refused to take Yithro’s counsel. After all, he was the Prophet, the greatest of them all, who spoke with God in a waking state and not in a dream or a trance. He could have said, as some do today, that the People of Israel do not have anything to learn from others. Instead, Moshe sets an example for us to follow. He learns good lessons from any source-whether that source is Israelite or not. The Sage Ben Zoma says in Chapter Four of Pirkei Avoth, “Who is wise? One who learns from all people”. Throughout the ages, we Jews have learned much from the other folk whom we have encountered-from the medicine, astronomy and philosophy of the Greeks in ancient times and on into our own age. Our spiritual path is, of course our own-we do not look to others for theology. But in other things, even meditation techniques and the like, we can and should look to the wisdom of all humanity, as all of humanity has been blessed in some way with Divine Wisdom. May we always have the courage of Moshe Rabbenu, to set aside our egos and accept good teaching from wherever it may come. Shabbat Shalom.Shabbat candle lighting time 5:54 PMSunday school BERS meet this weekend.We note with sadness the passing today of the mother of Mark Heidenheimer, a past president of Beth El.The family was originally from Cisco, Texas, where Mark’s father owned a dry goods store. The family was active in the Abilene synagogue, where Mark went to Hebrew School and had his Bar Mitzvah. Mark used to go to Abilene for the High Holidays to make sure they had a minyan. Mrs. Heidenheimer was very active in the Abilene Jewish community until she was moved to an extended living location in Plano, to be nearer to Mark and his wife Kathy. We send our deepest condolences to the whole Heidenheimer family. Enjoy some photos of our sweet BERS. Here is Morah Dganit and Kita Alef studying the Olive Tree and Pomegranate Tree in the front yard at Beth El. And Kita Bet with Morah Hadass planting their parsley seeds, which will hopefully grow in time for the Passover seder!

Holocaust Remembrance Day

January 4, 2021/in adult education, announcements, Events, Holocaust Museum, Jewish War Veterans, Junior Congregation, News, Shabbat /by betheladmin11

Shabbat Shalom to you all! In honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, we have invited fellow congregant and BERS mom, Jami, who will share with us some inspiring stories of her family members who survived the Holocaust. Jami will say a few words during tonight’s Dvar Torah.

Tonight’s Friday evening services will begin at 7 PM. Can’t wait to see you in person or on zoom.

Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly Message:
Parshath B’shallah is usually the parshah read near T”u Bish’vat. While the main story, of the crossing of the Sea of Reeds and the Song of the Sea is the main focus, there is a small story near the end of the parshah that fits in nicely with the time of year. After B’nei Yisrael cross into the desert, they come to a waterhole called Marah, or the Bitter One, because the water was very alkaline and too bitter to drink. God points out a tree which, when thrown in the water, balances the Ph and makes it fit to drink. This anecdote is an illustration of just how useful trees can be. Indeed, our lives are scarcely imaginable without trees, and it is fitting that we have a holiday, minor though it is, to celebrate them. It should be a point of pride that the one country in the world that has more trees today than a century ago is Israel. From the very beginning of our People’s return to the Land, planting trees has been a priority. The beautiful forests in Israel today are the result of this dedication. Shabbat Shalom.
Shabbat candle lighting time 5:48 PM

Tu Be Shevat Parasha from Rabbi Peter Tarlow. Many decades ago when I was a graduate student a new holiday was invented: Earth Day. Considering that Jews had been celebrating “earth day” for thousands of years I found it a bit odd that the media and university intellectuals saw this holiday as new and innovative. Our Biblical tradition provides great respect for the land and all that it contains. On Thursday, just as we have done for thousands of years before the birth of “Earth day” we once again celebrated Tu b’Shvat: The New Year of the Trees and our relationship to nature. Traditionally, this holiday is the day that trees begin to bloom in the land of Israel, and each year we plant thousands of saplings throughout the land. Tu b’Shvat is a more than the mere planting of trees, it is also a time to stop and contemplate our relationship to G-d through nature. From its very inception Judaism has incorporated the ideas of ecology into its religious tradition. Thousands of years before the Western world rediscover the importance of ecology Tu b’Shvat’s taught us that there is a relationship between the natural world and the spiritual. On Tu b’Shvat we celebrate not only the importance of nature but also through the “divine tree of life” (the Torah) we creatively symbolize the unity of matter and energy, of the spiritual and the material.This holiday gives life to the psalmist’s words: “l’Adoshem ha’aretz umloah, tevel v’yoshvei-va/The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and all who dwell with in it”. (Psalm 24:1).This week’s Torah portion also reinforces our relationship to G-d and nature. This week’s portion is B’Shalach (Exodus 13:17-17:16). Dealing with Israel’s liberation from Egypt, and the successful crossing of the Red Sea (Sea of Reeds), it would appear that this section has nothing to do with Tu b’Shvat. Yet this section of contrasts serves to remind us of our dependency not only on G-d but also on the world that G-d has given us. Coming from the banks of the Nile river, having crossed a sea and now in the midst of the desert, the flight from Egypt has left an eternal mark on the Jewish people. To be in the Sinai desert, a place without trees, Jews came to understand that trees are life and clean potable water is a blessing from Heaven.This is the first parashah to take us on the long 40-year zigzag journey through the desert. Along the way, we learn that this was to be a journey of opposites: where the ecstasy of revelation confronted the desert’s tedious boredom, where the wonder of manna would be contrasted to the consistency of thirst, and where the vision of Israel was contrasted to the starkness of the Sinai Peninsula. From this week’s section until the end of the Deuteronomy, we, the readers, wonder if G-d’s is not teaching us in a roundabout way that to be a people we cannot depend on miracles but rather only on our inner spiritual fortitude, that to ignore the land, is to put oneself in peril. The Sinai experience taught us that knowledge, like freedom, is liberating, and freedom is not squandering the gifts of nature but protecting and persevering nature for future generations. Happy Tu b’Shvat!

