Parashat Vaetchanan

Shabbat shalom y’all!!! We can’t wait to see you at 7 PM

Shabbat Services https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85895579341 In person or attend via zoomDon’t forget that Sunday school starts in the fall! Bar and Bat mitzvah preparation too! This week’s parshah is Va-et’hanan, the second parshah of Sefer D’varim, Deuteronomy. Moshe continues his last oration to the People of Israel as they are about to cross the Jordan River without him. This parshah is always read on Shabbat Nahamu, the first Shabbat after Tish’ah B’Av. Shabbat Nahamu is the first of the seven Shabbatot of Consolation between Tish’ah B’Av and Rosh Hashanah, on which we read Isaiah’s prophecies of comfort. Significantly, Va-et’hanan contains a recapitulation of ‘Assereth Had’varim, the “Ten Commandments”. Revelation at Sinai was the pivotal moment in our history-when we entered into a Covenant with the Holy One. We have always regarded our relationship with the Divine as one of mutual obligation. This is why we take comfort after mourning the destruction of Jerusalem and exile from our home in the Land of Israel-because of our faith that our relationship with God endures, and that redemption will come. Shabbat Shalom. Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe Shabbat candle lighting times in Austin 8:08 PM

Beth El Shines this summer – and Camp for your Kids

Shabbat Shalom and we so look forward to seeing you all tonight at 7 PM via zoom (SEE ZOOM LINK BELOW) and in person in our beloved shul (no more than 10 people following social distance).

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85895579341

Hazzan Ben-Moshe’sWeekly Message:This week we conclude the Book of Numbers, Sefer B’midbar, with the combined parshot of Mattoth and Mas’ei. We also announce the beginning of the month of Av, about which our Sages said “When Av enters, joy decreases”. The month of Av is the month in which the First and Second Temples were destroyed, and according to tradition many other calamities befell the Jewish People. However, Av is also the month of T”U B’Av, the festival celebrating the beginning of the grape harvest in the Land of Israel. Furthermore, Tradition says that Tish’ah B’Av, the Fast of the Destruction, will also be the day on which the Messiah will come and our final redemption and return home to Israel. May our redemption come soon, and our mourning turn to celebration. Shabbat Shalom.Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe

Candle lighting in Austin at 8:16 PM.

Sunday school resumes in the fall! Whether we are in person or via zoom, the learning, ahavat Israel and friendships continue. Please contact us asap to reserve your spot!

Looking for the coolest in person Summer camp for your children (preschool to middle school) – Check out J Camps! www.shalomaustin.org/camp

Community News:
Green Team at TBS invites Beth El to a Movie Discussion: A Plastic Ocean
Monday, August 10
7:00 p.m.
Join A Plastic Ocean documentary producers and fellow Green Team members to discuss this important movie. In advance of our discussion, you can watch the movie on Netflix, iTunes, or YouTube. RSVP to Christy Esmahan at: c.esmahan@gmail.com

Beth El can now accept donations of stocks through a brokerage account. Please contact our treasurer at bethelaustin@yahoo.com.

Please consider at tax deductible donation for via our secure site. Being a small synagogue, every dollar goes to good work and continuing our heritage. http://bethelaustin.org/donate/

Ethics Class& Parashat Pinhas

Shabbat Shalom and we so look forward to seeing you all tonight at 7 PM via zoom (SEE ZOOM LINK BELOW) and in person in our beloved shul (no more than 10 people following social distance).

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85895579341

Hazzan Ben-Moshe’sWeekly Message:This week we read Parshat Pinhas, which begins with God’s confirmation of Pinhas Ben El’azar as the next High Priest, because of (or in spite of) his extrajudicial killing of Zimri Ben Sallu and Kozbi Bat Tzur, which ended the plague of Ba’al P’or. The parshah continues with the story of the daughters of Tzlof’had demanding that they receive their father’s inheritance in the Land of Israel, the ordination of Yehoshu’a as the next leader of the People of Israel, and concludes with the order of statutory sacrifices. The story of the daughters of Tzlof’had-Mahlah, No’ah, Hoglah, Milkah and Tirtzhah-is an interesting one. The five challenge the rule, stated earlier in the Torah, that if a man dies without sons, his estate falls to his nearest male relative. The daughters affirm their right to inherit from their father as his children-and Moshe, instead of dismissing their claim, asks God for guidance. God actually changes the rule of the Torah-daughters who have no brothers do indeed become heirs. Thirty-eight years after leaving Mount Sinai, God reveals a new law of Torah to Moshe, thus illustrating an important part of Jewish Tradition. Torah is not static-it evolves and changes, even as the People of Israel evolve and change. Chapter One of Pirkei Avoth details the transmission of Torah from Moshe to the Sages-but the teaching and practice of Torah changed so much over that time that the Midrash tells us that Moshe had a vision of the Beith Midrash of Rabbi ‘Aqiva in which he could not understand the teaching, but was assured that this was “the Torah of Moshe from Sinai”. Our Tradition may change with the times, but is still based on Torah and its values. Shabbat Shalom.Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe

Candle lighting in Austin at 8:18 PM.Annual Meeting July 12Also, save the date. Our annual “state of the shul” meeting will be held on Sunday, July 12, at 7:00 p.m.

