Exciting classes to ring in 2014!
Congregants and Friends,
We hope to see you all for services this weekend. Friday night, December 27 services will be at 7pm and Saturday morning, December 28th services start at 9am, with the Torah service at approximately 9:45.
Numerous studies have shown that learning a new skill or information increases your brain mass and functioning; in 2014 we have just the thing to help. A host of classes listed below will help us get 2014 off on the right course. Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2014.
Enhance Your Davening
Interested in sharpening your synagogue skills and learning more about the service? Gabbai Bam Rubenstein will be teaching an ongoing Enhance Your Davening class on second Wednesdays of the month at 7:00 pm at Congregation Beth El. Wednesday, January 8 at 7:00 pm This class will cover Shucheling, mumbling, clapping and bowing, why we do these things and their history. Wanting to share his knowledge and help inform and educate the community, Bam Rubenstein is a lively speaker whose classes are sure to be educational and entertaining. Bam, a native of New York, grew up in Queens, graduated from Hebrew High School at Forest Hills Jewish Center, and attended both extension courses and Torah Leadership Seminars at Yeshiva University. Bam will share his knowledge and education in this ongoing series, which was originally termed Davening for Dummies, but was renamed to indicate that the class is open to all regardless of your level of knowledge.
Torah Trope Tuesdays – 7:00 PM Want to learn Torah Trope? Join us Tuesday nights starting January 7th for an ongoing class in Trope from Bob Halperin. An experienced and skilled reader, Bob Halperin learned Torah trope from Cantor Jacob Mendelson and also learned how to daven the Amud from Saul Wachs. One of the most exciting things that you can do in Synagogue is be a leader – lead services, or chant from the Torah or Haftarah portions.This will be an ongoing class every Tuesday night at 7:00 and will continue for a few months. If you’ve not yet learned to chant Torah, here is your opportunity. It is an amazing skill to learn.
Crypto Judaism Lecture – January 11 at 6:30 pm
Rabbi Peter Tarlow of A&M Hillel will continue his ongoing series of lectures on Crypto Judaism, Saturday night January 11, at Congregation Beth El. Rabbi Peter Tarlow is currently the Director for the Center of Hispanic-Jewish Relations at Texas A&M Hillel. An interesting and knowledgeable speaker, Rabbi Tarlow will discuss Jews who were forced to convert on the Iberian Peninsula in the late 15th and then 16th centuries. The lecture will be given in both English and Spanish.
January 19th – Sisterhood get together at the home of Juliette Meinstein. More details to follow.
Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly message:
Our parshah this week, Va’era, details the beginning of the Ten Plagues, which eventually led to the Exodus. Interestingly, the first three plagues were set off not by Moses, but by his brother Aaron. The Midrash tells us that Moses couldn’t turn the Nile into blood or bring frogs out of it, because the Nile had saved his life as a baby, when he floated on its waters as a baby. Similarly, Moses wasn’t allowed to turn the dirt of Egypt into lice, since the Land of Egypt had sustained him in his youth in Pharaoh’s palace. Once again, our Tradition teaches us the importance of gratitude, even to inanimate objects. Shabbat Shalom.