Parashat Toldot and Happy Thanksgiving

November 20, 2020/in Junior Congregation /by betheladmin11

Tonight’s Kabalat shabbat service will begin at 7 PM. We really hope to see you. Remember, you may also attend in person services on Friday nights, with masks and social distancing followed. We would like to wish you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving. Please see the following CDC guidelines on ways of making is […]

Parashat Ki Tavo

September 4, 2020/in adult education, announcements, Events, high holidays, Junior Congregation, News, Sermon /by betheladmin11

Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly Message:

As we draw near the end of the Written Torah in Parshat Ki Tavo, the first few paragraphs remind us of the cycle of Pilgrimage Festivals. The Parshah opens with a description of the offering of First Fruits, Bikkurim, which was made on the Festival of Shavu’oth. The ritual declaration made by the farmer offering the fruit includes the words “My father was a wandering Aramean”, which we know from the Haggadah of Pesah. The Torah then goes into a similar ritual for offering the tithe that was dedicated to the Levites and to the poor, which was done every third year on the Festival of Sukkoth.

Both of these offerings, and the Festivals to which they are tied, are meant to show gratitude for what God has given us, no matter how much that may be. As we approach Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, when we pray for blessing in the New Year, we should keep in mind that we owe gratitude for whatever our blessings may be. The year to come may indeed bring us everything we ask-more likely, as in all years, we will experience some disappointments. Nonetheless, we can, like our ancient ancestors, show gratitude for the blessings which we did receive, and live with a sense of gratitude for what we do have. Shabbat Shalom.Shabbat candle lighting times in Austin 7:31 PMSunday School is starting after the High Holidays! Sunday October 4! Be sure to sign up bethelaustin@yahoo.com
FOR YOUR LISTENING ENJOYMENT: The weekly parash from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks for your listening enjoyment!

Be Silent and Listen (Ki Tavo 5780)

Parashat Shoftim – Sunday School Starting!

August 21, 2020/in adult education, announcements, Events, Junior Congregation, News, School, Sermon, Shabbat /by betheladmin11

Shabbat shalom, chodesh Elul tov, and see you at 7 PM.

The name of this week’s parshah is Shoftim, or in English, “Judges”. While the parshah deals with a few topics, the main focus is on courts of law that are to be established once the People of Israel settle in the Land. Of particular interest is the rule that no one may be sentenced to death-or indeed for any other offense-on the testimony of one witness. Two witnesses are needed to obtain a conviction in a criminal case. The Sages expanded upon this-they taught that the two witnesses had to be persons of unimpeachable moral character, that they had to witness the actual commission of the crime, and moreover had to warn the perpetrator in advance that he was about to commit a capital offense. Under these conditions, of course, a death sentence would be practically impossible. The Rabbis were of the opinion that the death penalty, while prescribed in the Torah, was so repugnant that it was to be avoided at almost all cost. Our Tradition holds that there is only One Judge who has the power over life and death. As we enter the month of Elul, the month of preparation for Yom Hadin, the Day of Judgement, let us remember who the True Judge really is. Let us not judge our fellow humans harshly. And while this is a time of reflection and self-assessment, let us not judge ourselves harshly, either. Rather, let us trust in the judgement of God, who is as Moshe said, “a compassionate and merciful God, patient and abounding in loving kindness and truth”. Shabbat Shalom and Hodesh Tov.Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe