Friday night services – get ready for Passover

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Chaverim/Dear Friends,

Tonight, as with every Friday night, we welcome Shabbat with Kaballat Shabbat services at 7pm. We hope to see you all.

Please note, that our next Shabbat morning services are next week, Saturday April 12th, as per our schedule of the second and fourth Saturdays of the month. 
 
THIS SUNDAY IS MITZVAH DAY: APRIL 6
 Please see  http://bethelaustin.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ccc65e663492a1ba1dc2318a5&id=84f3932b67&e=51e8fe6fca for community projects and collection drives.

Wednesday April 9, from 9am onwards, we would appreciate any hands on deck help with Passover preparations at Beth El, including cooking.  Please reply to this e-mail if you can spare an hour or two and help!
Second Night Seder at Beth El,
Tuesday April 15th:
Join us for this Beth El annual tradition.  Please be sure to RSVP for the second night seder at – it is very quickly filling up.  We start at 6:45 pm, have the whole family involved in the Hagaddah reading and finish with a delicious festive meal, cooked at Beth El. The event is free, but we ask for donations to help cover costs as well as help with bringing kosher for Passover goods.

Saturday evening April 19th Rabbi Tarlow will be giving a talk connecting the Exodus from Egypt and the Exodus from Europe of Hidden Jews.  A fascinating subject that will tie in well with Passover and our series on Crypto Judaism.  All are welcome.

Community News:
The Austin Chapter of Hadassah Presents:

Spies and Commandos in the Holy Land

Our speaker will be Professor Ami Pedahzur, of The University of Texas at Austin, and Head of The Israel Studies Collaborative at the Schusterman Center of Jewish Studies. Professor Pedahzur is the author of seven books and is currently working on his eighth.  Following his presentation and discussion, his books will be available for purchase and signing.
When: Wednesday, April 23rd at 7pm 
Where: Dell Jewish Community Center, Community Hall, 7600 Hart Lane, Austin, TX 
Cost: $10 per person 
Light Refreshments will be served
RSVP to Eileen Seidowitz eseidowitzaustin.rr.com
Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly Message: This week’s parshah is M’tzora’, which deals with laws relating to the disease of “t’zara’ath”, usually translated as “leprosy”.  The haftarah continues the theme with the story of four “lepers” who were banished from the city of Shomron (Samaria) while it was besieged by the army of Aram.  The four decide to beg for food from the Arameans, and find the enemy camp deserted, as they had panicked from a noise in the night and fled.  When the four report back to the King of Israel, fear of the Aramean army that wasn’t there almost prevents them from sending out a reconnaissance patrol to verify the report of the “lepers”.  Both sides in this battle were afraid of an enemy that wasn’t there.
In less than two weeks, we will read at the end of the Festival of Passover about the crossing of the Sea of Reeds by the Israelites during the Exodus from Egypt.  The Torah tells us that the Israelites “saw Egypt pursuing them”-not Egyptians, but “Egypt”, as though the entire country were in pursuit.  In their fear, they saw more than what was there.  There are things in this world of which we should be afraid, to be sure-but we cannot let fear rule us.  As Rebbe Nahman of Bratzlav famously said, “The whole world is a very narrow bridge-and the important thing is not to fear at all”.  Shabbat Shalom.

April happenings and a new way to donate

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Chaverim/Friends:

What an exciting month coming up. But first, a weekly don’t miss: our Friday night services are tonight at 7pm. Please join us and end your week on a high note.

New Way to Donate
Check out Beth El’s New Donation Page on our Website

http://bethelaustin.wpengine.com/donate/

Our web page is an easy and secure way to support our congregation.

Mitzvah Day April 6th
Please join the Jewish community in volunteering at the Austin Mitzvah Day, April 6th. For more information please see www.shalomaustin.org/mitzvahday. Please also bring in items for the collection drive: See the list of needed items. Help support our awesome Jewish community.

