Friday night Services – August updates
Services tonight are at 7pm, in which we will welcome the Shabbat with our special guest and Gabbai, Arthur Gurney who will lead services while Cantor Ben-Moshe is on vacation. Services the rest of the month are as follows:
Every Friday night at 7pm for Kabbalat Shabbat.
Saturday August 17: Eli Cone will celebrate his Bar Mitzvah and the congregation is invited to attend. Services will be led by Cantor Ben-Moshe at Holiday Inn Arboretum (only ¼ mile from Beth El), on 8901 Business Center Drive, 78759. We wish the Cone family a hearty Mazal Tov.
Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly Message: Parshat Re’eh deals extensively with the laws that B’nei Yisrael were to follow once they entered the Promised Land. Moses here continues his last instructions to his People. In this parshah, he first commands them to perform an elaborate ceremony of blessings and curses on Mt. G’rizim and Mt. ‘Eival, outside the city of Sh’chem. Mt. G’rizim is in fact the oldest Israelite sanctuary, and is still used to this day by the Samaritans. Moses continues by warning against the dangers of falling into the idolatrous practices of the Canaanites, and of following false prophets. Interestingly, the test of a false prophet is not whether his prophecies come true, but rather if he attempts to convince others to follow other gods. The Torah actually admits of spiritual powers being divorced from worship of God-that it is not the spiritual power itself that is important, but rather the intention behind it. Parshat Re’eh also contains laws about supporting the poor, the Sabbatical Year, the laws of kashrut and a listing of the holidays. While there isn’t any narrative here, there is much worth studying, and many spiritual lessons to be learned. I look forward to returning to Austin next week and resuming worship and learning with you all. Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi Tarlow’s Weekly Parasha: This week’s parashah is called “Re’eh”. You will find it in the Book of Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17. This parashah presents us with a host of challenges. It challenges us to thinking about if we are making the right decisions. It challenges us to develop a sense of group. It challenges us to observe G’d’s festivals and it challenges us to be wise enough to distinguish between ‘false prophets’ (those leaders who give the impression that they cannot be wrong; that they are almost Messiahs) and real prophets (people who place the national good before their own and do not ask of others what they do not ask of themselves). This week’s section revolves around two major themes: (1) Seeing is not necessarily believing. In fact we often see only what we choose to see/believe and (2) we must balance personal freedom with group responsibility. Both of these themes run through the Biblical text and serve as a warning that we must think for ourselves and be wise enough to question what we read. The text asks us to examine our leadership by the results of their actions and not by the superficial show which they create. Throughout this week’s parashah we learn that false leadership can make us believe (Re’eh = See) that good is evil and evil is good. For example, the media’s often poor (and all too often dishonest) coverage of the Middle East is an example of how the media pretend to be fair while in reality creating false impressions and illusions. At other times we are mislead not by what we see but rather by what is not see. How often do the media simply chose not to cover a news stories that might hurt its favorite candidate? How often do major news stories not get reported, but “soft news” is given headline treatment? Such disappearances ought to make us question if the media have placed their own agendum ahead of truth or taken facts out of context. What we see/read must be carefully scrutinized. How often has Israel suffered due to the media’s creation of illusions that simply are not true? How often have the media throughout the world manipulated statistics to present a different story than what is true? Re’eh is all about consequences. It teaches us that when we dare not allow ourselves to be deceived, that we must question everything that we read or are shown on television. Moses warned us concerning the consequences not only of our singular actions but also of our collective actions when he states at the beginning of the parashah Deut:11:26 and 11:32): “Behold I place before you a blessing and a curse ….therefore, take care to observe all of the laws and rules which I have set before you this day”. How we act then touches not only our singular life, but also the lives of all with whom we live. Do you consider the group results of your personal decisions? Should you? What do you think?
