Happy 20 Chai!

Start off the year 2018 (20 Chai) right with our lovely, song-filled Kaballat Shabbat services at 7:00 p.m. Friday January 5. We would really love to see you.

Cantor Ben-Moshe’s weekly message:
Our parshah this week is called Shemot, which is the eponymous first parshah of the Book of Exodus. The parshah begins “V’eleh shemot B’nei Yisrael haba’im Mitzrayimah….”, “And these are the names (shemot) of the Children of Israel who came to Egypt….” The Sages interpret this verse to mean that B’nei Yisrael kept their Hebrew names, and thus their culture, even through the darkest days of bondage in Egypt, and were thus worthy of redemption. It is no easy task being a minority amidst a large and powerful culture-whether that is ancient Egypt or modern North America. Our challenge is to live fully in this place while preserving who we are at our core-not merely some undifferentiated mass of descendants of immigrants, but the descendants of Yisrael, the one who strove with the Divine as well as with humans. Let us resolve in this new secular year to be the best Jews that we can be, and live up to the best example of our ancestors. Shabbat Shalom.

Sunday School with the BERS
resumes Sunday January 14 at 10 a.m.

Candle lighting in Austin is at 5:27 p.m.

2018 Beth El Planning Meeting –
Sunday January 7 at 10:30 a.m. at Beth El
Please plan to attend and help us vision for an excellent 2018! Open to all members of Beth El – please come!
We’ll have yummy bagels and coffee!

Beth El Men’s Club Event:
Wednesday January 10 UT Men’s Basketball game – UT vs TCU. Game at 8 p.m. RSVP to info@bethelaustin.org Open to all in the Jewish community. Car pool from Beth El at 7 p.m. We are getting tickets this weekend, so please send in your RSVP.

Parashat Hashavua from Rabbi Peter Tarlow Rabbi Emeritus of Texas A&M and Director of the Center for Jewish Hispanic Relations.

We begin a new year with a new book of the Bible. The Hebrew name for the Bible’s second book is Sefer Shmot (the book of names), and its first parashah is also called by the same name: Parashat Shmot.

This is a book that takes us from the universal, as expressed in Genesis, to the national. It is a book about us, about who we are, about our successes and our failures, about our pre-national strengths and weaknesses. If Genesis is an idealistic book, Exodus *Shmot” is a realistic book. The text begins by emphasizing not lofty ideals but by presenting us with a simple listing of names.

The book’s first parashah covers Exodus 1:1- 6:1 and sets the stage not only for Israel’s enslavement but also its liberation. In reality, the Bible reports the enslavement of Israel in only a few verses (1: 8-14) and among these verses the most famous is: “VaYakam melech chadash al Mitzrayim asher lo yada et Yosef/There then arose a new government in Egypt that was unaware of everything that Joseph had done for that nation” (1:8).

From this verse it will take over half the book for Israel to regain its national liberty. Is there a lesson here? Is the text teaching us that it is a lot easier to enslave a nation than it is to free it? Is this first parashah teaching us that weakness leads to slavery? Is the book also teaching us that once lost, it takes both wisdom and perseverance to regain freedom?

Perhaps we best understand this concept when we note that Moses’ had to deal with the people’s almost schizophrenic attitude toward freedom. Like so many people, right down to those of today, there was (and still is) both a fear and love of freedom. On one hand, most people claim that they want to be free, but on the other hand, there is a fear of freedom’s responsibilities. The Children of Israel’s contradictory attitudes toward freedom would plague Moses throughout his journey, from Egyptian slavery to his point of entrance into the Promised Land. As we debate how much government is too much we note that the issues raised in this week’s parashah are very much still with us today. .

Exodus argues that to be free one must have a passion for freedom and to be willing to sacrifice for it. Passion is a substance that burns and is not consumed. It would then take a man such as Moses to notice the passion of the bush that burnt but was not consumed to win back the national will necessary for the nation’s freedom.

A lesson for this week may be that freedom is all too easily lost and it is won back only with great difficulty. To cite the “Hagadah” of Passover, perhaps this is a lesson that must be relearned “b’chol dor vador” in each and every generation. Do you agree?

An inspiring talk by Rabbi Sacks for your enjoyment: Shabbat shalom!