Parashat Vayyeshev
Please note that we have our lovely Friday night services at 7:00 P.M.
Shabbat morning services this Saturday December 9th at 9 AM. We will have the Torah service at around 9:45 A.M., children’s services with the wonderful Morah Shereen and a lovely kidush lunch immediately following services. Anita’s hearty soup, bagels, lox and cream cheese as well as salads are on the menu and we would love to have you join us!
Sunday school for the BERS this Sunday at 10 A.M. Special guest Ms. Carol will sing Hanukkah songs with the children and guest artist Coco de Ordonez-Barros will create Hanukkah art work with our children. Chai Mitzvah Teens will meet at 11:30 and go to the Bob Bullock Museum.
HOLD THE DATE : ONLY ONE WEEK AWAY Sunday December 17 at 5 pm The Hanukkah Party of the year. Klezmer music with Los Klezmeros, Latkes (traditional and our famous hippy latkes), hot dog dinner, Israeli sufganiot and fun activities for the children! Bring a menorah and candles so we can light the candles together. Please don’t miss. Consider a tax deductible donation in any amount to help sponsor this event! www.bethelaustin.org/donate
Please come to Eli Levin’s Bar Mitzvah December 14!
Arthur and Rinat Levin are delighted to inform you of a special service to celebrate Eli Levin’s Bar Mitzvah. It will take place on Thursday morning, December 14 at 8:00 am at Beth El, 8902 Mesa Drive. Please join us for prayer, to be followed by brunch and menorah lighting. We anticipate to finish by 10 A.M. Eli would love to share this special simcha with his congregation.
Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly Message:
This week’s parshah, Vayyeshev, is taken up mostly by the story of Yoseph and his brothers, who sell him into slavery in Egypt because of their jealousy of him. Yoseph is, of course, his father’s favorite-the elder son of his favorite wife, Rahel, who had passed away. Ya’akov’s favoritism was obvious to all, and included the gift of a striped robe, symbolic of clan leadership. Yoseph’s older brothers act perhaps predictably, and plot against him.
It is natural perhaps to prefer some people over others, even our own children at times-one child or another may be closer in spirit to a parent, or remind that parent of someone else. However we may feel, though, as parents or as anyone in any position of authority, we must try not to show that favoritism. Obvious bias creates resentment-and that resentment can turn deadly, as nearly happened to Yoseph. The story ultimately turns out for good, of course, but still offers a cautionary tale to all about the dangers of taking sides where impartiality is called for. Shabbat Shalom.
Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe
Candle lighting in Austin is at 5:13 p.m.
Community News:
THE AMERICAN ISRAEL PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
CORDIALLY INVITES YOU TO THE
AIPAC Austin Annual Event
FEATURING AMBASSADOR RON PROSOR
FORMER ISRAELI PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE TO THE UNITED NATIONS
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2017
HYATT REGENCY – 208 BARTON SPRINGS RD
7:00 PM LIGHT BITES & PROGRAM
To purchase an individual ticket, please visit: www.aipac.org/AustinAnnualEvent
To confirm a previously reserved table or a reservation at a specific table, please contact:
Hayley Rosenberg at 832-380-7710 or hrosenberg@aipac.org
DIETARY LAWS OBSERVED
AMBASSADOR RON PROSOR
FORMER ISRAELI PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE TO THE UNITED NATIONS
Ambassador Ron Prosor Served as Israel’s 16th Permanent Ambassador to the United Nations. Prior to the United Nations, Mr. Prosor served as the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as Israel’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He played an instrumental role in establishing diplomatic relations behind the Iron Curtain following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Amb. Prosor holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and his writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Telegraph, The Guardian, Ha’aretz, and The Jerusalem Post.
FROM RABBI SEPTIMUS OF SHALOM AUSTIN!
I would like to extend a special invitation to you during the Hanukkah season to experience a national touring exhibit that sheds light on the prevalence of hunger in Central Texas. Shalom Austin will be hosting “This is Hunger” project as it visits our community at the Dell Jewish Community Campus on December 9-14.
MAZON’s “This Is Hunger” project is a high-impact, experiential installation on wheels that has been designed to be a powerful community engagement tool. It will tour the nation for 10 months, making stops in and around major cities. When the 53-foot-long double expandable trailer is parked on our campus and open on both sides, it provides almost 1,000 square feet of interior space to take participants on a voyage of awareness and activism: to help them understand the stark reality of hunger in America and to spark their commitment to taking action that will help end hunger once and for all.
Participants enter the truck and are invited to sit at a communal table to virtually “meet” real people struggling with hunger. Portraits are projected at each end of the table as they share their stories in their own voices and in their own words.
Participants are then invited to engage in activities and experiences to deepen their awareness about the complexities of being hungry and about educating the rest of our nation and advocating for change.
To see a schedule of tour times and reserve your free tickets, visit:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/this-is-hunger-tx-shalom-austi…
Rabbi Tarlow of the Center for Jewish Hispanic Relations and
Rabbi Emeritus Texas A&M :
On Tuesday night December 12 we begin the holiday of Chanukah and continue celebrating it until the final candle that will be lit on the night of December 20. Chanukah is a holiday of miracles shrouded in mystery and mistakenly often viewed as a holiday for children. Chanukah is not mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, occurring many years after its canonization. We often classify it as a “minor holiday”. Despite this fact, over the centuries, Chanukah’s stirring political message has won a major role in the Jewish heart.
Chanukah means many things to many people. For some it is the holiday foods, for others it is a time of gift giving, others note that Chanukah is the first war fought expressly on principle (The Jewish people gave the world the two great principles: that of freedom of worship and of freedom of speech.) For others this is a time when the light of freedom pierces the darkness of tyranny. Many modern historians compare the rising up of the ancient Jewish masses against members of the Jewish elite as symbolic of not only the French revolution but also of what is now occurring in much of the modern world.
The fall of tyrants has much to do with the Chanukah festival. This holiday represents a political revolutionary; it is the first recorded attempt to create a world in which human dignity would take precedence over materialism and political tyranny. Chanukah is also the Western world’s first war for religious freedom and has set the stage for popular uprisings ever since.
Chanukah’s history is based on war, but its psychological power comes from the miracle that occurred followed the Macabean liberation of Jerusalem. According to traditions that surround Chanukah, after the liberation, the Temple’s Menorah (national candelabrum) had only enough oil to burn for one day yet somehow the oil lasted the 8 days necessary to produce more oil.
The meaning of Chanukah, however, goes a great deal deeper than that of a mere story. In many ways Chanukah marks the beginning of what we might like to see as the birth of modernity, a world in which each person is free to be who he or she is. Chanukah teaches us that although people may not be the same, we all have the same right to live in peace and freedom.
As we continue to struggle against the darkness of terrorism, prejudice, and injustice we garner hope from the Chanukah’s lights representing truth and human dignity. Let us realize the message of the festival’s most famous song Maoz Tzur/Rock of Ages. “…Yours the message cheering/ that the time is nearing/ which will see/ all men free/ tyrants disappearing.”
May the holiday of Chanukah bring its message of peace and justice to all peoples. May our Christian friends have a beautiful holiday. All of us at the Center for Latino – Jewish relations wish you and yours a season of joy filled with happiness and a sense of spirituality.