Parashat K’doshim and Vania’s Bat Mitzvah weekend

Friday Night Shabbat Services Tonight 5/13, at the special time of 6:30 PM.
Vania will celebrate her Bat mitzvah and invites you to a delicious pasta dinner immediately following.

Shabbat morning services are tomorrow at 9 A M.
We will continue our weekend of celebrating Vania’s simcha. Immediately following services, there will be a kosher Mexican kidish! We gratefully acknowledge Vania’s family for sponsoring the shabbat kidush lunch and Friday night dinner and wish them much nachas and blessings on this special day for Claudia, Yosef, Vania, Sofia and Nathan.

Candle lighting in Austin is at 7:59 PM

Cantor Ben Moshe’s Message
Our parshah this week, K’doshim, presents us with a challenge-“…be holy, for I, Hashem your God, am holy.” We are commanded to be like God, to the extent that this is possible for humanity. This is a high standard, to be sure, and we perhaps cannot completely live up to it-but we are obligated to try.
Last week, we read about the service of Yom Kippur as it was done in ancient times, which is also the reading for the morning of Yom Kippur itself. In many congregations, the beginning of Parshat K’doshim is the reading for the afternoon of Yom Kippur(instead of Lev. 18 with its list of forbidden relationships). When we have spent a night and a morning in repentance, the Holiness Code of our parshah this week is a good signpost to indicate the direction in which to move.
May the pursuit of holiness be our goal this and every week. Shabbat Shalom.
Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe

COMMUNITY NEWS:
COME AND CELEBRATE YOM HAATZMAUT IN AUSTIN!
Saturday May 14 at 8 PM on the front lawn of the J. Come for an authentic Israeli sing a long! Bring blankets or lawn chairs, bug spray and your great voices. Guy Ben-Moshe and friends will be leading the shira ba tzibur.
Sunday School will be this Sunday at 10 AM with our super teachers Morah Anat, Shiry and Bev. We look forward to learning more about Israel’s Independence day.
And don’t forget to save the date: Sunday June 5 at 4:45 PM, Beth El’s Annual meeting and kosher BBQ cookout.
We would like to wish our very own Michelle a happy birthday and many, many happy returns!

Grandpa Abe : TODAY YOU WILL BE A WOMAN
It was many long years ago that a 120 pound kid was called to the bimah. He had been prepared for this day, with his proud mother and father at his side. At this point, this was his second most important event on his journey in Judaism. The first he can’t remember as he was only 8 days old. He was told that this was going to be the start of his Jewish journey. He was to become a man. In what shape or form he was to be, he had no idea. At 13 years old, not fully developed physically nor mentally, he was told he is now a man. What it meant was he was being trained to take care of himself and things he would encounter on his journey. As years have gone by, he now can understand and relate to being a man from that day on. He had responsibilities to study Torah, respect people and be a proud Jew in the community.
We have a young lady who is being Bat Mitzvahed. Her name is Vania. This lovely event is the equivalent of a Bar Mitzvah only it’s celebrated by girls generally at the age of 12 or 13, according to your custom. She will celebrate her Bat Mitzvah at services where she reads the week’s Prophetic portion aloud and is expected by that point on to assume the responsibilities of a young Jewish woman. From what I have seen, this young lady is certainly ready to take on these responsibilities. I am so happy to be able to comment on this joyous occasion. It’s not like she did not have the best teachers in getting her where she is now. Her dad and mom, who are two of the special people in our congregation, and along with the Hazzan taught her the foundations she needed to learn. With great pride, the congregation welcomes her into our family.
Dor L’Dor, Grandpa Abe

TUNE IN NEXT WEEK FOR ANOTHER INSTALLMENT FROM GRANDPA ABE.

Rabbi Tarlow’s Weekly Parashah From The Center for Latino-Jewish Relations:
In year’s past I have dedicated the weekly parashah that comes immediately before Yom Ha’Atzmaut (Israel Independence Day) to Israel’s many accomplishments. This year, I will dedicate my commentary to just one special accomplishment: how Israel helps the world. The Youtube section will provide several videos on how Israel in its short history has lived up in so many ways to the Biblical injunction of being an “Or la’Goyim – A Light unto the Nations”.
The term, “Or la’Goyim” comes from the Book of Isaiah where it is written: “Yea, He saith, Is it too light a thing for you to be My servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the offspring of Israel? I shall give you as a light to the (other) nations, that My salvation (doings/blessings) will reach the ends of the Earth” (Isaiah 49:6). Ever since Abraham brought us to the land of Israel over 3,000 years ago we have understood that Israel as a nation has an obligation to act with compassion, justice and charity. To be an “Or la’Goyim” is to help others when needed and to seek to make the world a better place.
Like all nations, Israel, being composed of human beings has not always lived up perfectly to this ideal, but few nations have been so generous and done so much for the world with scant resources as has modern Israel. Here are just a few examples of how Israel during the last 68 years has strived to make the world a better place:
Israel is the world’s leader in water technology. From drip irrigation to waterless toilets, Israel has found ways to conserve water and to purify wastewater. It has become the world’s superpower in water technology and an example to nations around the world on how to turn deserts into farmland.
When earthquakes stuck Haiti, Japan. Nepal, Turkey and most recently Ecuador, other nations talked about what they would do. Tzahal’s (Israel Defense forces) medical teams were on the ground almost immediately and having set up field hospitals. While the world talked, Israel did.
Across Africa Israeli specialists are helping Africans to have an assured food supply and how to hold onto the grain that they have already harvest.
Israeli scientists are teaching their American and European counterparts how to use algae to turn carbon dioxide emitted by power plants into fuel and nutraceuticals.
Israeli medical techniques are world famous and among the best in the world. Israel is not only the only nation that permanently opens its arms to children sick from radiation caused by the Ukrainian nuclear disasters, but the only nation to receive sick children and soldiers from an enemy nation, Syria, and save their lives.
Airports around the world are a great deal safer now, thanks to a technology developed by Israel’s XSight Systems, which detects foreign object debris (FOD) on the runway – that is birds, small animals and fragments that break off planes.
The list of Israel’s accomplishments is almost endless. These are just a few of the ways that modern Israel has continued to be more than the land of the Bible, It is also working to make Biblical principles into realities. Perhaps that is why Israel’s national anthem is called:Ha’Tikvah/Hope.

Chag Yom Ha’Atzmaut Sameach! Happy Independence Israel!