Barg Sanctuary: Shabbat Renewal - June 4, 2021

[Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] god [Music] and please rise now is our bot mitzvah and her mother and two very proud grandmothers join us for the blessings for the candles to begin this shabbat [Music] she [Music] our god and god of our ancestors may the rays of these shabbat candles cast their glow upon the earth and bring the radiance of your light to all your creatures bless our daughters with your love and our homes with the spirit of shabbat amen amen and you may be seated we now open up our cedar rim and we turn to page five shalom alechem right [Music] me [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] oh [Music] on let us go now and sing god and i let us trumpet praise to our protector not an i top of page 11. [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] page 14 is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] and now we welcome the sabbath bride the spirit of god page 23 di lika [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you may be seated at this time we welcome those who are mourning into our congregation and those who are in mourning and those observing a yard sight will now recite the mourner's kaddish which is found on page 30. yet is we now ask everyone to rise for bahu page 39. [Music] [Music] [Music] 40. [Music] okay [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] 41 in the shimmer [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] we continue silently to the bottom of page forty two [Music] [Laughter] when our ancestors crossed the red sea and were free at last from slavery they sang this song to god who is like you god amongst the mighty page 40 44 44 [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] okay [Music] [Applause] okay [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] to lie down tonight in peace and awaken us again tomorrow to life renewed page [Music] 45 [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] foreign my let me turn to page 46 as orally leads us in visham rule [Music] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] me [Music] 47 through page 52. uh uh [Music] foreign age 51 shalom [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] is now we invite everyone to put your arms around each other and sway as we join in shalom [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] rain and now we always do a special prayer for those who are ill those who cannot be with us this evening those who need a little extra support a little extra comfort misha barach on the back cover of our prayer books [Music] [Music] [Music] who bless the ones before help us find the courage to make our lives a blessing for us and all of those [Music] [Music] with and let us may god bless us all with peace and happiness now and always you may be seated we'll continue with the khatsi khadish page 46. [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is is [Music] [Music] good shabbos everyone i recently heard an appropriate analogy to anti-semitism where anti-semitism is like a volcano there's always lava underneath the ground and there are certain conditions that cause that volcano to erupt and one condition as we've seen again and again is when israel is at war two weeks ago when israel was at war with hamas terrorists there were nearly 200 incidents of anti-semitism in one week across the united states an 80 percent increase in anti-semitic attacks in the month of may jews were attacked across europe and here in the united states social media was on fire tweets like hitler was right were sent across the world tonight there are two points i want to make followed by something i believe we can all do to fight the current rise in anti-semitism number one let us remember that anti-semitism that we see today it's from both sides from the extreme left and from the extreme right on the far left the hyper focus on israel inevitably ends up hurting us as writer brett stevens wrote in recent years it has become an article of faith on the progressive left that anti-semitism is not anti-excuse me that anti-zionism is not anti-semitism and that it's slandered to assume that someone who hates israel also hates jews but not everyone he writes got that memo not the people who waving palestinian flags and chanting death to jews according to witness assaulted jewish diners at a los angeles sushi restaurant not to the people who threw fireworks in new york's diamond district not the people who brutally beat up a man wearing a yarmulke in times square not the people who drove through parts of london cursing at jews and not the people who had a protest in brussels chanted jews remember kabar the army muhammad is returning yes there's always been a transcendent difference between criticism of israel politics and policies under and undermining the jewish state and natan sharansky's 3d test for knowing when anti-semitism bleeds and to end when anti-zionism bleeds into anti-semitism delineation demonization and double standards is as relevant as ever the progressive anti-racist move in america could have picked a slew of horribly racist and murderous nations to go after instead it chose a multi-cultural jewish state and intentionally or not they have declared open season on us the jews and i saw it even here in houston two weeks ago i was at a rally in hermann park for israel and a group of haters came by and made a gesture with their fingers that i cannot show you tonight we see it we see it on the far left anti-semitism unfortunately is alive and well and with that increase on the extreme left we have continued to see an increase in anti-semitism on the extreme right those on the right who embrace nazi muras murderers such as participants in the unite tonight unite the right rally in charlottesville virginia who march with tiki torches while chanting jews will not replace us they're they are motivated by the same fanatical anti-semitism that motivated the nazis and over the last few years crazed individuals who hold these views have entered synagogues in pittsburgh and california to kill innocent worshipers simply because they were jews and these right-wing extremists are happy to join in on the festival of hatred against israel and jews everywhere the extreme left in the extreme right they agree only on one matter hating jews sometimes even working together i'm glad we can help unite them and no matter from which side the anti-semitism originates it's