Parashat Vayyehi

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VisionPlease join us for the end of the secular year Friday night services at 7:00 P.M. tonight, Friday December 29.

Cantor Ben-Moshe’s weekly message: Yitzhak Ben-Moshe

Sefer B’reshith, the Book of Genesis, closes this Shabbat with Parshat Vayyehi. In our parshah, Ya’akov/Yisrael senses his approaching death and blesses his children beforehand. His blessings are prophetic-he predicts the future of the Tribes of Israel. The Sages used to say “The deeds of our ancestors are a sign and an omen for their descendants”. The stories of the Bible often presage the vicissitudes of Jewish history. We are very much influenced by our past, even as we move forward to our future-but we should not be so tied to what has been that we cannot adapt to what will be. May we always be able to find that proper balance, in the new secular year to come and beyond. Shabbat Shalom.

Candle lighting in Austin is at 5:22 p.m.

****** Sisterhood get together and book club event is scheduled for Thursday January 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the home of Anita Lavie – close to Beth El. Please let us know if you need a ride and we will happily find you one. We don’t want you to miss! RSVP to Shereen Russo Canady info@bethelaustin.org

******* 2018 Beth El Planning Meeting

Sunday January 7 at 10:30 a.m. at Beth El

Please plan to attend and help us vision for an excellent 2018! Open to all members of Beth El – please come!
We’ll have yummy bagels and coffee!

******** Beth El Men’s Club Event:

Wednesday January 10 UT Men’s Basketball game – UT vs TCU. Game at 8 p.m. RSVP to info@bethelaustin.org Open to all in the Jewish community. Car pool from Beth El at 7 p.m.

Community News: From The Austin Jewish Academy. Robyn Lindenberg

Join us on the evening of January 10 to hear from Head of School Cheryl Hersh and chat with parents just like you who have chosen Austin Jewish Academy for their children. Hosted by AJA parents Allison and Bryan Caplovitz at their home.

RSVP today and find out how an AJA education can enrich yours and your children’s lives!

Parashat Vayiggash – Shabbat services

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latke makersPlease note that we have our lovely Friday night services at 7:00 P.M. tonight, Friday December 22

Shabbat morning services this Saturday December 23 at 9 a.m. with the Torah service at 9:45 a.m. Children’s story time at 10:30 as well as a delicious lunch courtesy of the shabbat shefs at noon. See you there!

Cantor Ben-Moshe’s weekly message:
This week we read in Parshat Vayiggash about the reunion of Yoseph and his family, and of Ya’akov’s migration to Egypt. One can only imagine how our ancestors felt as they came from the provincial backwater of Canaan to Egypt, the most advanced civilization of the ancient world. For all of them, Yoseph included, the temptation must have been great to abandon their own language and culture and to assimilate into Egyptian society. Of course, they did not, but rather maintained their identity. The Sages teach that it was the preservation of their identity which made them worthy of redemption. As we conclude Hanukkah, the celebration of our People’s refusal to assimilate into the advanced Hellenic culture of 2000 years ago, let us resolve to remain Jews as our ancestors did, and to let our culture and our spiritual teachings enrich the world. Shabbat Shalom.

Candle lighting in Austin is at 5:18 p.m.

Photos of the lovely Hanukkah party at Beth El. Thank you to the tireless latkes makers, Caleb, Dani, Herschel and Doris, Yosef and Kevin; hotdog griller extraordinaire Nathan; Guy the awesome sufganiot maker; and all who helped in so many ways, big and small! The music by Mark, Michel and Guy Ben-Moshe of Los Klezmeros was amazing and we had such a lovely and meaningful evening. See you next year!

Sisterhood get together and book club event is scheduled for January 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the home of Anita Lavie – close to Beth El. Please let us know if you need a ride and we will happily find you one. We don’t want you to miss!

2018 Beth El Planning Meeting –
Sunday January 7 at 7 p.m. at Beth El
Please plan to attend and help us vision for an excellent 2018! Open to all members of Beth El – please come!

Beth El Men’s Club Event:
Wednesday January 10 UT Men’s Basketball game – UT vs TCU. Game at 8 p.m. RSVP to info@bethelaustin.org Open to all in the Jewish community.

