Friday Night Kaballat Shabbat Services, Tonight 10/23, at 7 PM. We hope to see you! We’ll be there, rain or shine! Lots of spirited singing promised!

Tomorrow morning, Saturday, October 24, at 9 AM, we will be having our regular Shabbat morning services, with the Torah service at about 9:45 and a children’s story time at 11 AM. We will have a special kiddush lunch immediately following. Thanks to Bam Rubenstein for sponsoring the kiddush in memory of his beloved late mother, Barbara, may her memory always be for a blessing.

Please consider sponsoring upcoming kiddushes – we can always use supplies, in-kind donations and sponsorships. email bethelaustin@yahoo.com if you would like to help.

Cantor Ben Moshe’s Message
This week’s parshah, Lekh L’kha, sees God commanding Avram (his name changes to Avraham at the end of the parshah) to leave his home in Haran, Syria, to go to what will be his new home and that of his descendants. When Avram comes to the Land of Canaan, he does not do so arrogantly, even though he comes with God’s promise and blessing. He comes in peace and establishes friendly relations with others in the Land. Of course, we see that he is also capable of fighting, waging war against those who had taken his nephew Lot into captivity. Our ancestor thus sets an example for us – we are to, in the words of Hillel, “love peace and pursue peace”, while defending ourselves and those dear to us. In these troubled times, may Israel’s defenders find the strength to protect our people, and may Israel’s government find the strength and wisdom to seek peace. Shabbat Shalom.
Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe

Hebrew school Sunday Funday continues this Sunday at 10 am!

SAVE THE DATE: Sunday, November 15th, join Beth El in a special evening honoring our very own Chazzan, Cantor Ben-Moshe.
Invitations are in the mail – you can email us with any questions. We want everyone to come! It will be a special and meaningful night. Thank you to the many volunteers, spearheaded by our very own Elaine Jacobs, who are working to make this absolutely magnificent!
*Please send your RSVP to the November 15 Tribute Dinner as soon as you can. Thank you to everyone who has already done so! It will be lovely – catered kosher dinner, silent auction, and entertainment. Included in the silent auction are tickets to Ballet Austin, Zach Scott Theatre, Esther’s Follies, a variety of amazing pieces of artwork, Yoga session, personal training, hand-crafted jewelry by Jacob Gilboa, a custom made tallit by AustinCustomTallit.com and much, much more.*

LOVE TO RUN? JOIN Team “BETH EL BANDITS” for the Turkey Trot this year.
On Thanksgiving day, November 26, Beth El will be entering its own team of runners, merry makers and cheerers. Please let us know if you would like to enter the Turkey Trot with us. It promises to be a lot of fun. info@bethelaustin.org to save your spot on the team.

THANK YOU KIDDISH CREW: Thank you so much to the amazing kiddish crew for a creative shabbos feast. You all are the best. This week we are grateful to Bob for his famous cholent, Claudia, Mary, Rachel, Sarah, Genevieve, Michelle, and Iris.

