Announcements for Passover

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image via http://grade5js.edublogs.org/2008/04/13/mon-thurs-414-1708-9-12-nisan-5768-last-post-before-pesach/

image via http://grade5js.edublogs.org

Dear Congregants and Friends,
We hope you can all join us this Friday night, March 30 at 7pm for our regular Kabbalat shabbat services and Saturday morning, March 31 at 9 am, with the Torah service at 9:45, for our shabbat services.  Also, don’t forget to send your RSVP by replying to this e-mail for the second night seder at Beth El a week from Saturday – April 7 at 6 pm.
Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly message:
This week we read in Parshat Tzav more of the rules of sacrifices-how they were to be offered, and for what reasons. This parshah, as well as most of the Book of Vayikra, Leviticus, are rather hard reading for us, living nearly 2000 years after the last sacrifice was offered in the Temple. What we need to do is to look at the Hebrew word for sacrifice-korban, meaning something that is brought near, or more to the point, something that brings us near to God. Our ancestors offered sacrifices in order to come near to God. How can we do so in our time? That is the central question that is raised by the Book of Leviticus, and a very important question for all Jews at all times.
This Shabbat is also Shabbat HaGadol, the Shabbat before Pesah. The Season of our Liberation is at hand, and we will be discussing the traditions and the meaning of Pesah this Shabbat.  Please join us Friday and Saturday.
Before services on Friday night, a sign-up sheet will be available for anyone to make me their agent for selling hametz to a non-Jew for the duration of the Festival.
Shabbat Shalom.
Cantor Yitzhak Ben-Moshe
8902 Mesa Drive
Austin, TX 78759

Announcements for Shabbat Parah / שבת פרה

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Congregants and Friends,
Please note that we have our regular Friday night services tonight at 7pm and Saturday morning at 9am.  We hope to see you all. 
Also, our dear friend and Beth El founding member and past President, Herb Kadish is leaving Austin to be near family in Chicago.  We will be having a dinner in his honor on Friday March 23 at 6:30 pm and we hope you can join us as we say farewell to Herb.

image via http://bethaderech.com

from the cantor:
This week’s Parshah is the double parshah of Vayak’hel/P’kudei, the conclusion of the Book of Exodus. These parshot detail the building of the Mishkan, the Sanctuary in the desert. This Shabbat is also Shabbat Parah, one of the four special Shabbatot before Passover. The special reading for Shabbat Parah details the sacrifice of the parah adumah, the Red Heifer which was part of the ritual for purification from contact with the dead. Since the main observance of Passover was the sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb, everyone had to be in a state of purity in order to properly celebrate the Festival. This special reading is part of the preparation for Pesah, now less than a month away.
When you come in to Beth El beginning this week, there will be a sheet of paper in the lobby, which you can sign in order to make me your agent to sell hametz for the duration of the Passover holiday. Shabbat Shalom.
Cantor Yitzhak Ben-Moshe
8902 Mesa Drive
Austin, TX 78759

Shalom שָׁלוֹם

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Upcoming Events
Welcome – ברוכים הבאים – Bienvenidos



Congregation Beth El – Austin, TX 2019

We at Congregation Beth El are pleased to invite you and yours to our synagogue. Once here you will have the opportunity of enjoying our warm atmosphere and our congregational sense of caring in a casual atmosphere. Everyone is greeted with a smile and an open hand.

We offer a full range of religious services and spiritual activities. Our Friday night, Kabbalat Shabbat service begins each week at 7:00 p.m. On the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month we offer Shabbat morning services starting at 9:00 am with our Torah reading service around 10:00 am.  See our calendar to the left for all of our services and events.

At Congregation Beth El we live by the dictum to “live is to learn and to learn is to live!” For this reason we offer religious training for our children, bar and bat mitzvah classes for our teenagers and a range of Jewish oriented adult educational programs.

We offer all this and more at one of Austin’s most affordable rates, and no one is ever turned away.

If you have any questions, please send them to info@bethelaustin.org

As we say in Texas, Y’all come visit! You hear?

Parshat Tetzaveh, Purim and Children’s Service

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Dear Congregants and Friends,

Services for the coming week:

  • Friday night, 7pm, Kabbalat Shabbat
  • Saturday, 9am, Shabbat morning service
  • Saturday, 10am, Children’s Shabbat Service
  • Wednesday night 6:30pm – PURIM!  Including appetizer & dessert potluck (dairy or pareve), megilla reading, and a Purim puppet play presented by the religious school students.

From the Cantor:

This Shabbat we have an opportunity to perform an extra mitzvah, in addition to the mitzvot of Shabbat, and that is to “Remember what ‘Amalek did to you on your way out of Egypt”.  The Rabbis decreed that this week’s additional reading, Zachor, is one of the 613 commandments of the Torah-all the more reason to make a special effort to attend services this weekend.  Remembrance is actually one of the key values of our Tradition.  We are commanded to “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy”, and to remember many other things as well.  We remember those who are no longer with us, on the yahrtzheit, the anniversary of their passing.  Remembrance alone is not enough, though.  We must remember certain things so that those memories can inspire us in the present.  Please come this Shabbat at 7PM Friday and 9AM Saturday, as we explore what we are to remember, and why.

Shabbat Shalom.