Congregants and Friends,

What an exciting weekend at Beth El.  Tonight we will have our regular Friday night services at 7 pm.

Tomorrow morning, starting at 9 am, we will have shabbat morning services and the baby naming of our newest twin congregants. We hope you can all join us for this special happy occasion.  Mazal tov to grandparents, parents, and the extendend family.  Welcome girls!

Also, please participate in the collection of toiletries for Caritas of Austin – the box is by the door and would love to be filled with shampoos, conditioners and soap for the less fortunate in our community.

Message from Cantor  Ben – Moshe

This week we read Parshat K’doshim, the Holiness Code of the Torah.  This parshah contains, as we might expect, rules about rituals, purity and impurity, and the like.  Interestingly though, the first elements of holiness in the parshah have to do with helping the poorest and weakest members of society.  Whether it is providing for the poor, protecting the disabled, or making sure that justice is available to the powerless, it is clear that holiness begins with social justice.  Indeed, that is the message of Passover-that God looks out for the most oppressed of society.  May we strive to fulfill the vision of holiness of our Holy Torah.  Shabbat Shalom.

On this, the Intermediate Shabbat of Pesah, it is customary to read Shir Hashirim, the Song of Songs.  The obvious link is the description in the Song of the season of spring.  However, there is a deeper connection to Pesah.  The time immediately following the Exodus was the honeymoon period for God and the People of Israel.  The prophet Jeremiah speaks of the Exodus and the period of wandering in the desert as “the love of your newlywed status”.  How appropriate then to read the sublime love poetry of the Song of Songs on this Shabbat.  May it be a sweet and lovely Day of Rest for us all.

Cantor Yitzhak Ben-Moshe