Austin Jewish Film Festival – starts this weekend. Please see http://austinjff.org for a full listing of films. Beth El is a proud sponsor of the AJFF!

Second night Seder at Beth El: Tuesday April 15th 6.45 pm

Join us for this Beth El annual tradition. Please be sure to RSVP for the second night seder at Beth El as it is always popular and super fun. We start at 6:45 pm, have the whole family involved in the Hagaddah reading and finish with a delicious festive meal, cooked at Beth El. The event is free, but we ask for donations to help cover costs as well as help with bringing kosher for Passover goods.

Frankie and Jakob’s Bnei mitzvah:

The Union brothers, Frankie and Jakob are celebrating their Bar mitzvahs the weekend of Friday April 25 and Saturday April 26. Please join the Union family and our whole congregation in celebrating with them. Friday night services will start at 6:30 pm with a shabat dinner at Beth El to follow. Saturday morning services will start at 9am, with a kidush luncheon at the Dell JCC immediately following. A hearty mazal tov to our awesome Frankie and Jakob and their entire family!

CANTOR BEN-MOSHE’S WEEKLY MESSAGE

This Shabbat, which falls just before the New Month of Nisan, is known on the Jewish calendar as “Shabbat Hahodesh”. In addition to the regular parshah of Tazri’a, we read the section of the Book of Exodus in which the People of Israel are commanded to create a calendar beginning with the month of Aviv, which we now call by the Babylonian name Nisan. The creation of a calendar is the first act of the independent People of Israel-their time (and ours) would no longer be determined by the Egyptians. Significantly, the first commandment given to our ancestors after the Exodus concerned Shabbat, the making of sacred time. In the words of the Friday night kiddush, we call the Shabbat a “zecher litziat Mitzrayim”, “a remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt”. When we left Egypt, our time became our own. It is now up to us to make our time holy. Shabbat Shalom

RABBI PETER TARLOW of Texas A&M Center for Crypto Judaism:

Due to time constraints this week we study a double Torah portion. Called Tazriah and Metzorah, these two sections are some of the Torah’s most difficult parts to comprehend. In fact there is little doubt that this week’s and next week’s parashah are ones that many people would love to skip.

We find the first section, Tazriah, in Leviticus 12:1-13; 59, and the second weekly section, Metzorah, in 14:1-15:33. These sections deal with the issue of skin diseases, providing a full list of symptoms. The Torah reading discuss chronic ailments, purification rituals, discharges from sexual organs, and special rituals for Yom Kippur. The text describes these bodily ailments in often the most minute detail. Often modern readers ask if the reading of these sections is really necessary.

The Hebrew in both sections is difficult and often illusive. Together the two sections go into a great detail concerning the “sin-offerings”and about a skin disease that may have been a form of leprosy.

These are not easy chapters either then to read or understand. Biblical commentators have often seen these chapters as the Bible’s attempt to teach good medical practices, the need to stop infection and the realization that we are constantly faced with new forms of medical challenges. Yet, one wonders if the text is really nothing more than a long treatise on medical habits?

If we go beyond the text’s literal meaning, can we find deeper meanings? Are these ritual chapters teaching us that to be healthy one must do more than merely live a “clean” lifestyle? Is it telling us that health has as much to do with what we put into our bodies and also into our souls?

Is this mind-soul continuum manifested by the Midrash (rabbinic parables) that connect the word “Metzira/leprosy with the word “motzira/tale baring, idol gossip”? In other words a healthy life style is more than what we eat, it is also how we think, act, and say. Is the text then teaching us that too much worry, or self-concern (pity) gets us no where? Can we be so ego-centered that we end up transforming everything small hurt into a problem as a major issue? Do we begin to suffer from a psoriasis of the mind resulting in self absorption?

