Beth El of Manhattan, Two-Testament Synagogue

<p>Human understanding of reality changed in 1923 when our species did what Isaiah 51:6 suggests, and looked (in)to the heavens and looked at (the structure of) the earth ... and learned that ALL physical existence is only temporary. Temporary like the Sukkot we build each year: a house "not built to last" and that will one day cease to exist. We are we to do with this knowledge in contrast to the "eternity" of what God calls, "My Salvation/Rescue" ("Yeshua-ti") in the very same verse? How does knowledge of transience fit in with "Sukkot, the season of our rejoicing?" </p>

<p>For Yom Teruah (misnamed "Rosh Hashanah" in common use; the actual Biblical New Year is 1 Nisan (see Ex. 12:1ff) on the other side of the year.). The Day Of The Alarm/Trumpet-sound. We explore what it means to both be set free by the truth, and imprisoned by it, the way Galileo in the 1600s was both set free by his direct observation of the moons orbiting Jupiter (freeing him from the wrong world-view "everyone knew" - that everything did orbits the earth; and he was also taken captive by the truth: his life and his relationship with the world were forever changed seeing, confirming, and knowing it.</p>

<p>T.S. Eliot said, "Most of the world's trouble comes from people trying to be or seem more important." This sermon on Haftarah Ki Tavo – the 1st Sermon of Beth El's 30th year - explores how to cease striving to be (or seem) more than we actually are - and get "comfortable in our own skin – strengths and limitations all-included. Kadima! </p>

<p>The parasha this week is "Shofteem" - "Judges (empowered expert legal authorities) and officers (enforcement/police) you will install in all your gates (where decisions are made)." Such personnel are only needed in places where crimes and harms are done. In "The Promised Land?" What gives, here? We find that banditry - using force and alliances to do self-beneficial harm to others by theft and other crimes – is at the heart of human existence. How can we rise above it?</p>

<p>On the Parasha "Re'eh" - and more so, on Jeremiah 26, this sermon explores the necessity of learning how, when situations turn upside down, to get them right-side up again; especially when some sort of "goodness" from God, expected by us because it was promised IN GENERAL by Him, does not make its way to us as individuals in real life, and our little boat capsizes. You can't sail if you can't handle your boat getting blown over - and also handle getting it "righted." Scripture gives us powerful tools for this.</p>

<p>Piggy-backing off of last week's Torah, "you have been SHOWN to know" – this week focuses from the current parasha, "Ekev" on what we "know" as PROVEN propositions, AND what we have come to "know" by EXPERIENCE; and how we can use all these to neutralize fear when under pressure to make decisions having much at stake in them.</p>

<p>For Shabbat "Nachamu" ("comfort") after Tisha B'av ... the kind of comfort that comes from having been, as this week's Torah portion "V'Etchanen" describes –– "shown to know." The comfort of having seen clearly, so as to know clearly - and thus, be able to choose with certainty a forward path in conformity with truth.</p>

<p>In this week's passage giving Israel's gathered "leaders of tribes" moral-guidance directives about vow-keeping, the word for "tribe" is actually the word "mateh" for a "shepherds staff" - not "shevet" - the most common word for tribe, a "scepter" as a symbol of governmental authority. "Matot" reads oddly on the page. Why is this the word God's Spirit put into the pen of Moses at this moment? We explore exactly that this week: why.</p>

<p>All of Israel just stood and watched; but Pinchas acted; because he felt the same "zeal" God felt. What is the right kind of "zeal?" How do we acquire zeal that is healthy? People have zeal for many things, ranging from exalted pursuits like human rights to mere spending of time, in hobbies like video gaming, activity clubs, tv bing-viewing, etc. How do we rightly acquire and rightly use healthy zeal?</p>

<p>Invited to give the Erev Shabbat sermon via "Zoom" on 7 July for the weekly Torah portion, "Pinchas" – our Rabbi Bruce puts focus on the zeal of Pinchas directly affirmed by God, Himself; and asks, "How can we each develop healthy zeal for rightful things, causing us to use our time wisely rather than just 'spend' it, getting nothing of genuine value in line with God's will in return?"</p>