equally dangerous yet i hear from people on the right they say rabbi it's those progressives the squad my side it's not nearly as bad and i hear from people on the left they tell me rabbi it's those crazies on the white right the white supremacists but my side the left it's not nearly as bad it's like a game which side is worse as it was recently written anti-semitism is being reduced to erase to the bottom or which political party has the most anti-semitic activity one party points the escalating violence against jews by the left-wing progressive anti-israel protesters in new york the other party responds with the torch-bearing neo-nazis in virginia none of this bodes well for american jewry much less american democracy the bitter truth is that this isn't a republican party or democratic party crisis it's an american crisis and we're turning anti-semitism from what it is hatred of jews to what it should not be a matter of partisan bickering the more attention we give to finger-pointing about which parties anti-semitism is worse the more we legitimize anti-semitism can we come together on this and whether anti-semitism is from the extreme left or the extreme right they're both equally dangerous and unfortunately it's been on the rise in this country from the past five years it really is remarkable you have to hand it to the anti-semites out there when battles and wars break out in israel both sides here and throughout western europe have used it to hate on israel and unfortunately and at the same time to hate on all of us for centuries we were persecuted for being a minority in the lands of others but now in this world we're hated for being a majority in our own homeland as israeli author amos o's once observed the walls of his grandparents europe were covered with graffiti saying jews go to palestine now they say jews get out of palestine and now why they tell us to get out of our ancestral homeland those on the extreme left accuse us of being wealth obsessed colonialists who are opposed to the social and economic betterment of the palestinians and those on the extreme right they claim we're inferior in our genetic makeup yet we are so intelligent they claim we control the world with our unique cleverness it makes no sense we're small in number but for the crazed right-wing anti-semites according to them we compel far more powerful entities like the us government to do whatever israel needs to murder innocent palestinian children yes israel hatred is very much like jew hatred the haters will always invent false and completely insane and ridiculous reasons to despise us those who have claimed that anti-zionism is not anti-semitism i think we were again reminded of the truth the emes because if we know anything about modern jewish history an anti-zionist is an anti-semite and i don't care if he's on the far left or far right he could even be a self-hating jew in the words of judea pearl father martyred journalist daniel pearl anti-scientism anti-semitism excuse me targets jews as individuals anti-zionism targets jews as a people and that brings me to my second point this rise in anti-semitism unfortunately it's not going away anytime soon i hate to share such bad news on a beautiful night but we need to know the truth because hamas hezbollah islamic jihad palestinian extremists they're in this for the long haul they don't hide their true intentions you have to admire at least one thing about hamas they're honest you can find it online tonight or after shabbat article 6 on their website of their hamas charter a disgusting document explicitly notes that their goal is to raise the banner of allah over every inch of palestine that doesn't mean the west bank or gaza that means tel aviv in lod in jaffa and haifa in all of jerusalem and that by the way doesn't mean any compromise with israel when they chant from the river to the sea palestine will be free they say what they mean as the hamas co-founder mahmoud al-zahar may his name be erased explicitly told british tv last week that israel has no right to exist whatsoever in the jews should pack up and leave so this is not going away and yes there are moderates in palestinian society who want peace innocent gazans who like us simply want to raise family and live peaceful lives i feel terrible for them because when they speak up hamas kills them arrests them puts them in jail but let's get one thing straight no matter what israel does a new policy here or a new government there less withdrawal or more withdrawal no matter what israel does the terrorists and the extremists will never stop until there is no more israel so let's stop blaming israel that's like blaming the victim we would never do that if a victim was attacked on the way home from schultz tonight we wouldn't blame them from going in a bad neighborhood we don't blame the victim let us not blame israel as the columnist frank fleming he got it right when he recently wrote this past week this was great he writes i think you're always going to have tension in the middle east when there's people who want to kill jews and jews who don't want to be killed and neither side is willing to compromise no matter what the twitter mobs or excuse my language idiots like john oliver or trevor noah have to say when it comes to our survival there is no room for compromise when jews in our homeland have to hide in shelters when families have to spend days on ends imagine being there with your children or grandchildren we do not have to apologize for defending ourselves while trying to save innocent palestinian lives in gaza my friends that brings me to something we can all do to respond robert hazan jeffrey myers of the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh the site of the deadly 2018 mass shooting was recently on one of the cable news networks discussing the surge in anti-semitic violence across the country and i love what he said his response to anti-semites when they do more evil i do more jewish i could not agree more with his answer when they do more evil let's not hide our judaism let's not be embarrassed because over the centuries we tried that approach the secular very secular jewish community of berlin tried that in the 1920s and 30s it didn't work out too well and let us not believe that anti-semitism would go away if we kept our head down and didn't make waves as the great rabbi abraham joshua heschel once said the opposite of goodness is not evil the opposite of goodness is silence today