What is true of the individual may also be true of whole societies. The continuous teaching of anti-Semitism in many Arab lands, the inherent racism and anti-Semitism of Europe are examples of societies that have taught hate and are today filled with hate. How often to Europeans try to deal with 2000 years of anti-Semitism by projecting their failures onto Israel?

The Torah’s lesson is that both physical and mental diseases are all too often connected by a thread of anger that breaks society’s social fabric. It is for this reason that the Torah admonishes us to seek purification not only of the body but also of the soul? How tragic that so many in the so-called liberal lands have failed to understand the meaning of these portions. What do you think?

Special Friday Night Services and March MADNESS

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Chaverim/Friends:
Please join us tonight in our weekly services , Friday February 28th at 7pm.  We would love to see you all.  There will be a little kidush nosh and le’chaim at the end.  The children will be singing Lecha Dodi with us and as always are integral to our services.  We hope to see you all.    Please read below for lots of exciting events coming up.

Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly message:   This week’s parshah, P’kudei, begins with an accounting of the materials used for building the mishkan, the Sanctuary in the desert.  This accounting includes the half-shekel of silver collected from the men, which was at once a way of conducting a census and a tax for the communal purpose of the upkeep of the mishkan.  This year, Shabbat P’kudei is also Shabbat Sh’kalim, when we read of the commandment to collect the half shekel.  In the time of the Second Temple, the half-shekel tax was collected before Passover, in anticipation of the large crowds of pilgrims who would come to the Temple to celebrate the Festival.  Passover will soon be here, and like the High Holidays, this is a good time to do our own spiritual accounting, to see whether we have made the most of our gift of freedom.  May we all be worthy of liberation from Egypt, and may we all give a good and true accounting of ourselves.  Shabbat Shalom.

 

SPECIAL EVENTS IN MARCH

Sunday March 2nd:  WHAT AN ACTION PACKED DAY!
Sunday, March 2, 2014 between 11:30-1 pm:  B’nai B’rith Presents: Warsaw Ghetto and Holocaust Survivor Max Glauben at Temple Beth Shalom ( Del Campus) 7300 Hart Lane.   Free and Open to the Community.  In addition to his presentation, he will show a video “Plagues of the Soul”.  Max is an extraordinary speaker and a beloved person who speaks throughout the country and continues to lead groups to Europe.  Max Glauben says, “The story of the Holocaust has to be told to the new generation, but it needs to be delivered in a manner that does not create hate”.

Sunday, March 2, 2014 at 2 pm:  Baking Class on how to make Hamentaschen.  It will held at the home of Rachel Union.  Please RSVP by February 28, 2014, if you can come.  Email her at gameworks@austin.rr.com .  Please bring a friend.
COMMUNITY PURIM CARNIVAL AT THE JCC FROM 3-5.  Lots of fun!  Dell Jewish community Center.
Sunday, March 16, 2014 in the morning:  Beth El for a wonderful Purim celebration.  Please hold that date.  This promises to be lots of fun.  Please email us at bethel@austin@yahoo.com  if you can help with the event.

Also in March – Davening for Everyone:
Interested in sharpening your synagogue skills and learning more about the service?  Gabbai Bam Rubenstein will be teaching an ongoing Davening for All Levels, in on the THIRD Wednesday due to Spring break.  Same time of 7:00 pm at Congregation Beth El.

Parashat Vayak’hel and a baby naming!

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Congregants and Chaverim,
Please join us for our lovely Kabalat Shabbat services tonight at 7pm.  All are welcome to our meaningful and inspiring services!