<p>This week's parasha shows the Israelites being slandered "because they are mighty." Why do people who are not mighty slander those who are? Messiah Yeshua - as his path was getting harder - taught His disciples how to have "fullness of joy" while facing such upticks in challenge. This excludes slander of those who outshine us, urging us in the Haftarah to walk "in modesty (accuracy and righteous relationship to one's self-image) with your God." It is a worthy lesson.</p>

<p>Criticism is often a placebo for genuine spirituality. The Letter of Ya'akov ("James") almost did not make it into The "New Testament" – because the redactors were concerned it places "too much" emphasis on ACTION rather than "faith & grace" (mere words and ideas). This sermon starts with the premise, "if you see a man drowning, do you CRITICIZE his poor swimming technique, or DO something (entailing EFFORT, or even RISK to yourself) to rescue him?" </p>

<p>Two Torah portions in a row - last week's Shalakh and this week's Korakh - Moses and God kept losing "the best people." Why? How did Moses and the remaining crew keep "enduring to the end, so as to be saved" in a calling repeatedly seeing "the best of the best" turn out to be not only useless - but toxic? From where and what came their "endurance" – and whatever "success" they had? </p>

<p>Numbers 13 holds forth for us how different people can view challenges through entirely different lenses. 10 said "No, we can't." And 2 said, "Yes, we can." Why? How? What can we, as pioneers of Two Testament Judaism, still in 1936 so-to-speak, developmentally, in the era of the "Tower And Wall Kibbutz," learn from it?</p>

<p>How healthy people made decisions to leave safety and comfort and go into lack and danger on frontiers in order to raise up things they believed to the core of their souls were so necessary, their "normal" and "comfy" lives among "their peeps" were acceptable risks or casualties. </p>

<p>On Shavuot, we recite the Torah-commanded trope, "My ancestor was a perishing Aremean." Yet – that description of his current state was not the final word on it. We see Ruth, a woman excluded from Israel by law – with her widowed and child-bereaved Jewish mother in law, Naomi, declaring "all hope for me is past." Yet – while these both seemed accurate at the moment, they was not close to the final word on either woman's existence. Let us truly learn Shavuot's lessons this year, in a way letting us live them genuinely in the year to come!</p>

<p>Right use of our words in quantity and quality has been, in our present era, moved from the Biblical standards "where many words are, error is unavoidable" and "a harsh word stirs up anger," and "a slandering tongue hates the one it crushes" – into admiration of fast and hurtful speech, using humor to devastate others and using quantity to word-swamp rather than listen. Are values like, "Let your words be few" and "be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger" still valid in the present age? </p>

<p>This is audio of the 8 April 2023 Passover Service segment in our synagogue when we observe the commandments Yeshua our Messiah gave us to remember Him in two key elements of the Pesach Seder, and do them forever "in remembrance of Me" – the 3rd cup of the Seder (after dinner) called "The Cup of Redemption," and the breaking/eating of the "Afikomen" – which does not mean "dessert," but is Greek for "I have arrived." We close by singing "the" Passover hymn, "Adir Hu" (He Is Mighty).</p>

<p>Ps 119 gives us an intimate portrait of King David's love, not only for God's "Torah" (teaching) - but the individual laws and statutes (chuk'eem and meeshpat'eem): he "meditated" on them in a way that "made (him) wiser than (his) enemies." How? We explore that dynamic to rescue Leviticus from being the book everyone skips on their treks through the Bible, seeking stories and songs that hold one's attention. We hope this two-sermon series will rescue Leviticus from Devotional Oblivion in your Scripture-learning life. :-) On the weekly portion, "Tzav" – Enjoy!</p>

<p>There is hot discussion in religious leadership over, "What is the future of 'congregating?'" Are people of faith going to cease gathering together IN PERSON as humans have done for the millennia of our existence - and segue into watching a "virtual" world, and attend virtual gatherings through screens as small as those on an iPhone. What is the essence of "being gathered" by God, for God-focused purposes ... and what does cost to "forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the habit of some?" (Hebrews 10:25) We explore this together.</p>