The meeting will be in person (up to 10) at the shul and via zoom.Annual Meeting Zoom Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86767607489

We plan to discuss shul business and elect officers for the upcoming year. To nominate a current member as an officer, please send an email to Bob Miller, secretary and chair of the nominating committee at
bmiller111158@gmail.com

Nominations should be submitted as soon as possible and no later than 7 days before the board meeting. The meeting is open to all – they are always a great deal of fun and very inspiring. We are blessed to be part of this small, yet vibrant and truly chesed filled congregation.

Our next Pirkei Avot class is July 14!
Zoom Meeting Link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81083498229

Refua Shlema to our dear Barry. He is safely out of the hospital and recovering at home. We love you Barry!

Please know that our doors are literally always open for you and your family at Beth El. We have so many kind people in the congregation who are quietly and without fanfare doing good deeds. We want to help any and all congregants. One of our angels, Steve, came this week and power washed our whole driveway. Truly a labor of love in the 100 degree weather. We are here for you as so many of you are here for us as a shul! We love our congregants. Let us know if you are facing any kind of hardship.

Sunday school resumes in the fall! Whether we are in person or via zoom, the learning, ahavat Israel and friendships continue. Please contact us asap to reserve your spot!

Beth El can now accept donations of stocks through a brokerage account. Please contact our treasurer at bethelaustin@yahoo.com.

Please consider at tax deductible donation for via our secure site. Being a small synagogue, every dollar goes to good work and continuing our heritage. http://bethelaustin.org/donate/

Parashat Korach – Jewish Education

Shabbat Shalom and we so look forward to seeing you all tonight at 7 PM via zoom and in person in our beloved shul. Please let us know if you would like to attend in person services? All health and safety measures will be in place.
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/847168183
Meeting ID: 847 168 183

Password: 010620

Hazzan Ben-Moshe’sWeekly Message:In Pirkei Avoth 5:19 we read “A controversy for Heaven’s sake will have lasting value, but a controversy not for Heavens sake will not endure. What is an example of a controversy for Heaven’s sake? The controversy (debates) of Hillel and Shammai. What is an example of a controversy not for Heaven’s sake? The controversy (rebellion) of Korah and his confederates.”

This saying points to our parshah this week, Parshat Korah, which recounts the attempt of Korah the Levite and Dathan and Aviram of the Tribe of Reuven to wrest leadership from Moshe and Aharon. Theirs was a very different “controversy” from that of Hillel and Shammai. The latter honestly disagreed about several points of Jewish Law, and debated their viewpoints. Ultimately, each accepted the outcome of those debates, whether they won or lost. Korah, Dathan and Aviram were interested only in self-aggrandizement, and thus when they lost their defeat was total. This saying also points out a logical fallacy which is all too common-the propensity to blame both sides in a dispute. It is very easy to use the words of Mercutio in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”-“A plague on both their houses!” It feels to us unfair to take one side over another-but sometimes one side is absolutely in the wrong. Korah et al were wrong-there was nothing in their rebellion that was justified, even though they falsely claimed overreach on the part of Moshe and Aharon. We should certainly try to judge fairly at all times-but sometimes fair judgement requires coming down firmly on the side of righteousness and justice. Shabbat Shalom.Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe

Candle lighting in Austin at 8:19 PM.

Annual Meeting July 12Also, save the date. Our annual “state of the shul” meeting will be held on Sunday, July 12, at 4:30 p.m. .

We plan to discuss shul business and elect officers for the upcoming year. To nominate a current member as an officer, please send an email to Bob Miller, secretary and chair of the nominating committee at
bmiller111158@gmail.com

Nominations should be submitted as soon as possible and no later than 7 days before the board meeting. The meeting is open to all – they are always a great deal of fun and very inspiring. We are blessed to be part of this small, yet vibrant and truly chesed filled congregation.

Again, we would like to send Shannon and Jay our deepest condolences on the loss of Shannon’s beloved mom Marlene Hyatt. We have such fond memories of Marlene joining us at the High Holidays and wish the whole Shapiro family many beautiful memories and comfort in these hard days.

