Exciting Upcoming Events
Tikkun Olam Lecture and Discussion – February 16 at 7:00 pm Mr. Ricardo Turullols-Bonilla, community member and author of five ebooks, will explain the connection between the Shema Israel and early Greek philosophy and how this relates to today’s modern world. Interested in Tikkun Olam, helping humanity, or improving our educational system? If so, please plan to join us at Congregation Beth El on Saturday night, February 16.
PURIM Join us at Beth El for the Megillah reading. We will be celebrating Purim both Saturday night, 2/23, and Sunday morning, 2/24. The Saturday night services start at 7:00 pm and Sunday morning service starts at 9:00 am. Try to attend both, but if you can only make one, please plan to attend the Sunday morning service.
Crypto Judaism –Lecture March 2 at 7:30 pm Rabbi Peter Tarlow of A&M Hillel will be giving a lecture on Crypto Jews, Saturday night March 2, at Congregation Beth El. Rabbi Peter Tarlow is the director and Rabbi of Texas A&M Hillel for the last 27 years and has taught at the university level in both Sociology and Philosophy. Crypto-Judaism is the academic name describing those Jews who were forced to convert on the Iberian Peninsula in the late 15th and then 16th centuries. Many of these people maintained a secret form of Judaism. Called in Hebrew “anusim”,the Jewish world has long seen these forced converts as national heroes. After the opening of the New World many Crypto-Jews fled to northern Mexico (now the US states of Texas, New Mexico, and the Mexican states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon) to avoid the Inquisition. Today there are thousands of people whose last name ends in “ez” or refers to a geographic site (montaña, ríos) or something from the botanical worlds (flores, rosa, manzana) whose ancestors were forced to convert and then prosecuted. This lecture will start with Havdalah led by Cantor Ben Moshe at Motz-ei Shabbat.
Passover Cooking Class: Passover is a special time of the year and one of the most celebrated Jewish Holidays. Families gather for the seder and enjoy the special meal with the traditional foods of matzah ball soup, chicken, kugels and kosher for Passover deserts. But since Passover only comes once a year, many people do not want or are overwhelmed by making dishes the way Bubbie used to. The easy alternative is to skip some of the cooking, but the best way to enjoy Passover is through the food. Congregation Beth El in its ongoing cooking classes is dedicating a special class on Passover cooking . Want to learn how to make awesome dishes for Passover? Want to learn some special recipes handed down generation to generation. If so, come to a cooking class at Congregation Beth El on Sunday March 10 at 1pm. The class is free and open to all.
Congregation Beth El’s Second Night Seder March 26, 6:20 pm Interested in a lively participatory second night seder? If so, join us at Congregation Beth El as we continue our annual tradition of the second night seder. With hagadot in hand we’ll celebrate the second night, singing and learning while eating a delicious kosher meal. We’ll tell the story of our people’s freedom and eat all the Passover favorites. We promise a good night of friends, food, songs, stories, and all your seder favorites. We will begin reading the haggadah with Cantor Ben Moshe at 6:20 pm, and Morah Betsy and our children will act out the plagues section, including a dash to the Sea of Reeds. This seder is open to the community with a suggested donation of $10 for adults or $5 for children. RSVPs are preferred, but not required.
Cantor Ben-Moshe Message for 2/15: In this week’s parshah, T’rumah, we read of the commandment to build a sanctuary, the Mishkan, and about the materials to be used for its building. The Torah quotes God as saying “And they shall make Me a santuary, and I will dwell among them”. Our ancient ancestors almost certainly thought of the Mishkan, and later the Temple, as the literal “dwelling place” of God. However, by the end of the First Temple period, the era of the Classical Prophets, we recognized that no mere building could contain God, but that the Temple was actually meant to be a physical focus for our devotion. The Mishnah in Tractate B’rachot teaches that one is to face Jerusalem and the Temple Mount when praying, but if we do not know the proper direction, we should “turn our hearts to our Father in Heaven”. God, whose presence is everywhere, should be our ultimate focus.