is not the time for silence the great jew haters of our day and age they are coming after us no matter how involved we are no matter where we side politically no matter what we think of israel's policies they are coming after us simply because we are jews and israel's ongoing war with iran hamas islamic jihad and other extremists will not end until we defeat them no matter what we do anti-semites will find reasons to hate us so in response i say can we be more involved can we be more jewish can we support organizations like federation and adl and ajc and aipac can we rally for israel getting the truth out what is really happening in our homeland with our neighbors and our friends and our business colleagues because if we don't do it who will but primarily our number one response when they do more evil we do more jewish because isn't that the secret of jewish survival we have never given up instead we have persevered and maintained our traditions in the face of even greater obstacles over the centuries for thousands of years that's why we are still here tonight celebrating this beautiful bat mitzvah let us never give up because we do have many friends we do have allies and we have the power and the strength and the faith in god and the power of our tradition behind us when they hate more let us love more and when they attack us let us not just defend ourselves but let us be more proud more observant doing more mitzvot being more jewish shabbat shalom everyone [Applause] let us now rise for the elenu as we return to our prayer books page 56. here we go [Music] [Music] [Music] the enough [Music] um [Music] um [Music] oh [Music] me [Music] mr [Music] oh [Music] now and you may be seated tonight at beth yeshun we offer condolences to the families of michael utterhalter dorothy rosenthal marty harris william stewart tarnipol gabby braun cam brozlowski zina broslovsky fillmore cohen pearl levine roberta sussman the words of the mourner's kaddish page 58. because amen and you may be seated on a very beautiful note tonight we have 12 anniversaries to celebrate twelve wonderful couples and we're honored that you're with us this evening to celebrate this milestone in your life first celebrating their 22nd wedding anniversary barbara and steve levine mazel tov barbara and steve you were married 22 years ago this weekend on the basketball court at the murphy center in a mickey minnie mouse themed wedding and there our friend may rest in peace rabbi radinski words of advice regarding their your ketubah was you promise her everything and she promises you nothing and i hope you keep your promises and you're very thankful during this pandemic during this past year to have started a new business called coaching and connections for small businesses that complements your small business today magazine continued blessings barbara and steve happy 22nd anniversary mazel tov celebrating their 31st wedding anniversary mindy and miles wertheimer mazel tov and you feel very blessed this year it's been a year of good health and happiness you're very happy to celebrate the marriage of your daughter holly to matt that was a beautiful occasion and in the backyard and to see the creation of the hashtag abrahamers during this pandemic and your daughter jacqueline continues to impress you with her talent is she making her as she is making her mark in the entertainment business in los angeles and your silver lining during this time has been able to enjoy your children during extended stays in houston from their respective cities happy 31st wedding anniversary mazel tov robin and jordy happy 37th wedding anniversary mazel tov it's great to see the two of you look great and you're looking for in just three weeks i think i saw him them here earlier your youngest son eric is getting married to noah gadot in colorado in just three weeks so noah and eric early mazzle talk to the two of you and robin and jordy only continued blessings i think i see amy was here as well there she is here amy muzzle talk to you it's great to see y'all happy 37th wedding anniversary mazel top on the other side of that abrahamer's celebrating their 41st wedding anniversary cindy and jeff abrams mazel top and the highlights from here of course include the birth of your first grandson mo he looks great keeping that keep on his head i'm very impressed with this very proud parents and of course the wedding of matt and holly back in november only continue blessings with your growing family happy 41st wedding anniversary mazel tov paula and rick paul and rick stein celebrating their 46th wedding anniversary mazel tov and you just feel very happy to be healthy you look great and spending time with your kids and four grandchildren especially your newest grandchild emma born in july paula and rick 46 years it's hard to believe only good things to come happy anniversary mazel tov celebrating their 47th wedding anniversary marcia and arnold abramson mazel tov in the past year you celebrated marshall your parents ray and buddies 70th anniversary it's always good to have ray and buddy here and the bar mitzvah of your oldest grandson ethan which we enjoyed just a few weeks ago and you're looking forward to the birth of your 11th grandchild on june 5th in fact tomorrow right so god willing tomorrow and one major feat over this past year was driving the entire length of i-10 the trans-continental highway to see your kids and their families first in la and then later east in florida only continued travels your beautiful growing family marsha aaron arnold happy 47th wedding anniversary mazel tov celebrating their 48th wedding anniversary arlene and joe staller arlene and joe mazel top and over this past year we were able to spend lots of time with your children and grandchildren you're looking forward to start traveling again i know you got your first grandchild's bat mitzvah coming up this new year so we look forward to that beautiful family arlene and joe continued blessings happy 48th wedding anniversary mazel tov watching us online this evening celebrating their 51st wedding anniversary diane and alan sofer diane and alan we miss you tonight but we're appreciative that you're watching us online and i know you're thankful for your health especially after this challenging year happy 51st waiting anniversary celebrating their 55th wedding anniversary dennis and laurel brown mazel tov and you had two wonderful blessings this past year the marriage of your daughter dahlia to