Simchat Torah celebration Monday night!

Friday Night Shabbat Services, Tonight 10/2, at 7 PM. We hope to see you!

Monday night, October 5th at 7:30 PM please join us for a SIMCHAT TORAH celebration at Beth El. We will be taking all three Torah scrolls out and truly rejoicing in this special holiday. Immediately following, we will have deserts and coffee.

Cantor Ben Moshe’s Message
Shabbat Hol Hamo’ed Sukkoth, the Intermediate Shabbat of Sukkoth, is traditionally the time for reading Megillath Koheleth, the Book of Ecclesiastes. Traditionally attributed to King Solomon, this is an introspective work which fits the end of the Holiday Season and the approach of winter. The writer examines many ways of living, and concludes that all are ultimately futile, in the sense that none lead to lasting glory-but that living life simply but well is its own reward. As we continue to take our meals and perhaps sleep in the sukkah, we are reminded that life, like the sukkah itself, is temporary-therefore we need to enjoy it and live well while we can. Shabbat Shalom u’Mo’adim L’simhah.
Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe

Please come and hear local children’s author Jan Hart, author of Hanna the Immigrant, who will come this Sunday October 4th dressed in costume and tell us all about her great grandmother, Hanna. She will speak from 10:00 – to 10:30 and the event is free and open to everyone.
Immediately following Jan’s talk, the conversion class with Cantor Ben-Moshe will meet in the sanctuary.

JOIN Team “BETH EL BANDITS” for the Turkey Trot this year.
On Thanksgiving day, November 26, Beth El will be entering its own team of runners, merry makers and cheerers. Please let us know if you would like to enter the Turkey Trot with us. It promises to be a lot of fun.
info@bethelaustin.org to save your spot on the team.

SAVE THE DATE: Sunday November 15th, join Beth El in a special evening honoring our very own Chazzan, Cantor Ben-Moshe. More details to follow, but mark it in your calendars.

WE NEED A FEW MORE GOOD VOLUNTEERS for the silent auction committee. Please contact us at info@bethelaustin.org

Rabbi Peter Tarlow’s weekly Parasha:
Just five days after the solemnity of Yom Kippur we turn to the third and fourth of our autumn holidays. This year, starting on September 27th we began our celebration of Sukkot. Perhaps we can understand Sukkot best by comparing it to its American young sister (holiday) of Thanksgiving, Both Sukkoth and Thanksgiving emphasize a sense of thankfulness to G’d. Each has an underlying message: that we live due to G’d’s grace and only for the number of days that G’d has given each of us. There are however differences between the two festivals. In America, unfortunately, Thanksgiving has become a holiday of gluttony. Too many of us have transformed the holiday into solely a time of eating and drinking, a time and when the most spiritual thing we do is watch a football game. Indeed the message seems now to be: “enjoy it now” before the winter’s solitude sets in. Sukkot on the other hand places its emphasis not on the harvest but on G’d’s will. Sukkot is not a time to look back at our accomplishments, but rather a time to realize that our lives are highly precarious, and that we dare not waste a precious minute of G’d’s gift of life. Sukkot does not so much celebrate the present as demand that we remember our past and future. The simple sukkah (booth) that we construct teaches us that our future is connected to our past and that what we do today will impact our tomorrow. The joy of Sukkot soon merges with the last of the autumn holidays the joint holidays of Shmini-Azeret/Simchat Torah. These days remind us that everything has an end and a beginning; that when one door closes another is soon to be open. They teach us not to mourn the past but rather to create new futures. These last days of Sukkot-Simchat Torah parallel life. Life is composed of multiple endings followed by new beginnings. To live successfully is to know when to exit and when to enter. It is the ability to conclude that is as important as the ability to begin. Simchat Torah teaches us much about the gift of endings. To end at the wrong time is a tragedy. Never to end is perhaps the greatest tragedy of all. To end at the proper time is not a tragedy but a blessing.These holidays remind us that without endings there would be no new beginnings. Without endings there is neither hope nor a sense of future: only the mindlessness of an eternal and never changing infantile present tense.As we bring the holiday season to its conclusion we begin our yearly reading of the Torah and with it the hope of renewal and new insights, let us pray that in 5776 we see in our holy texts new insights and that we become “new” people. The gift of endings then merges with the challenge of new beginnings and the blessing of renewal.

Community News:

October 11th –Parents and Special Education – You Are Not In This Alone Join the Parents of Children with Special Needs Discussion Group for our first meeting of the New Year! Bring your questions related to special education as we will have the opportunity to dialogue with two special guests:
Rona Statman and a representative from Texas Parent to Parent, a nonprofit organization that empowers families to be strong advocates through parent-to-parent support, resource referral, and education. Date: Sunday, October 11th 9:30-11 AM Jewish Community Center, Federation Trailer Questions – Please contact Mike Hurewitz, LCSW at (512) 415-3243, mike.hurewitz@shalomaustin.org