Shabbat Shira – Parashat Beshalach
Please join us for Friday Night Shabbat Services TONIGHT February 10, at the regular time of 7:00 PM. Songs, friends and joyful prayer will greet you.
Shabbat morning services are THIS Saturday February 11. We will have a children’s Tu BE Shevat story time and snack at 10:30 as well as a delicious kosher lunch following services. Please join us for this special Shabbat Shira! Thank you Toda Raba to Barry and Audrey Mann who are kindly sponsoring the lunch in gratitude for their recent amazing visit to Israel. We can’t wait to hear all about it.
Sunday school THIS SUNDAY morning February 12 at 10 AM.
Only a couple of weeks away – Friday February 24, we will proudly host Scout Shabbat for the Austin Jewish Community. Join us as we honor Beth El and Jewish community scouts at Scout Shabbat. Services will be at 6:30 PM followed by a fun pasta dinner. Jay and Carol Rubin will be our special guests.
Candle lighting in Austin is at 5:52 PM
Friday January 6, Rabbi Daniel Septimus CEO of the Austin JCC will likewise be our guest speaker at Beth El.
Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Message
This Shabbat is Shabbat Shirah, the name we give to the Shabbat on which we read Parshat B’shallah, the parshah that includes Shirat Hayam, the Song of the Sea. The Torah teaches that Moshe and Miriam led the Israelites in song as they celebrated the defeat of the Egyptian army by floodwaters at the Sea of Reeds (The Great Bitter Lake, on the edge of the Sinai Peninsula). Interestingly, the Torah introduces the Song with the words “Az yashir Moshe uv’nei Yisrael”-“Then Moshe and the Children of Israel *will sing*”. The Song at the Sea was merely the first of many songs that our People have sung, and will continue to sing into the future. May our voices always be lifted in song to the God who delivered our refugee ancestors, and who continues to support us and all other refugees today. Shabbat Shalom.
Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe
HOLD THE DATES: Special events at Beth El.
On Friday February 24 February, Jay Rubin, former CEO of Shalom Austin and avid historian and his wonderful wife Ms. Carol will come to Beth El! Jay will give our Dvar Torah and celebrate Scout Shabbat with us.
In March we will welcome Rabbi-Cantor Marie Betcher, who among other things is a Police Chaplain, ordained Rabbi and Cantor, as well as a former Opera Singer.
Also coming up in the Spring, Ami Pedhazur, UT Professor in Israel and Diaspora Studies will give a guest talk at Beth El on the 50th Anniversary of the Six Day War. Date to be confirmed.
Join us for Scout Shabbat, Friday February 24 at 6:30 PM. Show your support for Jewish scouts in Austin, including several girls in our own shul! Jay and Carol Rubin will also be our special guests as we celebrate shabbat with our wonderful Scouts.
SISTERHOOD PERSONAL ORGANIZATION CLASS COMING ON MARCH 4 at 12:30 PM – Please join us as Jennifer Lava,
Professional Organizer & Productivity Consultant and volunteer with the Austin Jewish Business Network comes and helps us GET ORGANIZED.
Happy February birthdays to Shiry Turjeman, Rachael and Arie Stavchansky, Barry Mann, Gregg Philipson, Sara Koeller, Marina Garfield, Carol Rubin, Mirit Solomon-Shimony, Tamar Zohar and Elaine Jacobs. Please shoot us an email if we don’t have your birthday and it’s this month!
Check out the Friday night tunes on our website:
http://bethelaustin.wpengine.com/education-2/kabbalat-shabbat-songs/
http://bethelaustin.wpengine.com
And please donate generously to your shul! A Jewel in the Austin Jewish Community.
www.bethelaustin.org/donate
Community News:
FAMILY FUN DAY AT THE ECP:
Spend an exiciting morning with our community to enjoy many interactive games, rides and activities. Money will be raised through wristband sales and sponsorships. . #ECPFun17
Austin Jewish Business Network:
On Tues, February 21st, 2017 “Starting a Nonprofit Business in Austin”, Joshua Levy.
To RSVP and for complete details of all AJBN Meetings and Events go to: http://www.meetup.com/Austin-Jewish-Business-Network/
Rabbi Peter Tarlow’s weekly Parashah – from the Center for Jewish Hispanic relations:
The parashah for this week is: “B’Shlach”. You will find it in The Book of Exodus 13:17-17:16. This parashah covers a great many historical events. It take the reader, from our leaving Egypt and Pharaoh’s regrets through the Red Sea’s parting, the giving of manna, the people’s first “revolt” against Moses’ leadership and ends with the beginning of the eternal wars with/against Amalek.
The section is ripe with ethical questions many of whose answers still allude us. For example, the sensitive reader is bound to ask such questions as: Was the parting of the sea a necessity or an unfortunate ambush? Were the people ungrateful and is ingratitude a normal part of political life? Should we expect people to thank us for what we do, or do we do for others simply because such actions are the right thing to do?
Despite the moral uncertainties within this week’s parashah, there seem to be a several unifying sub-themes. One of these sub-themes may be that timing has a major role in how we live our lives. Just as Ecclesiastes would note many centuries later, when we chose to do something may be as important as what we do. Thus, in this week’s section we note that there is a time for crying out and a time for action; that G’d can make suggestions to us, but in the end only we can do for ourselves.
We note this emphasis on timing in Chapter 14 of Exodus where G’d in frustration says to Moses at the shores of the Red Sea: “Ma tizak Elay; daber el bnei-Yisrael vYisa-u!/Why are you still crying out to me?
Almost like a frustrated parent whose children are adapt at procrastination G’d chastises Moses stating: Address the nation (people of Israel) and get going (across the sea)!” (14:15). The text all too plainly is telling us that at some point the talking has to cease and the action has to begin, that we can mull over an issue for ever, and in the end, what counts is not what we say but rather what we do. This principle is true both in our personal lives and in our national political life. How often are we experts in making excuses for simply not beginning? How many of us, and our politicians, seem to know how rationalize a lack of action?
How many of us need G’d to remind us, to stop talking and do more? How often are we so caught up in our non-stop analyzing of situations that we end up doing nothing? In this week’s parashah G’d teaches us that at some point all of us have to put our foot into the sea, and begin to cross it.
B’Shalach reminds us that the person of faith is a person of action, while the person without faith often fails to translate his/her thoughts into actions. This week’s parashah then may be as much a challenge as a history, reminding us that all of the knowledge in the world is worthless if it does not lead to actions. What do you think?