Fall Fun at Beth El Religious school

 

The students in Morah Michelle’s class making their own Torah Mobile, proudly used by all the students at services throughout the year.

Morah Sharon’s Kita Aleph enjoying the warm fall weather to hold an outdoor Aleph Beth hopscotch game which they created with their teacher.  Students at Beth El often use the outdoors to enhance their learning.

 

 Students in Kita Aleph proudly showing their completed Challah covers.

Exciting classes to ring in 2014!

Congregants and Friends,
We hope to see you all for services this weekend.   Friday night, December 27 services will be at 7pm and Saturday morning, December 28th services start at 9am, with the Torah service at approximately 9:45.

Numerous studies have shown that learning a new skill or information increases your brain mass and functioning; in 2014 we have just the thing to help.  A host of classes listed below will help us get 2014 off on the right course.  Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2014.

Enhance Your Davening
Interested in sharpening your synagogue skills and learning more about the service?  Gabbai Bam Rubenstein will be teaching an ongoing Enhance Your Davening class on second Wednesdays of the month at 7:00 pm at Congregation Beth El.  Wednesday, January 8 at 7:00 pm This class will cover Shucheling, mumbling, clapping and bowing, why we do these things and their history. Wanting to share his knowledge and help inform and educate the community, Bam Rubenstein is a lively speaker whose classes are sure to be educational and entertaining.  Bam, a native of New York, grew up in Queens, graduated from Hebrew High School at Forest Hills Jewish Center, and attended both extension courses and Torah Leadership Seminars at Yeshiva University.  Bam will share his knowledge and education in this ongoing series, which was originally termed Davening for Dummies, but was renamed to indicate that the class is open to all regardless of your level of knowledge. 

Torah Trope Tuesdays – 7:00 PM Want to learn Torah Trope?  Join us Tuesday nights starting January 7th for an ongoing class in Trope from Bob Halperin.  An experienced and skilled reader, Bob Halperin learned Torah trope from Cantor Jacob Mendelson and also learned how to daven the Amud from Saul Wachs.  One of the most exciting things that you can do in Synagogue is be a leader – lead services, or chant from the Torah or Haftarah portions.This will be an ongoing class every Tuesday night at 7:00 and will continue for a few months.   If you’ve not yet learned to chant Torah, here is your opportunity. It is an amazing skill to learn.

Crypto Judaism Lecture – January 11 at 6:30 pm
Rabbi Peter Tarlow of A&M Hillel will continue his ongoing series of lectures on Crypto Judaism, Saturday night January 11, at Congregation Beth El. Rabbi Peter Tarlow is currently the Director for the Center of Hispanic-Jewish Relations at Texas A&M Hillel.  An interesting and knowledgeable speaker, Rabbi Tarlow will discuss Jews who were forced to convert on the Iberian Peninsula in the late 15th and then 16th centuries.  The lecture will be given in both English and Spanish.

January 19th – Sisterhood get together at the home of Juliette Meinstein.  More details to follow.

Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly message:
Our parshah this week, Va’era, details the beginning of the Ten Plagues, which eventually led to the Exodus.  Interestingly, the first three plagues were set off not by Moses, but by his brother Aaron.  The Midrash tells us that Moses couldn’t turn the Nile into blood or bring frogs out of it, because the Nile had saved his life as a baby, when he floated on its waters as a baby.  Similarly, Moses wasn’t allowed to turn the dirt of Egypt into lice, since the Land of Egypt had sustained him in his youth in Pharaoh’s palace.  Once again, our Tradition teaches us the importance of gratitude, even to inanimate objects.  Shabbat Shalom.

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Friday night at Beth El – The power of gratitude

Congregants and Friends,
Please join us for services Friday night, December 20 at 7pm for an inspiring kabbalat Shabbat service.
Our next Saturday morning services are on December 28.  Please see www.bethelaustin.org for our schedule.

Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly message:
This week we begin the reading of Sefer Sh’mot, the Book of Exodus. We are told that there was a new king of Egypt “who did not know Joseph”.  Of course, this meant that there was a new dynasty, which chose not to recognize what had been done by their predecessors.  Our Sages teach that in this case Pharaoh was guilty of the sin of ingratitude-refusing to acknowledge how Joseph had saved Egypt from famine.  As Jews, we are commanded to show gratitude, even to the Egyptians who enslaved us, because we found refuge in their land during the time of Joseph.  This is why the Torah tells us not to hate Egyptians, “…for you were a stranger in his land”.  May we all be mindful of the debt of gratitude which we owe to all who have helped us and guided us in our lives.  Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi Tarlow of Texas A&M Center for Jewish-Hispanic Relation weekly Parasha:

This week we begin our yearly reading of the second book of the Bible, Sefer Shmot, or as it is known in English the Book of Exodus.  There are great parallels between Genesis and Exodus.  Each one deals with a creation story.  Genesis deals with the creation of the world and a new philosophy or way of life. Exodus also tells a creation story, that of the people of Israel. Each deals with issues of good and evil, degradation and dignity. In Hebrew the book is called “Shmot” meaning “Reputations” or “Names” while in translation it is called Exodus.
Perhaps the difference between the Hebrew text and foreign translations is more than a mere differentiation in words, but rather it represents a difference in philosophy.  Calling the book “Exodus” puts the emphasis on our fleeing Egyptian slavery, and calling the book, Shmot (names) changes to context from our flight from slavery to our fight for human dignity.
In the Bible, names are important.  In Genesis Adam shows domination over the animals and partnership with G’d by giving them names.   In slavery who demonstrates domination by having the right to give his/her slave a name.  Names indicate where and to whom we belong.  Without a name or reputation we have no history. History is the story of our shmot/our names and collective reputations and implies freedom of choice and the ability to make decisions. Thus, Joseph, in the latter parts of the book of Genesis freely gives up his Hebrew name and history for an Egyptian name.  Might that have been part of the reason that Jacob came to understand that Joseph was not capable of being the next leader of Israel and passes the mantel of leadership to his son, Judah?
Although our parents give us names we create the meaning of our shemot (names and reputation) by the way we act. In Genesis we were a free people and our names reflected the personalities of our leaders.  In Exodus, on the other hand, we are treated as less than human and become a mass without names.  In the Bible’s second book we then travel to freedom and gain the right to name ourselves, to take life into our own hands, and to shape our own destiny.
This journey to freedom is not without perils. Our national travels in this book (and those that follow it) are not always easy.  Often we get scared, seek the easy way out, or want to return. Nevertheless, despite the our failings we were blessed with a leader of vision, Moses.  Moses never loses hope, never really loses faith and seems to know that while history may repeat itself, human beings cannot progress if they do not dare to plunge into history and transform the challenges of the past into the opportunities of tomorrow.  Exodus is a book of vision; it is a book about life and inspiration and reminds us that each of us is on a personal journey in which we make a name for ourselves in the vastness of time.  What type of name are you making for yourself?

Parashat Vayehi, Weekend services Friday and Saturday

Congregants and Friends,
Wondering what to do on Friday the 13th?  Come to Beth El tonight, December 13 at 7pm.
Also, Shabbat morning services will be tomorrow morning, December 14.  We start at 9 am with the Torah service around 10am.  Again, we look forward to seeing you all.  We would like to thank Bob Halperin in advance for making a very special and delicious cholent, using an old Hungarian recipe from Israel.  If you haven’t been to services for a while, stop on by and get your spiritual boost.

Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly message: On Shabbat and Festival eves, parents traditionally bless their sons with words from this week’s parshah, Vayehi-“May God make you like Ephraim and Menashe”.  This is taken from the patriarch Ya’akov’s blessing of his grandsons, the sons of Yoseph, predicting that one day all sons in the People of Israel would be blessed in their names.  The Sages tell us that Ephraim and Menashe merited this honor, as well as the honor of having tribes named after them, because they were the first brothers in the Torah between whom there was no contention over inheritance. May we indeed all be blessed like these two brothers-may there be no contention or enmity between us, and none among all the House of Israel.  Shabbat Shalom.