aaron back in july and they're very happy living in north carolina and you were very fortunate both to have a healthy year it's great to have you back only continued blessings happy 55th waiting anniversary mazel tov celebrating their 57th wedding anniversary it's really beautiful tonight celebrating their 57th sandy and linda hershkovitz where's sandy they are back there this past year all of your grandchildren graduate either from high school or college and those who graduated college are on their way to graduate schools only continued blessings for ever growing family sandy and linda it's great to see you tonight happy 57th wedding anniversary mazel tov and two more very special anniversaries first celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary our friends michelle and martin greenberg mazel tov and one of the highlights of this past year was having your granddaughter lived with you for two months while she began her job for the sugarland skeeters and your other granddaughter graduated law school and your grand grandson graduated ut at austin and is headed to law school and your great granddaughter who is 18 months old is walking and talking and one day maybe at ut herself and you just had your kids from chicago visit you for a week and finally most importantly you survived being flooded out and coveted without killing each other you look great michelle and martin happy 60th wedding anniversary mazel tov and our last anniversary also an incredible feat 64 years toby and mort joachim mazel top [Applause] you're blessed with wonderful children grandchildren and five great-grandchildren all of whom will be visiting you this july more when you celebrate your 90th birthday not a better way to celebrate we look forward to that to seeing them and only continued health and blessings for the two of you as you celebrate 64 years of marriage mazel tov and mazel tov again to all of our couples it's so great to have so many of you with us this evening just a few quick announcements before you head off to camps trips or vacations that you may be going to this summer this sunday join us for our summer kickoff drive-through from 11 to 1 from your car you can pick up goodies bet the assurance swag to kick off your summer fun enjoy some tasty frozen treats and say hi to your betheshan clergy and staff we'll also be collecting 100 juice boxes to contribute to kids meals summer juice box challenge that's this sunday from 11 to one you can register on our website still can register i know a lot of families are coming through and i hope to see you this sunday also this sunday we'll be joining our federation is our hosting neil lazarus an internationally acclaimed expert in the fields of middle east politics and public diplomacy he'll be speaking on zoom about gaza understanding the facts and answering the myths at 11 a.m this sunday morning you can register on our website this tuesday evening we'll be hosting a makeup session of our bakuak nefesh program with gfs this mental health training was created specifically for our jewish community and will show us how to recognize signs of distress and how to support yourself and others i'm very excited to tell you on june 13th in just over a week our first ever kela high school israel trip will be launching from houston 35 teens will be going to israel for three weeks and 13 of those 35 teens are bethesheren students and we look forward to having them on the pulpit next friday night to bless them and to wish them well as they have the opportunity to visit israel in two weeks from tonight not next shabbat but in two weeks from tonight starting on that shabbat we'll be back in our freeman levitt sanctuary on both friday nights and saturday mornings and we'll be having shabbat lunches again every weekend and we want to make sure in case you missed it we will be open for the upcoming high holidays and we cannot wait as in previous years tickets will be mailed to all members of good standing later this summer and we'll share more information but we cannot wait to have many of you back in our sanctuaries as we celebrate the holidays this upcoming year many continued shabbats and only simcas only good things in the months and years ahead and finally and most importantly not only dominant wish mazel tov to our bot mitzvah orly i also want to wish you a very happy birthday it's your 13th birthday so it's a very special weekend you got it in just in time to celebrate this great weekend with your very proud parents sherry and steve you got grandparents here and of course your sister molly and of course we think of your grandfather bernie that i know he's here in peace i had the pleasure of growing up with bernie i know him for years and all the good he contributed to the dallas jewish community so i know how proud he must be to have another wonderful granddaughter becoming a bat mitzvah so we look forward to celebrating tomorrow as you officially become a daughter of the commandments and so now let us bless our children that are with us and at home watching for our sons we say yes ryan became may god bless our sons like ephraim and menasha and for our daughters we say yes may god bless them like sarah rebecca rachel and leia and may god continue to bless all of our children with peace and let us say amen and i want to make just two other announcements before i forget first of all another sign that thank god this pandemic is ending if not ended is having our first rabbi emeritus rabbi jack siegel and his wife toby back in our sanctuary it's great to have you back [Applause] [Music] and one of our band members my friend david goldstein who's had a beautiful graduation his son miles just graduated emory weiner this past wednesday night and was chosen by his classmates to give one of the commencement speeches did an absolutely beautiful job and miles is heading off to brandeis university this fall so david only continued blessings for you and and uh [Music] good luck paying for that as you just said but it's worth it i hear i hear it's worth it what a great university and miles like all your children is going to continue to do great things so mazel tov david and let us now rise for the kids [Music] let me cry [Music] me [Music] a [Music] he's [Music] foreign [Music] you

Channel: Congregation Beth Yeshurun

Views: 112

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: Wjzgq5auETo

Length: 95min 32sec (5732 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 04 2021