Betsy will be leading a service for 6-12 year old students on the First Day of Rosh Hashanah (Thursday) at approximately 11 AM. We will pray, read the Torah readings in English, discuss the prayers, and hear the shofar blown.
We’re using the Tiku Shofar Machzor, kindly loaned to us from Congregation Agudas Achim.
Dear congregants and friends,
Please note that Beth El is participating in a special September 11th commemoration at the JCAA this Sunday morning starting at 9:30 am at the Flagpoles at the Dell Campus. We hope you will join us and the Austin Jewish community.
Friday night, September 9th, we will hold our regular Friday night services at 7pm. Again, we welcome you all.
Finally, pease join us next Wednesday, September 14 at 7pm for our High Holiday primer class held at Beth El. Come with all your high holiday questions or just to learn in this informal class led by Cantor Ben-Moshe.
Cantor Ben-Moshe’s message: 
This week’s parashah is Ki Tetze, an eclectic collection of laws, ranging from building codes (houses need parapets around the roofs to prevent people from falling) to laws pertaining to the ethical treatment of debtors and of day laborers. The concluding ‘aliyah, the maftir, is a bit puzzling, though. This is the maftir of Zachor, remember. Remember what ‘Amalek did to us. The puzzling thing is the end of the maftir. After God has delivered us from all of our enemies, then we are to destroy the memory of ‘Amalek. Why would we need to destroy the memory of ‘Amalek? Presumably, the ‘Amalekites are one of the enemies that would have already been destroyed! The answer, I think, is that the “memory of ‘Amalek” is a spiritual concept. We need to destroy the spirit of ‘Amalek, the spirit of hatred and violence that exists in all of us. We cannot be fully redeemed until that evil spirit is gone from us. So too, we cannot fully enter the spirit of the High Holidays with hatred and violence in our hearts. May we indeed destroy the “memory of ‘Amalek” in ourselves and our society.
Shabbat Shalom.
Cantor Yitzhak Ben-Moshe
This week we read the Parsha Shoftim, which contains one of the most famous phrases in all of Torah, the sentence that tells us pursue justice. This is such an important commandment that the word justice (tzedek צֶדֶק) is repeated twice. Justice, JUSTICE shall you pursue. –Betsy
Rabbi Ben Greenberg explains the importance of this repetition:
There is another way to read this phrase though and that is the interpretation of Ibn Ezra. He reads the double usage of the word tzedek to emphasize the importance of pursuing righteousness. No matter whether the righteousness “benefits you or harms you”. The work of justice is not meant to be a money making scheme or a path to getting rich quickly. On the contrary, it could harm chances for moving up the employment ladder, could distance a person from others and could seriously harm a person’s chance for material success. If, on the other hand, it does contribute to the financial success of a person that is fine and not to be looked down upon but that is not the goal of working towards justice.
From Cantor Ben Moshe:
“One thing have I asked of the Lord, this I request-to dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life….”. We are now in the month of Elul, approaching the Days of Awe, and we read these words from Psalm 27 morning and evening. At this time of year, we become more aware that we do live in the Presence of the Holy One, and that we should conduct ourselves accordingly. The shofar sounds in the morning, reminding us to wake up and take heed of our actions.
May this month of Elul be truly a time of heshbon nefesh, accounting of the soul, for us and for the entire House of Israel.
Shabbat Shalom.