Rabbi Tarlow’s Weekly Parashah is brought to you by: The Center of Hispanic-Jewish Relations at Texas A&M Hillel

This week, we bring our reading of the book of Genesis to its conclusion.  Parashat Vayechi  (Genesis 47:28 – 50:24 /and meaning: “and he lived/will live”) acts as a summary of the Joseph stories.  In these final tales we learn that Jacob comes to realize that Israel’s fate would not rest in Joseph’s hands but in Judah’s. These final chapters also serve as a summary of the entire book.
This week’s parashah deals with Jacob’s death and Jacob’s refusal to name Joseph as the head of the clan. The political message is carried through Jacob’s final blessings of his (Jacob’s) sons and and grandson’s (Joseph’s sons). We read about the mourning period for Jacob, the reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers, and finally we read about Joseph’s death with the words “Vayachantu oto vayesem ba’aron b’Mitzrayim/they embalmed him (Joseph) and placed him in a coffin in Egypt,”  
This pharse raises a number of questions:  Is it important because it hints at the true character of Joseph?   Does it show the reader that Joseph lived more as an Egyptian than as an Israelite?  Is the word “b’Mitzrayim” a mere question of geography or an indication that Jacob knew that Joseph had been lost to Israel (or in reality was never part of Israel)?  Was it always Joseph’s intention to live as an Egyptian?  Does this phrase a foreshadow the cultural battles that Israel would have in order to maintain its culture in a strange land;  a place where it would reside for another four centuries?
Genesis ends as it began with more questions than answers, more doubts than certainties, and with wanderings of the mind and body.  From Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden through our patriarchs’ and matriarchs’ journeys, to an assimilated Joseph who would die in a foreign land and  seems to have striven to be more Egyptian than Israelite, the theme of seeking wisdom to find oneself and to find order in a chaotic world remains a constant leitmotif.  This, the first book of Hebrew Scripture teaches us that all actions (or non actions) provoke reactions; that there are desired or not desired consequences to our actions.  Is Genesis warning us about seeking chance without a plan?
 In Genesis to be alive is not to be to be comfortable.  Rather this book teaches us that to live is to struggle and grow.  Genesis is a realistic book, it does not deny death nor does it portray any of its characters as models of perfection or as gods.  The characters in Genesis are human.  We see that they are flawed, fail and begin again.  These were people who had flaws and learned to overcome these flaws or suffer the consequences.
Genesis argues that creation and creativity come from the depths of “tohu va’vohu” (total chaos): both within us and within the physical world.  The book suggests that one way to understand the force that is G’d is by understanding G’d to be “the reverse of entropy.”  Genesis hypothesizes that G’d is the force in the universe that makes sense of a world designed in a stochastic fashion.  In a like manner, we who are created in the Divine image (shadow) must find a way to bring order to the chaos in our lives; to our own private universes.
This book then is a realistic book open to a myriad of interpretations.  Is it teaching us that to live creatively we must first realize that we will never have everything?  Is this book’s message that we are but fragmented streams of creativity flowing into oceans of eternity?  Would do you think?

Community News:   The Austin Jewish Business Network (AJBN) is hosting a Winter Happy Hour next Tuesday at Blackfinn Ameripub in the Domain. Attached is a link to the Meetup Group as well as a Press Release with all the details.http://www.meetup.com/Austin-Jewish-Business-Network/
Austin Chapter of Hadassah
Installation of Board Officers for 2014-  Join us at the home of Paz Goldberg on Sunday, December 15 at 10:00 a.m. as we install our future leaders for the upcoming year.  Contact Rachel O’brien for rsvp and directions: rkr888_2000@yahoo.com / 512.775.8585 Please join us–Friday Brunch Bunch meets the 3rd Friday of each month.   Time:  10:00 am – 12 noon