Scout shabbat – Parashat Mishpatim

SCOUT SHABBAT, WEEKEND SERVICES, PURIM AND MORE:
We’d love you to join us for Friday Night Services February 24, at the special time of 6:30 PM. It’s also Scout shabbat so please come one and all as we honor our Austin and Beth El scouts. Jay Rubin, former CEO of Shalom Austin and avid historian will deliver a lovely Dvar Torah. A delicious pasta dinner will be served immediately after services.

Shabbat morning services are this Saturday February 25 at 9 AM, with the Torah service at around 9:45 and children’s story time and services with Morah Shereen Canady at 10:30. We gratefully acknowledge Hal and Elaine Jacobs for generously sponsoring a special kosher meat kidish in honor of Elaine’s birthday. Mazal tov dear Elaine and Ad 120! Thank you to you and Hal for all you do for our shul and community!

Sunday school THIS SUNDAY morning February 26. We’re gearing up for a fun-filled Purim class!

Candle lighting in Austin is at 6:09 PM

***Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Message

This week we read Parshat Mishpatim, and the special reading for Shabbat Sh’kalim. Mishpatim begins with the words “Ve’eleh hamishpatim”-“And these are the laws”. Our parshah is a direct continuation of Revelation at Mt. Sinai. The seemingly mundane laws, civil and criminal, contained in our parshah are no less important than any other mitzvoth. The Torah concerns itself with building a righteous society, so all of our actions, no matter how “secular”, are spiritually important. Let us commit ourselves to conducting all of our affairs in a way that befits our status as a “kingdom of priests and a holy people”. Shabbat Shalom.

Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe

***Sunday school this Sunday at 10 Am – Lots of Purim fun and even Hamentaschen baking with Rachel Union.

SISTERHOOD PERSONAL ORGANIZATION CLASS ON MARCH 4 at 12:30 PM :

We are so excited that Jennifer Lava, Professional Organizer Extraordinaire (and productivity consultant), is going to hold a fun class just for us at Beth El. Jennifer is a past president of the National Organization of Professional Organizers, has had her articles in many magazines like Consumer Reports and Family Circle and has such a creative and innovative style. Please check out her website : www.jenniferlava.com
The class is Sunday March 5 at 12:30 – right after Sunday school at Beth El.
PLEASE INVITE YOUR FRIENDS. Bring a kosher dairy or parev snack to share and come get organized! And if you are super organized already, well just come and hang out with us! Please send your RSVP to info@bethelaustin.org

Beth El Purim Party: Saturday March 11 at 7PM

HOLD THE DATE for an exciting Purim party, an energetic Megillah reading with our very own Hazzan, music with Los Klezmeros and face painting with professional face painter Lilia! So much fun for he whole family – young and old. Please don’t miss!

JFS Passover Food Drive

We are seeking the following items to be donated to families for Passover:
Matzoh, Gefilte Fish (jars), Matzoh Ball & Soup Mix, Horseradish (jars), Macaroons, Candy Fruit Slices, Cake Mixes
Ritual Items such as:
Haggadahs, Matzoh Covers, Kiddush Cups, Candlesticks, Shabbat Candles

Donations can be dropped off in our donation boxes
at the ECP and JCC Welcome Desk or the
JFS Office 11940 Jollyville Rd. Suite 110 S Austin, TX 78759

From the Jewish War Veterans:

Please join us as my Honored Guests, to our next JWV Lunch and Meeting: Sunday, March 19th at 10 am – Austin JCC, Room 150-D
Your service to our country is very much appreciated and will be recognized at the meeting. No obligation to join the JWV. Wives and Children are welcome. Rabbi Dan Millner will be speaking and he is in our reserve armed forces as a chaplain. He is a very dynamic speaker – You will not want to miss this.

Free Film Screening & Program: ‘Denial’

Monday, March 6, 6:30 PM
Co-sponsored by Shalom Austin, the Austin Jewish Film Festival, The Harry Ransom Center and Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies, the 2016 movie, Denial, will be screened and followed by a discussion with Professor Robert H. Abzug, Director of the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies. This event is free and will take place at the JCC Community Hall. All are welcome.

Rabbi Peter Tarlow from the Center for
Latino-Jewish Relations.

This week’s parashah is called “Mishpatim.” You will find it in the Book of Exodus 21:1-24:18. To a great extent, this week’s section is the mirror image of last week’s parashah. Last week we studied Yitro, a parashah filled with broad general concepts/theories of law. Although general concepts are essential, they must be fleshed out with detail. To think without detail is to never realize a goal, to think only in detail is to lack a goal.

This week’s section takes us from the macro level to the micro level, from the general to the specific. Mishpatim is not like other ancient Middle Eastern systems of law. For example, the parashah begins with the question of “avdut” meaning: “slavery” or “indenture servitude.” Not only does this week’s code begin with the rights of a slave, but quickly progresses to one of the stranger sections of the code. In chapter 21, verses 5-6, the reader learns that if the slave is set free but chooses not to accept his freedom, then his master is to “bring him to a door and pierce his ear with an awl..” How come? Such a position seems to be counter intuitive and even if the slave did not want to leave his wife and/or children, once free there was nothing from preventing him from earning enough money to buy his loved ones out of slavery and give them their freedom.

Perhaps the answer is found in the fact that we tend to read the word “avdut” too narrowly. In its broadest meaning, avdut may not only refer to bodily servitude but also to a state of mental stagnation. Is the text pointing out that far too many people fear accepting the price of freedom, personal responsibility? How many people seek eternal childhood; how many of us choose the “imprisonment of certainty” over the “exhilaration of exploration?” How many of us are “stuck” (slaves to) in a job because we prefer to be in “comfortable pain” rather than the uncertainty of freedom?

We can link the word “avdut” to another Hebrew word ‘hitmakkrut” (addiction) which is derived from the verb “lhitmakker” meaning “to sell oneself.” The slave sold himself to the comfort of certainty and the addict has sold himself to the comfort of his or her addiction. In other words, an addiction is the act of selling oneself into the “slavery of desire and paid for by the loss of self-control.”
Unfortunately, too many of us seek the certain and the comfortable, rather than the challenge of personal growth. How many prefer the comfort of slavery instead of trials and tribulations of freedom? How many prefer someone to tell them what to do, then to make a choice and then accept the consequences of their actions?
To be free is to judge oneself, to face the challenges of life, to explore the depths of our souls and to have faith in the future. In that sense, the pursuit of ignorance is the desire to stay a slave. How many desire to construct the walls of our mental imprisonment and avoid being free? Do you？