<p>God's contract with us. God told Moses, "Write down THESE words, because THESE words are my covenant with YOU and with ISRAEL." Yeshua the Messiah echoed this concept: "My words which I speak to you, they are 'spirit' and they are 'life.'" Given the level of priority God assigns – how vital is it that we define what we expect from God according to "these words," and not some other defining source?</p>

<p>In this week's parasha "Terumah" (Freewill Offering), the Scriptures explore how people's responses to what is requested rather than commanded reveals the nature of their hearts. And oddly oxymoronic pairing of values: materials required are requested to be volunteered: they are not demanded. God put His entire Nation-Building project into the hands of people willing to do more than just the minimum.</p>

<p>How could the Elders of Israel be in the very presence of God on Mt. Sinai, and "see God" as they are described in this week's portion to have done --- and still later have Aaron sink into repeated rebellions and his sons Nadav and Avihu treat God so profanely that God ended their lives over it? Shouldn't having "seen" God carried them forward with ironclad focus? Why is seeing NOT necessarily believing? And what can we learn from this section of Torah history to benefit from it?</p>

<p>Isn't it great when "the fix" to a problem or need is simple, straightforward, and easy? That is what Messiah taught us about a balanced diet in spiritual life, the way Yitro advised his son-in-law, Moses. "Here is the problem; and here is the solution ... which, by the way, you are not doing. Want to start today?" May God grant us the grace to walk in so simple a path to robustly healthy spirituality.</p>

<p>Congregation Beth El of Manhattan, a Conservative Synagogue of Two-Testament Judaism in Manhattan's Upper East Side since 1993. Please do visit us on the web at "<a href="http://bethelnyc.org" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">bethelnyc.org.</a>" Sermon on “Shabbat Shirah” (The Sabbath Of Song”) on portion “Beshalakh” (In Sending Out), our Rabbi’s sermon is a song title: “With A Little Help From My Friends.” Often in Scripture, people do not save themselves: they are rescued. Our Jewish People in Egypt enduring 430 years of slavery did not “escape” it - we were rescued from it. And later, we see Israel, dependent on Moses’s prayers, rescued by Aaron and Hur rescuing Moses from his human limitations. A lot of rescuing going on this week! We “get by with a little help from our friends,” as Lennon & McCartney put it in their 1969 song of that title. Let's explore this week's literally "uplifting" dynamic (as Aaron & Hur lifted Moses's arms.)</p><p><br></p>

<p>In the Haftarah this week, we have an odd sentence from God's mouth: "... and cleansing, I will not cleanse you." Which is it? Are we cleansed, or are we not? What moved God's spirit to put this oxymoronic thought into the pen of Jeremiah? We explore "cleansed but not cleansed" by God, Himself. What does it mean for us in the real-world of God-following and truth-seeking?</p>

<p>Sermon on VaEra is, "God Is Saving You Anyway." An emphasis on the ways God often compassionately looks past our inability to respond to truth because we are exhausted or our burdens are overcrowding us. He also provokes us to hope again, despite long, despair-inducing apparent delays and deflections - like 430 years in slavery in a foreign land.</p>

<p>The indispensable role of pro-activity in God-following and Truth-Seeking, as role-modeled by Moses. The different types of inertia, harmless and non-so-harmless. And - the way grace is involved in our choices to react to God's overtures, or not.</p>

<p>Rabbi Bruce's 1st sermon of 2023, on this week's Torah portion," VaYechi" - we read the summaries of the lives of three patriarchs, Jacob, Joseph, and King David, all having had immensely difficult and complex paths with significant tragedies mixed in ... who tell us at the end, "It's all ok ..." and "It was all worth it." </p>

<p>The "Beth El" chapter - the House/Home of God is described in this week's Torah portion as a place to meet God, get directions and promises FROM God, and make honorable commitments TO God and to His People. Trust and commitment flow FROM God ("we love, because he first loved us") and TO God (based on Him fulfilling His given word ("I trust in Your Word, by which You have made me hope."). It is Rabbi's Bruce's view that too many Believers "let God off the hook" from HIs promises, and Rabbi explores today people in Scripture who did not.</p>