Rabbi Peter Tarlow’s weekly Parasha:
T his week’s parashah (Torah portion) introduces one of the great literary vignettes of history. Called Lech L’chah (found in Genesis 12:1-17:27) the parashah starts with perhaps the Bible’s most famous Divine call to action. The verse begins with G’d’s command to Abraham: Lech L’cha. The Hebrew is translated into English is “Go forth”, though in reality these words might be better translated as: “Go away from place X toward place Y if you are ever to become who you were meant to be”. Unlike Moses, who also hears a Divine call Abraham accepts G’d’s call to act.In this week’s section, Abraham, perhaps the most influential man in history, accepts G’d’s challenge, leaves Haran for Canaan and becomes the father of three of the West’s religions. For Jews and Muslims, Abraham is family. He is a direct blood descendent. Christians, of course, have no family linkage to Abraham, but rather see him as their spiritual father. Abraham is one of the world’s most complicated heroes. There are times when we are in awe of him. He haggles with G’d over saving Sodom and Gomorrah. He is a great warier and a brilliant negotiator. Yet Abraham is profoundly human and flawed. Although he was willing to stand up to G’d to protect Sodom and Gomorrah, he was silent at the Akedah (binding of Isaac). His relationship with his wife Sarah appears to be more of a business deal than a marriage of love. Abraham was a spiritual pillar of truth, yet he lied to the Egyptians about Sarah. Perhaps that is why we have such a hard time translating the term Lech L’cha into a foreign language. The term refers as much to his, and our, spiritual journey as it does to the physical journey across the Fertile Crescent. Abraham’s voyage is our voyage. Like any human being, at times he seems to advance and at other times his actions at best confound us and all too often anger us. How similar are we to Abraham? Do our journeys through the juxtaposition of time and place take us closer to ourselves and toward our role in the ongoing drama that we call life?Does our introduction to perhaps the greatest of national leaders teach us that none of us is perfect? In life despite his imperfections, Abraham does the best he can. He goes forth both as a spiritual gesture but also perhaps as an act of selfishness. He seeks the good of the community but also must deal with his own ego. He is a great leader, but perhaps not the best father. He teaches us that no one can have it all, that to live is to make compromises, and to live successfully is to find a way to make the most of the flaws within each one of us. What does Abraham’s history teach us about the politicians? Do we live in a world in which the media concentrate one candidates’ flaws rather than on ideas and concepts? Are the media fair in how they report about each candidate?It is for reasons such as those stated above that the text has remained fresh and relevant. It is still very much a text that has inspired Jews, Christians and Muslims. It asks each of us, like Abraham, to “Lech l’chah/to go toward” a goal not only for the goal’s sake but also for our sake so that we become the best that we can be. How does the text speak to you?

COMMUNITY NEWS:
Beth El is a proud co-sponsor of the Austin Jewish Film Festival!
(AJFF) is now in its thirteenth exciting year. The 2015 Film Festival is scheduled from October 24-30 and will offer a potpourri of notable films, speakers, and panels that our patrons, sponsors and festival attendees have come to expect each year. We roll out the Red Carpet to one and all, as we attract a wide range of attendees from the Jewish and non-Jewish Central Texas community. Congregation Beth El presents this film as a supporter of the AJFF. Once in a Lifetime!

 

Friday Night Shabbat Services, Tonight 10/9, at 7 PM. We hope to see you! There may even be a new tune for the new Jewish Year.

Tomorrow morning, Saturday October 10, at 9 AM we will be having our regular shabbat morning services, with the Torah service at about 9:45 and a children’s story time at 11 AM. We will have a special kidush lunch immediately following.

We would like to extend our heartfelt condolences to Yesenia Soto and her family on the passing of her beloved sister earlier this week. May Yesenia be comforted among all the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

Cantor Ben Moshe’s Message
This week we begin the yearly cycle of reading the Torah again with Parshat B’reshit, the beginning of the Book of Genesis. The first two chapters of B’reshit go into detail about the creation of the world, and the process by which that came about. When reading these chapters, we must beware of taking those words literally-that the universe was created in six calendar days, that the Earth, and plants, were created before the Sun, etc, and focus instead on what this could *mean*. The Torah is not a science textbook, and should not be read as one. Rather, the Torah comes to teach us spiritual and moral lessons. We learn from the Torah not how we were created, but how we should live. This is why we have the Torah, and why we have kept it (and it, us) for thousands of years. May we continue to learn and study Torah, and apply the lessons outside the walls of the synagogue, for all of our lives. Shabbat Shalom.
Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe

The Sunday school BERS had an amazing time with author Jan Hart last week. We will have class again this Sunday, October 11 and continue our journey of learning Hebrew and Judaics in a fun and innovative way.

SAVE THE DATE: Sunday November 15th, join Beth El in a special evening honoring our very own Chazzan, Cantor Ben-Moshe.
*Invitations to November 15 Tribute Dinner to the Cantor are in the mail!*

LOVE TO RUN? JOIN Team “BETH EL BANDITS” for the Turkey Trot this year.
On Thanksgiving day, November 26, Beth El will be entering its own team of runners, merry makers and cheerers. Please let us know if you would like to enter the Turkey Trot with us. It promises to be a lot of fun. info@bethelaustin.org to save your spot on the team.

