Beth El of Manhattan, Two-Testament Synagogue

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 spiritua...

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 " bethelnyc.org. " 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...

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?

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.

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.

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."

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 Rab...

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

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 occa...

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.

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.

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 se...

"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 co...

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.

[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 t...

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 cal...

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 narro...

[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...

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.

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!

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. 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...

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...

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.

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.

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 Israe...