Tomorrow morning, February 22,  our services start at 9 am, with the Torah service at 9:45 am.  We are having a special baby naming or Simchat Bat in honor of Yaara Sternfeld, daughter of our Hebrew school teacher Sharon and her husband Lior and big sister Shira.  Please don’t miss this special event at Congregation Beth El tomorrow morning.  Thank you to the Sternfeld family for sponsoring the delicious kidush following services.
Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly Message:  In this week’s parshah, Vayak’hel, Moses assembles the People of Israel in order to instruct them in building the Mishkan, the Sanctuary in the desert which served as the home for the Ark of the Covenant.  Just after the debacle of the Golden Calf, when the people eagerly gave gold for the purpose of idolatry, they now gather together to give generously of gold and other precious materials for the purpose of serving God.  Interestingly, Moses prefaces his instructions with a reiteration of the commandment to observe Shabbat, placing the holy time of Shabbat over the holy place of the Mishkan.  Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel called the Shabbat “a cathedral in time”-a religious monument that cannot be destroyed, and which indeed outlasted the Mishkan and the First and Second Temples.  Tents and buildings may fall, and the Ark of the Covenant can be taken into captivity.  Shabbat endures as long as we observe it, and Torah endures as long as we study and teach it.  These are our lasting monuments, and as the philosopher Ahad Ha’am put it more than one hundred years ago, “More than the Jews have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews”.  May we continue to keep Shabbat, and it, us.  Shabbat Shalom.

The Weekly Parashah is brought to you by:
Rabbi Peter Tarlow of The Center of Hispanic-Jewish Relations at Texas A&M Hillel
This week’s Torah portion is called “VaYakhel”. You will find it in the  Book of Exodus 35:1-37:38.  Next week’s is called Pkudei, and this section begins in Exodus 35:21 and continues to the end of the Book of Exodus.  These two sections complete the Book of Exodus. Many readers may feel a bit of a let down with these two final sections.  Exodus begins on a high note taking us from slavery toward liberation but ends in a sea of bureaucratic detail. 
A more careful reading however, makes us realize that while the text appears to speak about what may seem to be superficial detail, in reality it has a much more profound goal. The key to understanding this text may be found in the text’s dominant word: “esh”.  We often translate Esh “fire”, but this translation is simply not adequate to express the true message of the word.  Esh is the combination of energy and matter, the point where nouns and verbs unite into a single unit.
Any Hebrew reader will quickly note the spelling of the word: alef-shin and how close that spelling is to the word for human/man “ish”  (alef-yud-shim = ish/man or person).  The Yud in Hebrew  often indicates the Divine. This Biblical play-on-words makes the text’s Hebrew reader question what is relationship between the words esh and ish?  Does the letter Yud change not only the meaning of the word, but also changes the meaning of the entire Book of Exodus?
Is the text in its subtile manner indicating that we are composed of two elements?  The first we may call “esh”.   It is the verbal-noun combination of energy and matter. An esh (the energy/substance of fire) is a clearly thing, but fire cannot be touched or held.  Esh is the “nothing” that is “something”.  We classify fire as a noun, yet in reality it is pure verbal energy. The second element is the divine spark, the flames that reaches out to us with a sense-of-purpose and makes us more than just an object, but a creative force.
Might the text  be teaching us that left alone energy is amoral, neither good nor bad?  What changes this uncontrollable energy, the  “esh” into what we call “ish” (a human being made in the image of G’d) is the addition of one letter, the letter Yud.  It is as if the Hebrew text is teaching us that only when we take the power of the “esh” combined with the spirit of the “yud/G’d” do we have the “ish”, the whole person.
The Book or Exodus is about forming a nation.   The Jewish people is a nation forged from the energy of the spirit combined with that of determination combining the energy of creativity with the goodness of G’d.   Does Exodus then take us one step further than Genesis  toward the Promised land by making is G’d’s partners in creating the “holiness of action”?
Exodus is about more than a mere escape from Egypt.  It teaches us to transform our hopes into accomplishments, and the daily tasks of life into dreams.  Think about your energy, is it energy of worry or of building? Does negative or positive energy dominate your life?

Show your Love: Come to services tonight

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Congregants and Friends,

We hope to see you tonight, Friday February 14,  at our regular Friday night services at 7pm.  Show your love for Beth El and attend our inspiring Kabalat Shabbat services, with all your favorite Shabbat tunes and some awesome folks in the seats.