Parashat Hashavua from Rabbi Peter Tarlow Rabbi Emeritus of Texas A&M and Director of the Center for Jewish Hispanic Relations.
This week’s parashah is called “VaYigash”. You will find VaYigash, toward the end of the Book of Genesis in chapters 44:18-47:27.
This section deals with the great climax of the Joseph stories, that of Joseph’s revealing himself to his brothers and the reunification between Joseph and his father, Jacob. The text is layered with meanings and filled with questions. One could write whole books just about this week’s parashah.

The text informs us that after Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, he sends them back to Canaan to bring Jacob to him. In chapter 45:24 we read “Vayishlach et achiv vyelchu, vayamru alehem “al tirgzu baderech!” It is hard to hear the tones or cadences of the Hebrew in a foreign tongue, but the verse might be translated as: “So he sent his brothers back to Canaan saying to them: ‘behave now, do not get into any arguments along the way.'”

This statement raised multiple questions. For example, why did it take Joseph so long to tell his father that he was alive? Surely he knew that his father, believing that his favorite son was dead had to be suffering. In a like manner, there is a certain irony in the fact that the younger brother is now speaking to his older brothers as if they were children, telling them not to fight. For the most part the brothers got along well with each other; it was Joseph with whom they had a problem!

Was Joseph playing the role of a petulant parent toward his older brothers or was this statement a giant put down? Perhaps Joseph was being a psychologist realizing that siblings often do quarrel. Often we become angry at those whom we love the most. Joseph seems to be warning his brothers to remember their task is to save their father from the grips of a famine and not to r-g-z (get angry, blow up, lose one’s temper).

Perhaps the text is teaching us that we need to remember the purpose of our tasks. Is the text reminding us that we should not get distracted by side issues nor should we allow petty grievances to blind us to our ultimate goals? As such, this part of the Joseph story has a great deal to teach all of us including the world’s leaders. How would you interpret this tale?

Happy Hanukkah!

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Hanukkah 2017 1Please note that we have our lovely Friday night services at 7:00 P.M.

Sunday school for the BERS this Sunday at 10 A.M.

HANUKKAH PARTY: THIS Sunday December 17 at 5 p.m. The Hanukkah Party of the year. Klezmer music with Los Klezmeros, Latkes (traditional and our famous hippy latkes), hot dog dinner, Israeli sufganiot and fun activities for the children! Bring a menorah and candles so we can light the candles together. Please don’t miss. Consider a tax deductible donation in any amount to help sponsor this event! www.bethelaustin.org/donate

Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly Message:

This week, during the week of Hanukkah, we read Parshat Mikketz, which picks up the cliffhanger from last week. Yoseph is taken out of the dungeon, and based on his skills at dream interpretation as well as organization, becomes Prime Minister of the Egyptian empire. He comes from darkness into light-just as the year starts to turn, and sundown starts to come later again. Similarly, we celebrate Hanukkah, when our ancestors came out of the darkness of conquest and forced assimilation into the light of freedom. May we always go from darkness into light, at this season and at all times. Shabbat Shalom, and Hag Urim Sameah, a Joyous Festival of Lights

Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe

Candle lighting in Austin is at 5:14 p.m. Remember to light your Hanukkah candles before lighting the shabbat candles.

See You Sunday at 5 p.m. for our lovely Hanukkah Party. Please bring your family and friends. There will be something for everyone. Activities, Klezmer music, kosher hotdog dinner, homemade latkes and sufganiot and lots of warmth and light. Bring your menorah and candles.

Sandy Kress Weekly Blog

What Makes for the Miracle in the Lights?

