Such a Special Shabbat. Please come to meaningful Kaballat Shabbat services tonight at 7 PM.

Then join us tomorrow, Saturday morning at 9 AM, as we celebrate Shabbat Hanukkah and Natalie’s Bat Mitzvah. All are invited.

Sunday December 29 at 5 PM the Hanukkah party you’ve been waiting for. Please see http://bethelaustin.org/events/list/ for more information. Food, Live Music, fun for the whole family. Bring your menorah and we’ll light candles for the final night of Hanukkah! 

Hazzan Ben-Moshe’s Weekly Message:

This Shabbat is a triple event- it is Shabbat Parshat Mikketz, which describes Joseph’s rise from slavery and imprisonment to rule over Egypt, and his testing of his brothers who sold him into bondage years before.  It is also the beginning of the New Month of Teveth and of course Shabbat Hanukkah.  All of these deal with light-Joseph emerges from the darkness of the dungeon, Rosh Hodesh celebrates the renewal of the light of the moon, and Hanukkah celebrates the victory of the Maccabees, the rededication of the Temple and the rekindling of Menorah, the Eternal Light of the Sanctuary.  This is a time when we crave light-the days are short and the nights are long, and of course we are seeing the darkness of antisemitism returning, the ancient hatred which many hoped had withered in the wake of the Shoah.  These three events come to teach us that ultimately light overcomes darkness.  It requires some effort on our part-we must light the Hanukkiah each of the eight nights of Hanukkah in our homes, we must be mindful of the New Moon’s appearance, we must consciously recall Joseph’s elevation from darkness to light.  And this Shabbat we bring even more light and joy into our lives as we celebrate with Natalie Koeller and her family as she becomes Bat Mitzvah.  As the Torah says, “Y’hi or!”-“Let there be light!”-for us and for all the world.  Shabbat Shalom, Hodesh Tov, a Good New Month, and Hag Urim Sameah, a Joyous Festival of Lights.