Mazal Tov to Bam Rubenstein on his ordination to the Rabbinate this week. We are so proud of your huge accomplishment. We are all looking forward to when we can bring out the Torah and celebrate as a congregation by giving you an aliya as Rav Yehuda Leib ben Rafoel v’Shoshana!

Our next Tanach class is June 30!
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83973518633

Save the Date. Let’s have a fun afternoon at Town Lake this summer, where each family rents a canoe or kayak and enjoys each other’s company together. The prefect Social Distance event.


Gone….But not….

by Jared Brudno

Please take the opportunity to visit us here and explore and share in what we have discovered. I promise you you won’t be disappointed. There’s so much more I can say and so much more I would like to say. But let’s save that for another time. Just know how much we feel and know that you at Beth El are as much a part of all this as we are. That’s kind of mysterious but absolutely true. It’s a blessing we could never imagine. It’s a blessing we will hold dear for the rest of our lives. Our journey is your journey and yours is ours. That’s the wondrous thing about our nation is that we are all traveling together to the same destination. Thank you for traveling with us and for allowing us to travel with you.

One last note. My father Walter’s, of blessed memory, yahrzeit was on Adar 16 near Elaine Shapiro’s passing. I meant to get to minyan for Kaddish Yaton, but alas didn’t. So in his honor I just want to say a few brief things about my father and mother Benetta of blessed memories and also about the founders of Beth El. I think it also relates to the recent passing of Elaine Shapiro of blessed memory and all those of our founders and ancestors who preceded her. My father was a good Jew, a soldier, and a lawyer. He and my mother upheld the highest levels of truth, morality and justice their whole lives. My father was an assistant prosecutor at the War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg and presented the case against Alfred Rosenberg and his agency of the nazi campaign whose mission was to loot and destroy Jewish and other cultures completely. My mother was an art historian at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts for many years, so they were like-minded in cultural affairs. They knew how grievous cultural crime was and continued to fight similar attacks on our culture and others and on moral humanity their whole lives. In the 1950’s and 1960’s they were outspoken opponents of McCarthyism, the American Nazi party, the John Birch society, and the KKK in Dallas, so much so that we had to leave town for a while for a couple of years because of terroristic threats against us. My father you see had openly publicly debated them on their values and left them looking foolish. We left because his associates and our friends warned us that if we stayed our lives were at risk. One of his associates remarked, “Walter you need to get out of town for a while because if you stay they are going to kill you.” I used to see some of the threatening postcards in a little box on the desk in our house saying things like “why don’t you get your Jewish Commie ass out of town?” My father was a magnificent orator and a master in debate. My mother was also very clever and outspoken against anything she perceived as not being good and correct.


I say all of this to remind myself and hopefully you as well how important all those who came before us and all of us are. The founders of Beth El made a courageous decision to maintain the traditions of Traditional Conservative Judaism. I’m sure it cost them a price socially and in other ways which we may never know of. I know it cost them a lot of time, money and effort. There’s lots of different ways to approach Judaism, but our founders wanted to make sure that the values of antiquity were preserved, treasured, and unsullied. As some of our last founding members leave us, I think it’s important for us to remember what we are doing, why we are doing it, and how those before us made it possible. If not for our ancestors and their unwavering courage and dedication to stay close to the truth of Torah no matter what, where would we be? I see what the founders did in establishing Beth El in the same courageous manner and aspect that my parents did in revealing untruths, maintaining morality, and speaking out, no matter what the cost. Ashreinu, Ma Tov Chelkeinu, U’ma Noim Goroleinu, U’ma Yofo Y’rushoseinu. Translation: We are happy, how goodly is our lot, and how pleasant is our fortune and how beautiful our heritage.

Maybe I’ll have courage and understanding to fight the same corrosive ideologies in our world and our time to preserve and restore the treasure of our ancestors. The Parsha near the week of my father’s yahrzeit spoke about the new Tablets Moshe made. Defending the people standing in harm’s way, willing to sacrifice everything for everyone, so it was for Moshe, so it was in some way for my father and mother, although I’m not in anyway comparing them to Moshe and so it was for Elaine and Morris Shapiro and all the other founders and leaders and congregants at Beth El. So may it be for us b’Ezrat Hashem. Without you where would we all be?

Beth El can now accept donations of stocks through a brokerage account. Please contact our treasurer at bethelaustin@yahoo.com.

Adam Loewy Guest Speaker

Please come to Friday night services via zoom tonight, Friday May 29 at 7 PM. We are honored that Adam Loewy will be giving an inspiring Dvar tonight. The topic is titled “the Lessons of Mr. Friedman” (with the topic devoted to Tzedakah). Adam is a personal injury lawyer and owner of the Loewy Law Firm. He and his amazing wife, Phil, are very active in the Austin Jewish community. They are the proud parents of two little boys, who keep them very busy. Adam has lived in Austin since 2000, and we are so happy to welcome him this evening.