HAZZAN BEN-MOSHE’S WEEKLY MESSAGE:
This week we read in Parshat Ki Tissa of the infamous incident of the Golden Calf which the Israelites made while Moses was on Mt. Sinai receiving the original tablets of the Decalogue.  We all know of the anger of God and Moses at this act of idolatry.  However, we should also bear in mind the aftermath of the story-Moses’ plea for mercy for the People of Israel, and God’s forgiveness.  At the end of the narrative, the Torah gives us the 13 Attributes of God:  “Adonai, Adonai, a compassionate and Forgiving God, patient and abounding in lovingkindness and truth, granting kindness to thousands, bearing sin and wrongdoing and misdeeds, and cleansing….”  The Golden Calf should not be seen merely as an account of the failings of our ancestors, but also of Divine love even despite those failings.  The readiness to forgive is one of God’s chief traits that we can perceive.  It is also one which we should strive to imitate in our own dealings with our fellow human beings.  Shabbat Shalom.

HOLD THE DATE:  Purim is only a month away, starting the evening of March 15 and Sunday March 16.  We hope to see you then.  Sunday morning especially promises to be lots of fun for kids, grown ups, and kids at heart.

Rabbi Tarlow of Texas A&M Center for Hispanic/Jewish relations:

This week’s parashah takes on a true emotional roller coster ride. Called “Ki Tisah” (Exodus 30:11-34:34) it begins with the rules for the taking of a census.  Then in a true roller coster fashion it moves on to the theory of the Sabbath (Shabbat), carries us to the emotional heights of our having received the Ten Commandments, and then suddenly lowers us to the tragedy of the golden calf.  Finally, we learn of the encounter between Moses and G’d coupled with an analysis of the authentic and the inauthentic.  To add to the parashah’s complexity the Hebrew is rich in nuance and its words have layers of meanings.  Scholars will find within these chapters enough material to write several books. There is simply no way that an adequate summary can be made for a parashah that requires a lifetime of study.
It would not be inappropriate to ask why is this parashah, so rich in meaning, nestled between four weekly sections that seem to be anything but inspirational.  Is the text teaching us that life is an emotional roller coster?  Are we to learn from this week’s parashah that just as in this week’s parashah, so too are our lives are filled with facts and with emotions, with high points and low points?  Is the text reminding us that life is not only the data that we have but the way we choose to look at those data?
Perhaps when we read the text it ought to remind us that modern life may not be as unhealthy as we tend to believe it is.  Often we live a subtext that states that all in modernity is bad.  Is this really the case?  Yes, we need to take care of ourselves, but we also need to work hard.  We do need to personal time, but we also need time to be with others.  We need community but we also need personal space.  In other words, this week’s parashah presents us with many diverse concepts as a way to teach us that a life well-lived is a life of moral, ethical, intellectual and spiritual balance.
To understand this need to balance, note that the text begins with a report dealing with census data.  From a superficial reading of the text it would appear that this is information is totally irrelevant to the modern reader. However, in Biblical times the census was the most common pretext for imposing new taxes. Is the text teaching us not to listen to what politicians say, but rather what they do?  Is the text reminding us that the world is filled with people who often stretch the truth?  Does the text want us to lear that when nations fail to take note of the inconsistencies among their leaders then they are prone to enter into dangerous periods of self-delusion? 
This week’s parashah argues that truth (emet) is a subset of “chesed” compassion (34:6). It also argues that the counter point to the egel masechah (the molten calf or the inauthentic god), is the
authenticity that Judaism teaches of a compassionate and gracious G’d, one who does not destroy, but creates, one whose law should lead each of us to a sense of mutual respect, trust, and, truthfulness  In a like manner this week’s portion warns us that that we dare not fail to demand the same of ourselves and of our governmental leaders. Do you agree?
Sisterhood Tamales making class.