Mishpatim and Shabbat Across America

Friday Night Shabbat Services, Tonight February 5, at the special time of 6:30 PM. We look forward to seeing you for services and a lovely kosher dinner immediately following. We gratefully thank Phil and Keren Harvey for sponsoring the dinner in honor of their upcoming aliya to Israel. Please join us in this very special evening.

We also want to wish our dear Morah Shiry Turjeman a very happy birthday! *

Candle lighting 5:53 PM. We’ll be lighting them together as a shul, and community!

The next Saturday morning services are February 13.

Shabbat across America!
Friday March 4, also at 6:30 PM we will be having another service and dinner as we celebrate with congregations across the US and Canada in SHABBAT ACROSS AMERICA! This evening will be in honor of our Jewish educators at Beth El.

Cantor Ben Moshe’s Message
This week’s parshah, Mishpatim, begins with the sentence “And these are the laws that you must place before them(the People of Israel)”. The word “and” is noteworthy-it is clear that this parshah is a continuation of last week’s reading, which was Revelation on Mt. Sinai and the Ten “Commandments”, which in Hebrew are called the Ten Utterances. The laws in our parshah are a continuation of Revelation. The Ten Commandments are not the beginning and certainly not the end of Torah. To reinforce the point, the Rabbis deliberately excluded them from our prayer service, so that one would not think that this was the only important part of the Torah, or even the most important. Also, Torah is not carved in stone, like the Two Tablets-it is always a work in progress, adapting and changing as times change and we better discern God’s Will. May we always look to Torah for guidance, with our eyes to the present even as we remember the past. Shabbat Shalom.
Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe

Thank you amazing kidish crew! This week we were joined by Keren, Bev, Doris, Elaine, Yesenia, Michelle, Iris, Mary, Genevieve and Sarah.

BERS, Sunday school class meets this Sunday, February 7, at 10AM. PLEASE check out the article in the Jewish Outlook featuring our lovely little school! Page 82!
http://etypeservices.com/…/jewishoutlook1//Magazine113115/F…

Love to Run? Practice the mitzvah of Shmirat Haguf – taking care of your health and run with Beth El: Did you know that Beth El has an informal running group on most Sunday mornings? All levels can run around Ladybird Lake with the Beth El running group, which leaves from Beth El at 10 AM on Sunday mornings and enjoy a gentle or brisk run around town lake. E-mail info@bethelaustin.org to join.

Rabbi Peter Tarlow’s Weekly Parasha:
This week’s Torah portion is called “Mishpatim” (Justice). You will find it in Exodus 21:1-24:18. Mishpatim provides the legal codes that would form the basis of Israel’s judicial system. It is a long parashah dealing with the ordinances, rules, and regulations needed by a band of slaves if it were to become not merely a nation but a true “light to other nations.” Reading slowly through the parashah we discover that it is extraordinarily rich in the depth of its legal insights and that it covers the gamut of relations between people, between humans with other forms of life, and between humans and G’d. Among its many codes we find: definitions and laws concerning indentured servants (“avadim” in Hebrew), the rules governing capital punishment, laws governing abuse of parents, laws governing personal injury, issues of property damage, prohibitions against sorcery/apostasy, and social laws protecting the disadvantaged such as orphans, foreign nationals, widows, and captives in war.The parashah covers a broad range of legal details. This week’s parashah understands that law is more than mere details. It is also a philosophical approach to life. Throughout the parashah we find philosophical questions such as: “Up to what point are we responsible for our actions, and for the unforeseen or unintended consequences of our actions?” and “Are all citizens to be treated equally before the law?”The text forces the reader to ask hard questions such as: What is the purpose of law? Do laws exist to protect the strong and rich or to protect the weak and poor? Are all people to be treated equally before the law? It is interesting to note that an unbiased researcher of legal systems around the world would be forced to conclude that most laws are implemented in a way that protects the powerful and rich against the downtrodden and weak. Yet the Torah is clear that justice must be equal for all. The great medieval commentator RASHI noted that despite this philosophy of law’s logic few nations truly hold the strong equally liable with the weak. In most nations high government officials are never prosecuted, bribes are a way of life, and although the law may be the same, the law’s implementation is not. We see the philosophical idea of equality before the law in G’d punishment of Moses and the fact that modern Israel is one of the few nation’s on the face of the earth where a Prime Minister is sent to prison for the taking of (in political terms) a relatively minor bribe. In how many other nations do those in power break the law and the media remains part of a conspiracy of silence?

Community News: The Mysteries of the 613 Commandments. Beth El is proud to be a host and sponsor of this fascinating educational program.

Wednesdays 12-1:30 PM $18/class or $50 for the entire three part series. By tradition, there are 613 commandments, or mitzvot, in the Hebrew Bible. For Jews, these mitzvot – taken together – inform the life by which God calls us to live. Jews have all sorts of differing ideas about which of these mitzvot should actually be followed and how. But rarely do we give them a fresh look to study and discuss how they might give guidance to how we live in our own time. This session will attempt to begin that discussion in our community by exploring a way of examining the mitzvot as classified by Maimonides. Taught by Sandy Kress. This is a lunch and learn, please bring only dairy, parve or veggie.

Series 1: “Our Relationship with God”: February 24, March 2, 9 at Temple Beth Shalom, 7300 Hart Lane
Series 2: “Our Relationship with Others”: March 23, 30, April 6 at Congregation Beth El, 8902 Mesa Dr.
Series 3: “The Requirements of Justice” : April 20, 27, May 4 at Congregation Agudas Achim, 7300 Hart Lane
To register please go to: www.shalomaustin.org/jll

Sisterhood Candle making class!