<p>Torah & Haftarah "Chayye Sarah" with Sermon by Rabbi Bruce entitled, "Rightly Using A New Season In Life." – or – "A New Normal ... Again." Happy Thanksgiving!</p>

<p>Sermon on the Haftarah of Torah portion," VaYera." Facing into the kinds of suffering having no apparent rhyme or reason – including being pulled out of "numbness" back into healthy levels of feeling - and sound hope. Recovering a sense of momentum based on "the real God," not one we make up in our own image, resembling a kind of Santa Claus running a world like Disneyland, in which the rides occasionally go "on the blink."</p>

<p>Rabbi Bruce's sermon this week on Parashat "Noakh" is a "deep-dive" into the Scriptures and history, exploring how an entirely time-unbound and all powerful, all knowing God can come (across time) to "regret" having earlier created or done or chosen something ... especially when He foreknew exactly what the outcome would be, long before material existence even existed.</p>

<p>The annual shofar sound on "Yom Teru'ah" (also called "Rosh HaShanah" despite the Exodus 12 command about what is to be for Israel the "head of the year") calls us away from the earthly and reminds us of the eternal ... IF we respond to the sound when it reaches our ears, and do not "Hit the 'Snooze' button," so to speak.</p>

<p>In this week's parasha "Nitzavim" we are told what is being presented and done is not only for those standing here today - but for those not yet here. The task of "un-dumbing" the faith --- removing bad ideas masquerading as Biblical precepts – has been a major focus of our Rabbi for the past forty years. On this last Shabbat before Yom Teruah, he presents it as a clarion call to service beyond self.</p>

<p>"Bark and Water" was the motto Koreans adopted during the 1950s Korean War to express their level of commitment, the amount of deprivation they were willing to endure in order to preserve their Homeland from foreign invasion. What things in Biblical faith create such a level of commitment? We explore easily bypassed bedrock truths and values that play key roles in creating appropriate levels of commitment.</p>

<p>What motivates The Creator to teach humans? We explore that from Parasha Ki Tetzeh's instructions to warriors in love with their captives - and many other passages, as well as our "nature and nurture" driving our choice-making.</p>

<p>[Note: This recording is clean of the drop-outs in the Live Video Broadcast] On the parasha, "Shoftim" ("Judges") - the need for "judges" and "officers" in The Promised Land. The Abrahamic Nation was being led to a real place in the real world - not "heaven on earth." Judges and officers would be needed because we would be a nation of humans, needing laws, experts on those laws, and enforcers of those laws – in "The Promised Land." How this truth applies to faith-communities like our own in the present era as well.</p>

<p>Exactly 29 years ago today, this synagogue was born in a living room on 70th Street in Manhattan's Upper East Side. As leave Covid-19 lockdown and embark on holding renewed public services in addition to online live-streaming ... what might Scripture and history teach us of how to look and move forward? We say "Kadima" (Forward!) often: this sermon is about how to live forward into a long-term calling.</p>

<p>Pairing the Torah portion's portrait of a life of ongoing listening/obeying (to God) with Yeshua of Nazareth's startling words, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to accomplish His work" - we explore the "nourishment" that comes to and from a life obeying God's will in contrast to merely living with "religion" of some kind in one's life. Yeshua the Messiah taught us that "the narrow path" is the ONLY path that actually leads to eternal life. Why spend one moment on any other path? Shabbat shalom!</p>

<p>[We are still working on our audio quality in our new 3-camera set up. We hope to have it perfected soon. Thank you for your patience.] This Shabbat, we leave the solemn focus of last week's "Tisha B'Av" behind, and pivot to comforting contemplations. Hence, the sermon to title, "And Now For Something Completely Different ..." – we dwell upon "the finished work" of Messiah's atonement through the Haftarah of Shabbat "Nachamu" – the amazing idea, "Your warfare over, your iniquity has been "nirtzah" factored into your path forward – and God has paid in full your debt of justice" (the idiomatic meaning of "keef-lai-eem" in Isaiah 40). Shalom!</p>

