Children’s Service for First Day Rosh Hashanah

Once again this year, Morah Betsy will be leading a service for 6-12 year old students on the First Day of Rosh Hashanah (Thursday 9/29/11) at approximately 10:30 AM.  We will pray, have a Torah service with the congregation’s brand new student Torah scroll, read the Torah readings in English, discuss the prayers, and blow shofar.

We will also join the adult service in the sanctuary briefly for the sounding of the shofar there.

For our prayers and Torah selection, we will using the Tiku Shofar Machzor, kindly loaned to us from Congregation Agudas Achim, and we hope to use it again on Yom Kippur.

A Very Special Shabbat

Dear Congregants and Friends,

Please join us this Friday night, September 23 at 7 pm as we welcome back Colonel and Elinor Pusin who are visiting from San Antonio for Friday night services.

As many of you know, Colonel Pusin, who is 93 and a founding member at Beth El, recently moved to San Antonio after many years in Austin and at Beth El.  He will be coming to Beth El to see old friends and the new sanctuary in his beloved shul.  His friends from the Jewish War Veterans will be joining us too and we will have a kiddish and kibbitz after services.
Tomorrow night, September 24 at 8 pm, we will be having a havdallah, followed by slichot services.  Again, please join us for this “kick-off” to the High Holidays.

Cantor Ben-Moshe’s weekly message:

This Shabbat, the last before Rosh Hashanah, is the double parshah of Nitzavim-VaYelech.  Moses’ final oration to the People of Israel is drawing to a close, and he says “You are present here, today, all of you.”  All of B’nai Yisrael were listening to Moses, from the highest to the lowest.  These words were not just for those who were standing on the border of the Land of Israel, though.  They are addressed to us as well.  We must be present, here, today.  Jewish tradition bids us to practice mindfulness through the practice of mitzvot.  At this time of year, when the shofar wakes us up from our stale routine, we must remember to be present.  Here.  Today.

Shabbat Shalom and G’mar hatimah tovah.

Congregation Beth El

8902 Mesa Drive

Austin TX 78759

High Holiday Information

Cantor Ben Moshe dressing the Torah and the Ark in white, last year.

The high holidays are nearly upon us, and the schedule for services for Beth El is now finalized.  All events and services are free and do not require tickets, and the entire community is welcome to join us.  (We do gratefully accept donations, however, and invite you to discuss the possibility of membership.)

Beth El High Holiday Schedule 5772 (This is a PDF that you can print or download.)

The calendar for adult and junior congregation services is here.

High Holiday Cards!

Still need Rosh Hashanah cards?  Shabbat cards to bring with your wine bottle or flowers when you’re invited to a Shabbat meal?  A Sukkot card to thank the friends who invite you to eat in their Sukkah?  How about Sukkot cards to use as invitations when you invite others to your sukkah?  We have even added Bar/Bat Mitzvah and thank-you cards to our collection.

Get your cards from Beth El and help our children raise money for child-size tallitot, story books, and costumes for Shabbat and holiday Junior Congregation programming.

click to enlarge

The kids have been busy, and so have I.  Here are 55 of the designs we have created, and there are samples available at shul entrance.  No cards will be sold on Shabbat, but if you order by email, I will leave your cards in the shul in an envelope for you. Remember also that we can custom paint, draw, or create a collage.   Children’s Services Fundraiser PO 2 page, or just email me.

The kids have assembled a wish list for Shabbat/holiday children’s services:

WISH LIST:

• child-size ark & Torah scroll (We are already dancing with and reading from our scroll!  Thanks Mr. Arthur!)
• child-size tallitot
• costumes for kids & puppets
• materials for holiday crafts
• Torah books & stories

For more info, contact  MorahBetsy@gmail.com.

Firsts, firsts and More firsts!

What an amazing day of Firsts we had!

The first day of Hebrew school, with a brand new class, a brand new children’s Torah scroll, a chance to watch the workmen assemble our brand new chairs, and the opportunity to sound the shofar for the first time.  We began the afternoon with a visit to the sanctuary, where we sang “Mah Tovu” and wondered at the gorgeous new room in which we plan to pray.  We then looked at, hugged, lifted, and read a few letters from our brand new student Torah scroll, and then began our alef-bet studies in a manner reminiscent of some of our great grandparents — we each ate a letter written in honey on an apple in order to have the sweet taste of Hebrew and on our tongues for our entire student careers.

We also learned to sing the chorus of Adon Olam and plan to sing with the congregation Shabbat morning.

Adon Olam chorus only

Today’s big thinking question (relating to Rosh Hashanah):  Is it God’s birthday on Rosh Hashanah? Does God have a birthday?

A note: registration is still open!  Class for kinder-third grade is Monday afternoon from 4-5:30, and we will have a Bar/Bat Mitzvah class Tuesday evenings.  If upper elementary students want to join us, we will find a time and schedule a class!  For more information, email Betsy@MorahBetsy.com.

9/11 commemoration, High Holiday class, and Shabbat message

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

Elul and Shabbat Shoftim

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.

A reminder of our regular Friday night and Saturday morning services this weekend, September 2 and 3.  Friday night services start at 7:00 pm and Saturday morning start at 9:00 am.

 

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.