Joseph’s dream, a movie night, Channukah party and more…

Congregants and Friends:

We hope you can join us Friday night, December 12 at 7pm for Kabbalat Shabbat services.

We will also be having our Shabbat morning services at 9 am this Saturday morning, with the Torah service at about 9:45 and Rabbi Gisser delivering a Dvar Torah. We hope you can join us. We will have a kidush in honor of Matt  Rubin who is a soldier at Fort Hood and will be deploying soon. We thank him and all our military for their service and sacrifice.

Saturday evening, December 13, at 6:20 p.m. we will be having the second in our “movie in the shul” nights. We will start with a maariv service and screen the fascinating movie, O Jerusalem, at 6:40pm.  Be sure to come early to get your seat. There will be a children’s movie showing concurrently. O Jerusalem (released in 2006) is tale of friendship between two men, one Jewish and the other Arab, as the state of Israel is being created.

Sunday morning we will have our Sunday school at 10 am and Intro to Judaism with Cantor Ben-Moshe at 10:30 am.

We would like to wish Jonathan and Edith Troen a hearty Mazal Tov on the birth last week of their baby boy Mateo!

Please join us Sunday December 21 at 5pm for the wonderful Beth El Hannukah party. We will have latkes, a kosher BBQ, songs led by Lior and Rotem and fun for you and the whole family.

This week’s parshah, Vayeshev, is mostly concerned with the story of Joseph, his dreams, and his being sold into slavery in Egypt.  Reading the story now, year after year, we know how it ends-Joseph becomes Prime Minister of Egypt and saves his family from starvation.  The outcome is not obvious to Joseph or his brothers at the time, of course, but the Torah presents this as the unfolding of God’s plan.  From our limited perspective, we can only guess what will come of events in our lives as they are happening, but it is only in hindsight that we can piece together meanings.  May we all be blessed with the patience to wait for understanding, and the wisdom to arrive at it.  Shabbat Shalom.

 Rabbi Peter Tarlow’s Weekly Parasha:

This Tuesday night (December 16) begins the holiday of Chanukah. Chanukah is based around the Apocrypha books of Maccabees and also on a number of Talmudic commentaries.  In reality, the modern holiday is the merging of the Maccabean (Ancient Jewish armies) victory over the Assyrians (the world’s first war for religious liberty) with the Talmudic tale of the miracle of the oil lasting for eight days rather than one.

Chanukah is a tale of courage.  It is also a cautionary tale, reminding us of how easy it is to take advantage of minorities and how humans are capable of not respecting those who may be different.  Is it a warning against modern terrorism and the horrors of groups such as ISIS?

The Maccabean wars were less about economics than principles, less about politics than about the right of human beings to be free.  Unfortunately, seeing the modern Middle East and the acts of terrorism that come from it, we realize that these struggles did not cease with the Macabean victories.  They continue until to this day on both collective and individual levels.  How many nations stand by idly despite acts of terrorism against innocent civilians? How many refuse to get involved when we see someone being bullied at school or at work?  How many people simply state, the other person’s problem is not my problem?

The Chanukah story teaches us that the ancient Maccabees were fearless, defied incredible odds and were willing to risk their lives for principle. How many nations have demonstrated such courage? It also teaches us the importance of what modern academics call “the political narrative”.  In other words, what we believe does matter, and when we translate beliefs into actions these beliefs become powerful political tools.  My family joins me in wishing each of you a very Happy Chanukah.