It’s a treat to be able to read the special portion of the Prophets that fits with the Sabbath in the week of Chanukah. Together with the Bible portion, these verses give us deep insights into the meaning and purpose of this special time of the year.
In the book of Zechariah, the people are beginning to experience the Second Temple, and they feel that God’s presence seems somewhat diminished from that of the First Temple, before the exile. The prophet assures them that, as before, God will “dwell in your midst.”
Some sages say the Heavenly Presence was manifested here in the menorah, which burned miraculously and would bring joy to the people.
Others look to the text itself where there is mention of a menorah with “seven lamps upon it, with “seven ducts for each of the lamps” and “two olive trees over it.” They see a miraculous burning here of the lamps in the Temple, corresponding to the last seven days of Chanukah.
Here’s what I find most meaningful. An angel asks the prophet what’s significant in the sight of the menorah, perhaps in the miracle of the lights. The prophet doesn’t know. The angel teaches that it is “not through army and not through strength, but through My spirit” that we have the blessing of God’s presence and the grace we feel and express in its midst.
As we comb this week’s verses in Genesis, we see evidence of God’s spirit manifested in such a way. To start, Joseph’s remarkable interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams leads to much saving in the world.
But I think it comes even more so in the poignant moments in which Judah assures and comforts his pained father when he seeks the elder’s approval of their bringing Benjamin back with them to Egypt. Joseph has demanded this as a test of whether they are capable of compassion and righteousness after the injustice they inflicted upon him and their father so many years earlier.
Judah now shows love for their father and takes personal responsibility for the boy’s welfare. “Send the lad with me,” he says, “and we will get up and go, and we will live and not die, both we and you and also our young children.” Judah continues: “I will guarantee him; from my hand you can demand him.”
This is a vastly different person than the one who let a brother slip into slavery and then deceive a father. This is a son who shows compassion and love to a father. This is a brother who remembers and begins to atone for a wrong to a brother. This is a human being who understands and practices righteousness in his world.
In essence, it is in the hurly burly of life where God’s spirit is most made manifest. It’s not principally through armies, nor physical strength. Rather, it’s in a changed heart that leads to lovingkindness and righteousness where we can best see the powerful miracle of God’s enduring light.

https://sandykress.wordpress.com/

Sisterhood get together and book club event is scheduled for January 4 at 7 p.m. at the home of Anita Lavie – close to Beth El. Please let us know if you need a ride and we will happily find you one. We don’t want you to miss!

Parashat Vayyeshev

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AIPAC 1Please note that we have our lovely Friday night services at 7:00 P.M.

Shabbat morning services this Saturday December 9th at 9 AM. We will have the Torah service at around 9:45 A.M., children’s services with the wonderful Morah Shereen and a lovely kidush lunch immediately following services. Anita’s hearty soup, bagels, lox and cream cheese as well as salads are on the menu and we would love to have you join us!

Sunday school for the BERS this Sunday at 10 A.M. Special guest Ms. Carol will sing Hanukkah songs with the children and guest artist Coco de Ordonez-Barros will create Hanukkah art work with our children. Chai Mitzvah Teens will meet at 11:30 and go to the Bob Bullock Museum.

HOLD THE DATE : ONLY ONE WEEK AWAY Sunday December 17 at 5 pm The Hanukkah Party of the year. Klezmer music with Los Klezmeros, Latkes (traditional and our famous hippy latkes), hot dog dinner, Israeli sufganiot and fun activities for the children! Bring a menorah and candles so we can light the candles together. Please don’t miss. Consider a tax deductible donation in any amount to help sponsor this event! www.bethelaustin.org/donate

Please come to Eli Levin’s Bar Mitzvah December 14!
Arthur and Rinat Levin are delighted to inform you of a special service to celebrate Eli Levin’s Bar Mitzvah. It will take place on Thursday morning, December 14 at 8:00 am at Beth El, 8902 Mesa Drive. Please join us for prayer, to be followed by brunch and menorah lighting. We anticipate to finish by 10 A.M. Eli would love to share this special simcha with his congregation.

Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly Message:

This week’s parshah, Vayyeshev, is taken up mostly by the story of Yoseph and his brothers, who sell him into slavery in Egypt because of their jealousy of him. Yoseph is, of course, his father’s favorite-the elder son of his favorite wife, Rahel, who had passed away. Ya’akov’s favoritism was obvious to all, and included the gift of a striped robe, symbolic of clan leadership. Yoseph’s older brothers act perhaps predictably, and plot against him.

It is natural perhaps to prefer some people over others, even our own children at times-one child or another may be closer in spirit to a parent, or remind that parent of someone else. However we may feel, though, as parents or as anyone in any position of authority, we must try not to show that favoritism. Obvious bias creates resentment-and that resentment can turn deadly, as nearly happened to Yoseph. The story ultimately turns out for good, of course, but still offers a cautionary tale to all about the dangers of taking sides where impartiality is called for. Shabbat Shalom.

Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe

Candle lighting in Austin is at 5:13 p.m.

