Beth El of Manhattan, Two-Testament Synagogue

How do we get to "new" from where we are now? With all swirling about us in the news and our own human life-journeys, how do we genuinely walk in the spirit of the greeting "Shanah Tovah L'cha" - "A Good Year For You!" beyond merely practicing "mindfulness" on the purely human level?

The Haftarah for the Torah parasha Ki Tavo this week exhorts, "Rise, and shine!" This means someone is needed to arise, and some darkness needs light to shine into it." Judges 5 tells us, "Village life in Israel ceased until I arose ..." A person arose - and life restarted, and darkness was dispelled. How does this dynamic apply to each of us - now - today - in our individual arcs of influence?

[FYI - Sermon is only 11 minutes in length.] Continuation of the theme of "Ahavat Adam" ("love of all humankind) from recent sermons, "do not look out for your own interests, but for those of others also," (Philippians 2:4) ... an attitude Scripture tells us "was in Messiah Yeshua" and exhorts us to "let it be in you also." We are to factor in the interests of all humankind for whom Messiah offere...

In this week's Haftarah, God promises those who come to Him for guidance the same mercies given to King David, himself. What hope do we have of meriting such things as "the man after God's own heart" received from On High? Well ... given King David's nearly bipolar history of glories and errors – it turns out, our chances are pretty good. Let's study and see.

On the 2nd Saturday of every month, we have an abbreviated Shabbat morning service with no Torah Service or Sermon, so after services the synagogue's members and attendees can do "Nosh n Drash" – a communal discussion of the weekly Torah portion and other writings or ideas related to it. S0 - instead of a sermon, this week we share with you our Rabbi's reading of the weekly Haftarah portion from t...

We continue this Shabbat with the theme of interwovenness: how our decision-making is guided by balancing what Scripture calls "our own interests" with "the interests of others" - and God's right as rightful Sovereign to "cast the tie breaking vote" in all our choice-making.

We learn this week how "me" is balanced by "we." This week's parasha "Matot/Maasei" continues our learning from the situation of the daughters of Tzelof'had. Last week, his orphaned daughters asserted their rights, and God backed them up. This week we see them learn from God that their rights had limits, and needed to be exercised factoring in the overall calling of the nation and the needs of the...

God, Himself, declares, "I remember your devotion in your youth, the way you followed Me into a wasteland with no life in it." What grace! God remembers YOUR every choice following Him, even when it took you into lack or danger. We meditate upon this in the Haftarah attached to the Torah portion "Pinchas" – named for a person whose devotion earned from God an eternal priesthood.

Everything is not relative. That perspective can affect accuracy of understanding is genuinely an important consideration; but still, there are still some things and some stories that are true - and some that are not. This week's Haftarah gives a stunning example of an anti-factual "narrative" being used to justify stealing Israel's land; and the careful historicity of the Israelite Judge Yiftakh'...

In the parasha, "Shelakh" we see what became our synagogue's logo: the Two Spies carrying the "Eshkol" (cluster of fruit). They saw the "land flowing with milk and honey, and full of enemies. God stated several times in "giving" us "our own land" that it would contain enemies needing to be overcome. Why is God's "gift" He is "giving" to us full of enemies?

The "Aaronic Benediction" is described by God in the verse following it as "how you (the Aaronic Priesthood) shall put My Name on the children of Israel." It invokes God's very presence, His "face" to shine on us. When His presence shined on Moses, the face of Moses beamed light for long afterwards. How shall we "shine" in era in which God has caused us to be born and reborn? We ponder this togeth...

The statement in the opening of this week's parasha is in the Hebrew future tense, which can read as either a statement of a future event, or a command. Most read it as a command: but it takes on a very different flavor when it is read as a predication of the natural result of spending time with, and following God, echoing Messiah's teaching, "Every student who has been fully trained will (inevita...

Rabbi Bruce's first sermon back from his six-month sabbatical. [NOTE: Please forgive the sound quality: the air conditioner above the podium was mistakenly set on "high fan" and loud fan noise had to be filtered out of the mix, affecting the overall tone while making the words understandable. This will not be the usual sound quality of the podcast.] Shalom!

"These are the things the Lord has *commanded* (not suggested for) you to do."

In this sermon for the weekly Torah portion "Terumah" (Voluntary Offering), Rabbi Bruce explores in deep detail and with personal examples how to replace unhelpful complaining with constructive realism.

Starting from the Haftarah for this week in Isaiah chapter 6, our own heartbreak and that of others is pondered for wisdom and appropriate engagement/action.

During last Shabbat (8 Feb 2025), the service leader made reference to Rabbi Bruce's sermon "Hard Hearts, Soft Hearts" given on 18 January 2006. Since that sermon was the driver for the leader's comments, and no sermon was given last weekend because the congregation was saving the time for group-study after the service ... it seemed fitting to rebroadcast the sermon to which he referred from 19 ye...

We present ourselves to God ... what happens then? How does it unfold? What results?

During the rabbi's sabbatical, every 2nd Shabbat of the month is not recorded so the congregation can have after services an on-site "Nosh & Drash" in which the week's Torah section ("Parashat Ha-Shavu'a") is discussed while we eat together. So – this week, in lieu of a recorded sermon from the service, we offer the pilot episode of an experimental podcast Rabbi Cohen and Beth El's social media te...

A mental health-care professional gives us a very insightful glimpse into the relational dynamics presented by the Biblical scenario of our patriarch, Joseph - a victim of terrible harms - reacting to seeing genuine repentance and change in his brothers who did him those harms.

Hanukkah is Hebrew for "dedication" – and dedication as service to God and to Humankind is role-modeled for us by Messiah Yeshua, who was "The Light of The World" – and urged us as His followers to live as "lights to the world" and to "shine in the darkness."

Joseph was an ethically better and exponentially more capable man than his eleven half-brothers; and they hated him so much for it, they conspired to murder him. Yeshua of Nazareth told us, "Blessed are you when people hate and revile you for (your faith in) My Identity's sake (as the true Messiah)." What makes goodness or commitment to the truth lead to being hated?

Sermon from streamed service on 7 December, not In-Person Service. That sermon will be podcast next week. Enjoy, and may it all be for shalom!

A very personal sermon built around an actual recent experience of a long-prayed prayer suddenly being answered.

God, at times, puts us out on the end of a ledge – and then causes the ledge to evaporate under our feet. As we start to fall, with nothing visible between us and the ground below - at some point in the fall, "The Everlasting Arms" of God show up, and we are rescued. What IS this aspect of God-following?