Parshat Sh’lakh L’kha and Happy July 4!

Friday Night Shabbat Services tonight at the regular time of 7:00 PM. Join us for spirited singing and stay after for coffee, cookies and company.
Candle lighting in Austin is at 8:18 PM

Shabbat morning services are a week away, Saturday July 9.

Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Message
Parshat Sh’lakh L’kha gives the story of the twelve spies sent by Moshe to scout out the Land of Canaan. The Torah relates that they found a bunch of grapes in Nahal Eshkol that was so large that it had to be hung on a staff and carried by two men (said by the Midrash to be Yehoshu’a and Calev). Some may recognize this as the emblem of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism. The first “tourists” in Israel were there to see if they could live there. Israel is our home-we as Jews should take seriously the idea of returning home now that we are able, now that we once again have sovereignty over our land. And we must always keep our eyes turned towards Zion. Shabbat Shalom.
Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe

The sisterhood will have a host of events in the coming year. Highlights include another Chemist in the Kitchen class with Tamar, book club event with Gail, Art with Sharon, Volunterering at Mitzvah day with Rachael, Jewish yoga (“Oy”ga) fun, garage sale to raise funds for the shul and much, much more. As always, please send us your ideas and if you would like to help with events.

Sunday school resumes in the fall, on August 21. Currently enrolliing students for the coming year to join our BERS and their awesome teachers. Bar and Bat mitzvah prep classes also continue. If you have any questions, please contact us at info@bethelaustin.org

Happy Birthday to the USA! We hope you’ll have a happy July 4th!

Rabbi Peter Tarlow – From the Center for Jewish Latino Relations:
This week’s Torah section is: “Sh’lach L’chah meaning: Send forth”. You will find it in the Book of Numbers 13:1-15:41. Reading this week’s parashah we cannot help but connect its name to an earlier section found in Genesis: “Lech L’chah meaning Go forth”. In Lech l’chah G’d tells Abraham to change the place where he lives and to change his life. In this week’s parashah, it is not G’d commanding Abraham to move but Moses who commands the Israelites to send forth twelve spies to scout out the land that generations back G’d had given to the people of Israel. In the case of Lech l’chah, Abraham obeys the command, successfully moves from Ur to Canaan and from moral darkness to spiritual light. In this week’s case, the twelve spies will fail. It is fear and lack of faith in themselves and in G’d that will turn success into failure.
Are not these two Torah portions different sides of the same coin? Both leaving Ur and Sinai required acts of courage and the need to leave the familiar and accept risk. Both Bible portions share a common theme: that without an optimistic sense of faith, we lack the courage to dream and thus become eternal slaves of fear.
In this week’s section the text teaches us that ten of the spies brought back a highly negative
and pessimistic report stating: the enemy is too strong, the land cannot be conquered. From their perspective Jewish history would die before it was born. As in the case of most pessimists they were excellent in presenting the problem, but offered no alternative solution. Pessimists, despite what they may claim, tend to become frozen in their fear of success.
Realistic optimists take a very different approach to life. Thus, two of the twelve spies take state: “Im chafetz banu ha’Shem v’hevi otanu el ha’aretz ha’zot utnah lanu eretz asher hi zavat chalav udvash/if the Lord so desires it, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, for it is a land flowing with milk and honey.” (14:8). The two positive spikes knew the task would not be easy but with strength of faith and a sense of dedication G’d would not abandon them and they would succeed. These two spies, Caleb and Joshua, teach us an important lesson: Pessimism accomplishes nothing. Indeed, pessimists not only hold themselves back, but also destroy the spirit of those with whom they associate. Pessimists are not realists. Realists offer solutions, pessimists offer only fear but never alternative solutions.
Judaism is not a religion for pessimists. We Jews are commanded to be persons of faith; not to be deniers of faith. Judaism insists that we have faith in oneself and in G’d. Is not our history a 5,000 year journey of faith and optimism? Ours is the story of a small people refusing to give into “the reality of the pessimist.” It was only with faith that even as we faced the horrors of Nazi Europe, we were willing to rebuild a modern nation from the ashes of Europe’s bigotry.
To be an optimist is to sanctify the past and to embrace the future. As a people of faith we have no other choice then to remember the words of Joshua and Caleb “be strong and to be of good courage” for like our ancestors in Sinai we have no alternative. Are you a person of optimistic faith or negative pessimism?