Rabbi Peter Tarlow’s weekly Parasha:
With the conclusion of Tishre’s holidays we return to the text and once again begin our journey through the Torah starting with perhaps the greatest piece of literature ever written: The Book of Genesis. In order to regain our regular schedule, this week we will examine the first two weekly sections. Traditionally we study these two sections separately. There is enough material in each section to fill entire libraries. The first section is “Parashat Breysheet” (Genesis 1:1- 5:8) and the second section is “Parashat Noach” (5;9-11:32). The first tells the story of creation; the second relates the history of the first destruction. Read together, these two sections form Israel’s national prehistory, that is to say, the days before Abraham. It is not easy to find a common thread that unites these first sections, but if we dig deep into the text, then multiple unifying factors emerge. A careful reading shows that these sections are more prehistory than theology. Modern readers, often view these sections, as theological in nature, however there is no internal evidence to suggest that they were meant to be theological. Instead we might see them as a historical entry into the world of the psychological or sociological. Reading the text we see that human beings are fallible. In fact, every character in these two sections has at least one fatal flaw. Reading the text we are forced to ask: did the characters portrayed care about how their actions impacted others or were they merely interested in their own welfare? Did they think about the consequences of their actions or did they merely act out of emotions? Were they future oriented or did they live in an eternal here and now? If we think about the context of their lives, is it unfair to ask them to understand the concept of future? We note that neither Adam nor Noah showed any remorse when confronted with death, be it their own or the death of others. Did they understand the finality of death and what it meant to be alive?These first chapters of Genesis set the stage and teach us that we need a moral standard that goes beyond our own ego and forms the theoretical underpinnings for a lawful society. The chapters force us to confront the realization that as human beings, we are not perfect. Are law and a just legal system the sine non-quoi for civilization?These are not easy chapters. They provide more doubts than certainties. For example, is G’d all powerful in the text or is G’d learning just as humanity was trying to get its own bearings? Is G’d all-knowing or do we choose to read into the text what the text does not state? What does it mean not have a not all-knowing and all-powerful concept of G’d? Could G’d not have found a better person to save than a person who gets drunk as his response to the destruction of humanity? Or perhaps in the face of such destruction was getting drunk an acceptable response? Did G’d create evil, and if so for what purpose? Is evil a natural part of life? None of these questions is easy to answer. It will take us another year’s journey through the text just to begin to think how any of us might respond, or perhaps these are questions without answers? What do you think?

Beth El is a proud co sponsor of the Austin Jewish Film Festival!
(AJFF) is now in its thirteenth exciting year. The 2015 Film Festival is scheduled from October 24-30 and will offer a potpourri of notable films, speakers, and panels that our patrons, sponsors and festival attendees have come to expect each year. We roll out the Red Carpet to one and all, as we attract a wide range of attendees from the Jewish and non-Jewish Central Texas community.Congregation Beth El presents this film as a supporter of the AJFF.

Once in a Lifetime Director:●Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar●France●2015●Drama●105 min.●French (with subtitles)
A powerful and inspirational drama based on a true story, “Once in a Lifetime” follows a group of troubled inner-city French high school kids as they move from apathy to engagement. History teacher Anne Guegon is strong-willed andcompassionate, determined to raise her students as high as they can go, but the task is monumental. She finds it diffi-cult to rouse her students from their passivity until she enters them in a prestigious national competition on the themeof what it meant to be a teen in a Nazi concentration camp. The students resist until they host a Holocaust survivor whoengages them dramatically. The once-rebellious teens ultimately learn to believe in themselves and their abilities.“A wonderful narrative that demonstrates the enduring impact of the Holocaust in transforming future generations.”Contains Mature Language and Themes 9:00 pm : Regal Arbor : Saturday, October 24 Noon : Regal Arbor : Wednesday, October 28