Community News:
THE AMERICAN ISRAEL PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
CORDIALLY INVITES YOU TO THE

AIPAC Austin Annual Event

FEATURING AMBASSADOR RON PROSOR
FORMER ISRAELI PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE TO THE UNITED NATIONS

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2017
HYATT REGENCY – 208 BARTON SPRINGS RD

7:00 PM LIGHT BITES & PROGRAM

To purchase an individual ticket, please visit: www.aipac.org/AustinAnnualEvent

To confirm a previously reserved table or a reservation at a specific table, please contact:
Hayley Rosenberg at 832-380-7710 or hrosenberg@aipac.org

DIETARY LAWS OBSERVED

AMBASSADOR RON PROSOR

FORMER ISRAELI PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE TO THE UNITED NATIONS

Ambassador Ron Prosor Served as Israel’s 16th Permanent Ambassador to the United Nations. Prior to the United Nations, Mr. Prosor served as the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as Israel’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He played an instrumental role in establishing diplomatic relations behind the Iron Curtain following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Amb. Prosor holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and his writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Telegraph, The Guardian, Ha’aretz, and The Jerusalem Post.

FROM RABBI SEPTIMUS OF SHALOM AUSTIN!

I would like to extend a special invitation to you during the Hanukkah season to experience a national touring exhibit that sheds light on the prevalence of hunger in Central Texas. Shalom Austin will be hosting “This is Hunger” project as it visits our community at the Dell Jewish Community Campus on December 9-14.

MAZON’s “This Is Hunger” project is a high-impact, experiential installation on wheels that has been designed to be a powerful community engagement tool. It will tour the nation for 10 months, making stops in and around major cities. When the 53-foot-long double expandable trailer is parked on our campus and open on both sides, it provides almost 1,000 square feet of interior space to take participants on a voyage of awareness and activism: to help them understand the stark reality of hunger in America and to spark their commitment to taking action that will help end hunger once and for all.

Participants enter the truck and are invited to sit at a communal table to virtually “meet” real people struggling with hunger. Portraits are projected at each end of the table as they share their stories in their own voices and in their own words.

Participants are then invited to engage in activities and experiences to deepen their awareness about the complexities of being hungry and about educating the rest of our nation and advocating for change.

To see a schedule of tour times and reserve your free tickets, visit:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/this-is-hunger-tx-shalom-austi…

Rabbi Tarlow of the Center for Jewish Hispanic Relations and
Rabbi Emeritus Texas A&M :

On Tuesday night December 12 we begin the holiday of Chanukah and continue celebrating it until the final candle that will be lit on the night of December 20. Chanukah is a holiday of miracles shrouded in mystery and mistakenly often viewed as a holiday for children. Chanukah is not mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, occurring many years after its canonization. We often classify it as a “minor holiday”. Despite this fact, over the centuries, Chanukah’s stirring political message has won a major role in the Jewish heart.
Chanukah means many things to many people. For some it is the holiday foods, for others it is a time of gift giving, others note that Chanukah is the first war fought expressly on principle (The Jewish people gave the world the two great principles: that of freedom of worship and of freedom of speech.) For others this is a time when the light of freedom pierces the darkness of tyranny. Many modern historians compare the rising up of the ancient Jewish masses against members of the Jewish elite as symbolic of not only the French revolution but also of what is now occurring in much of the modern world.

The fall of tyrants has much to do with the Chanukah festival. This holiday represents a political revolutionary; it is the first recorded attempt to create a world in which human dignity would take precedence over materialism and political tyranny. Chanukah is also the Western world’s first war for religious freedom and has set the stage for popular uprisings ever since.
Chanukah’s history is based on war, but its psychological power comes from the miracle that occurred followed the Macabean liberation of Jerusalem. According to traditions that surround Chanukah, after the liberation, the Temple’s Menorah (national candelabrum) had only enough oil to burn for one day yet somehow the oil lasted the 8 days necessary to produce more oil.
The meaning of Chanukah, however, goes a great deal deeper than that of a mere story. In many ways Chanukah marks the beginning of what we might like to see as the birth of modernity, a world in which each person is free to be who he or she is. Chanukah teaches us that although people may not be the same, we all have the same right to live in peace and freedom.
As we continue to struggle against the darkness of terrorism, prejudice, and injustice we garner hope from the Chanukah’s lights representing truth and human dignity. Let us realize the message of the festival’s most famous song Maoz Tzur/Rock of Ages. “…Yours the message cheering/ that the time is nearing/ which will see/ all men free/ tyrants disappearing.”

May the holiday of Chanukah bring its message of peace and justice to all peoples. May our Christian friends have a beautiful holiday. All of us at the Center for Latino – Jewish relations wish you and yours a season of joy filled with happiness and a sense of spirituality.