<p>What would move the Creator to tear down His own Temple? The Torah, Prophets, and The Jewish Sages' commentaries in the Talmud (TB Yoma 9b8) engage with this question head-on, in order that we, their successors, might not fall into the same patterns that led God to act as He did on the 9th of Av --- in regard to both the 1st and 2nd Temples, which feel on the same calendar date.</p>

<p>Given in our 1st public service since the CV19 lockdown began in March 2022. The Torah portion, "Maasai" - "The journeys of the children of Israel" was especially poignant as our doors in a new location and time! (NOTE: this sermon was slide-based, so you may want to watch the Video recording here or on YouTube or Facebook, and be able to follow along a little better). Shalom and Shavuah tov!</p>

<p>Since our Rabbi was absent and unable to give a sermon this past Shabbat (23 July), we offer this “blast from the past” for your listening pleasure and edification. <br><br>Exactly thirty years ago this month, at the MJAA International “Messiah” Conference in July 1992, our Rabbi Bruce Cohen was asked to give a class sharing his aggressive first-hand research on the long-concealed, recently-released “Dead Sea Scrolls” fragments, the photo-facsimiles of which had just been published by Biblical Archaelology Review from the Bechtel Family Library, edited by Dr. Robert Eisenmann into a 2-Volume “scholars edition” of which Rabbi Bruce was one of the first possessors in the entire world. Rabbi Bruce had vigorously researched those newly-released treasures, event to chasing down Dr. Eisenmann by phone at his home in California to confirm the specific sense of the most hotly debated “Messiah-related” texts. The information Rabbi Bruce uncovered using his comparative literature education and expertise to dissect and verify is STILL revolutionary, three decades later. In this digitalized copy of a cassette tape made at that 1992 conference, you get to hear this news as it was breaking on the Two-Testament believing world. As the old radio show said it, “And you are there.” And we hope being there for this moment is an extraordinary and inspiring experience. Shalom!</p>

<p>Pivoting away from the Torah to the Haftarah, we delve into the dynamics of being "called" by God; and how Elisha's call from God away from being a plowman to being a prophet occurred in an emotionally, mentally, and spiritually healthy way; especially, the certainty, clarity, and focus we see in him. We also go into the manner in which we, as Two-Testament Jews, are called in our generation, and some of the needs among the Jewish people and Faith-People around the world that can be met by, among, and through us.</p>

<p>The Lord "sends" humans: people with thoughts, feelings, strengths and flaws. God's goal is not to de-humanize us, but to rescue us into lives as "spiritual" human beings, rooted in eternal realities, and headed for the reality of Eternity – with Him, not separated from Him.</p>

<p>Sermon Given Via Zoom Video to Congregation Beit Ariel of Cape Town, South Africa. In this parasha we see Moses and Israel face the loss of Moses's sister, Miriam - and neither of them do a great job of handling it in a healthy manner. We learn from this example how to cultivate constructive, not destructive reactions to moments or seasons of discomfort.</p>

<p>This sermon explores facing how often we humans "just want to be like everyone else" around us; and how we often misjudge what we call "what everyone else has." We also see how deeply the Prophet Samuel "got it." He was accurately onboard with God's "Abraham Project," and could not be deterred, even by the entire nation rejecting God's kingship in favor of a fallible human king. Finally, the Israeli song, "LaMidbar" ("In The Desert") informs our understanding of these Two Testament truths about genuine vision keep us "on track" with God's will in our era.</p>

<p>Rabbi Bruce is back from sabbatical, and again offering new, original sermons to us. This week, from the middle of the Parasha, "Beha'alotecha" - a deep-dive into the actual experience the Exodus Generation had learning to God-follow, by having their location totally dependent on if and when "The Pillar of Fire/Cloud" moved or stayed put. And - how it applies to each of us, here and now.</p>

<p>Due to the mitzvah of The Seder, we will not be holding Erev Shabbat Services tonight 15 April 2022. However, there will be 90 consecutive minutes of Two-Testament Jewish music broadcast during the service time on FacebookLIVE and YouTUBE, if you'd like that kind background for your in-home observances. Enjoy!</p>