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Hazzan Ben-Moshe’s
Weekly Message:

This week we begin the reading of Sefer B’midbar with the parshah of the same name. The book is called “Numbers” in English because it begins with a census of the People of Israel-or more precisely, the military strength of the People of Israel. After over a year at the foot of Mt. Sinai, God is ready for the People to move towards the Land of Israel and fight for it.

Since Sunday is Rosh Hodesh, the New Month of Sivan, the haftarah is the one called “Mahar Hodesh”-“Tomorrow is the New Month”. It deals with the friendship between Yehonathan, the eldest son of King Shaul, and David Ben Yishai, who would himself become king, the founder of the royal dynasty of Judah. The friendship between the two is held up as the very best kind-one not based on anything but genuine love between two people. David and Yehonathan had no agenda with each other, and there were no expectations between them. When Yehonathan died in battle along with his father, David composed a beautiful dirge in his memory, and when he became king, the son of Yehonathan became a member of David’s court. We should all be so lucky as to have a friendship like that of David and Yehonathan, which did not end even with the death of one. Shabbat Shalom.

Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe

Candle lighting in Austin at 8:05 PM.

Mazal Tov to our Beth El BERS! We hope you have the best summer possible. Please look for special summer youth programs, including MITZVAH MENTSCHES, hangout and virtual game or movie nights, and an afternoon of social distancing on Town Lake Kayaks! Yesher Koach to our Dream team of teachers, Maya, Meital, Noa, Iris Daniel, Hila, Lorin, Bam and the Hazzan – and of course the awesome Carol Rubin! Our community values you so much and is truly blessed to have such amazing educators and families!

Image may contain: 16 people, including Noa Cohen Simmons

GONE…..BUT NOT……
by Jared

Our departure from Austin and from you was more immediate than we would have liked. We were hoping to say our proper goodbyes to all those who have been and are such a wonderful part of our lives. We do mean wonderful in all sense of the word. What a wonder it is that we came to Beth El to restore our Judaism, to learn and to explore the marvel that we all cherish so dearly. It’s the marvel that Jews are all about the same thing. We all want to be more than what we are at any one moment, and share in the pursuit of that. We teach and we learn and as we learn, we teach. We do these things for many personal reasons, but on one thing we all agree. Our heritage is so precious, so unbroken through so much adversity that we all feel a great responsibility to honor our ancestors who gave us so much. They gave us an undeniable certain knowledge that G-d is the best and only thing we can rely on and how to do that. Through Torah and mitzvot our lives can be more than we ever imagined. Through fellowship in this pursuit we all benefit.Gracie and I came to a Beth El because we were attracted to the Beit Kinneset family like atmosphere and community there. I, Jared, came after 40 years of not being so involved in Judaism since young adulthood. Gracie came after a generation had past for her, and 500 years had past from her Spanish roots. I knew I was Jewish beyond doubt because we were. I was Bar Mitzvah and spent more time in shul than I would have liked as a kid. Gracie knew she was because she asked her dad “is there any chance we are Jewish?” Her dad responded” “yes, I asked my father and he said yes” Gracie said “how do you know?” Her dad said “my father told me we are Jewish , but we are not bad people” So Gracie asked her dad “why didn’t he go to shul?” He said “because I was scared”. There was some family disconnect that was lost in Gracie’s dad’s generation. But when we came to Beth El , it was as if we had never left. Quickly, we knew who we were and what we desired to do. That was to live the rest of our lives as the best Jews we could be.I mentioned once to someone at Beth El how much Beth El had increased our yidishekeit. The response I got was that “oh no you have increased ours”. I was and am so touched by that. That’s what it’s all about and that is our greatest hope and obligation. An elder at Beth El says it all. He says” I really love this place”. We really love this place, what more is there to say? What’s not to love? The place is nice, the people are nice, the food is nice, the beer is cold and nice, and most of all the Torah is in its place in the shul and in our lives.I, Jared, was struck by the passing of Elaine Shapiro and all of our founders as if they were my family members and they were. What else could we possibly ask for? The dedication of our forebearers is more than evident. Beth El is what they envisioned and so much more. “Ma tovu ohalecha Yaakov mishcanatecha Yisrael.”” L’dor v’dor”. How goodly are your tents O Jacob, your dwelling places O Israel”, “Generation to Generation.”We are proud to be a part of that, to be that.

Our next exciting installment in the Tanach Class: “And There was no King in Israel”, continues Tuesday June 2 at 7:30 PM. All are welcome. We will also be starting a Jewish ethics class this summer inspired by Pirkei Avot (The Ethics of our Fathers). Stay tuned.