Beth El of Manhattan, Two-Testament Synagogue

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.

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!

Until the Rabbi begins delivering new sermons/podcasts on May 6th, your synagogue's iTunes library, our website library, and our huge " Archive. Org " treasury of over 500 Beth El Sermons (under the "Learn With Us" top menu at www.bethelnyc.org ) ––– all offer you a chance to revisit favorite past sermons of yours, or listen to ones you may have missed. We cherish the place you have given us in yo...

Congregation Beth El of Manhattan, a Conservative Synagogue of Two-Testament Judaism in Manhattan's Upper East Side since 1993. Parshat Yitro this week gives us a range of obligations – from can or may through could and should into must. We examine what the path of the God-follower / Truth-follower is in a world in which people can, at times, alter even the meaning of words to give themselves leew...

Parsha Bo, the first study of 2022 – is all about freedom. “Remember the day you left the house of slavery!” We are told in Exodus 13 – near the end of the parasha. Our rabbi delves into the personal experience of being set free from any kind of slavery, because “by what a person is overcome, by that (s)he is enslaved.” (2Peter 2:19) But, “If the Son shall make you free, you will be free indeed!”...

Parsha for the last week of 2021: “Shemot” (Torah: Exodus 1:1-6:1 Haftarah: Isaiah 27:6 - 28:13; 29:22 - 29:23) – and the sermon title is ... or, “Game-Changing Truths Onto Your Radar.” With huge numbers throughout the world observing the Messiah’s birth ... what are we as Jews to do with the stunningly clear portraits in Scripture and Talmud about the “Messiah son of Joseph, who will be slain?” T...

This week’s parasha is “VaYigash” – and the sermon has the title, “The Essence Of Healthy Prayer.” Rabbi Bruce delves into “drawing near” to God, and what makes sound prayer different than spiritistic activities like use of talismans and applying esoteric “special knowledge” as is done in Kabbalah. Enjoy “the simplicity of devotion” as Rav Saul of Tarshish taught it in 2Corinthians 11:3.

Hanukkah is the perfect opportunity to contemplate "the power of one." An old man in a backwater town, through his clarity and courage inspired his entire generation to defeat the greatest military power on earth, leading to over a century of Jewish self-government. The right person in the right place at the right time - can change the world. Am Yisrael Chai! And Happy Hanukkah!

This week’s parasha is “VaYeshev.” In it, we are shown how the all-foreseeing God directly, pro-actively stirs up trouble between people and nations in order to foment His objectives in human society. God tells us in Isaiah 54:16, “I, Myself created the smith who blows the fire of the coals (heats things up) I created the destroyer (intentionally) to ruin!” God claims SOLE ownership of all events...

This week’s parasha is “VaYishlakh” – “And He Sent Out” – and the Haftarah from the itty-bitty 1-chapter book of Obadiah, we see see spiritual plutonium-strength display of the Deuteronomy 18 standard for the authority of the Scriptures: such specific long-range prophecy so accurate it is almost scary to read it. The prophet predicts when Israel returns from scattering across the world, exactly wh...

This week’s parasha is “VaYetzeh” – “And He Went Out” – and we continue to see the soft under-belly of the Patriarchal Era ... the under-theme of limitation and temporality soaking every moment we read about. The sermon this week is “Life’s Two Fake-Outs” – dealing with the ways we distract ourselves from the reality about which God teaches us so clearly: 2 Cor. 4:7 – "we have this (spiritual) tre...

Sermon was given via the ZOOM teleconference app "in" Congregation Beit Ariel of Cape Town, South Africa - and then rebroadcast as the Sermon for the Manhattan Erev Shabbat Service 7 hours later. This week’s parasha is “Toledot” – “Generations” – and we see the full range of human glory and weakness expressed in one family: ours! Nature and Nurture, Favoritism and Faith, Lion-heart and Lily-liver...

"Whatever a person has decided is God's will, it should be done without grudging or complaining," the Scriptures teach us. So – does what we NOW do, and what we NOW have bring us genuine joy without being yet perfect? Or - are "our eyes always on the ends of the earth" and is "the grass always greener elsewhere?" This sermon offers positive tools for assessing our personal joy-index, and what joy,...

This week’s parasha “VaYera” yields two themes and a sermon entitled “Two Comforts: Human Integrity & Divine Ubiquity” – both equally present and nourishing – so our Rabbi shared both. Also - quite unusually for our synagogue, the Rabbi shared a Christian music video with top tier musician Dolly Parton as a duet partner to Zach Williams, showing from “the other side of Two Testament culture how th...

Parshat "Lecha Lecha" – "Get Yourself Moving" – how Golda Meir turned a room full of totally uninterested observers into zealous co-laborers when their choices in that room that night might decide whether the new born State of Israel would live or die: and the Biblical precepts that apply.

The story of Noakh is perhaps the clearest and best known container of the idea of the existence of limits to God’s grace. We learn how to set healthy boundaries, and we see this week how often in Scripture God portrays this aspect of “shalom” (wholeness, not merely the absence of conflict) for us.

Rabbi Bruce brings his Comparative Literature chops to bear on one of the most-often misread and misapplied sections of Scripture used by God-Dodgers as an excuse to avoid The Scripture, claiming they are "obviously just myths, and untrue because they say the entire universe was created in 6 earth days 6,000 years ago." This Sermon is a GREAT "sharing tool" for anyone who has offered you the "mere...

On Erev Shabbat Hol HaMoed during Sukkot - a preparatory jaunt into the joy of being able to proclaim, "We Have A Torah!" (Yesh lanu Torah!). Contrasting God's laws with religious law erupting from the human mind, or what the New Testament calls, "doctrines from unclean spiritual sources." May the joy of having God's Torah (Teaching/Law) abound! Hag Sameakh!

The entire holiday of Sukkot emphasizes the transience of life - yet, we are commanded to rejoice for 7 straight days. How does one GENUINELY rejoice in ALL seasons, full and spare and everything in-between. There "a secret" to this Rav Saul tells us in the New Testament, "I have learned." Let's learn this precious secret also!

Given on "Shabbat Shuvah" 2021 – Beth El of Manhattan is the only synagogue of Two Testament Judaism having been in Manhattan before, during, and after "9/11" occurred. We lived and worked and ministered here. In the ensuring decade, ours was the only synagogue of any kind in all 5 New York Boroughs targeted for direct Islamic Terror threats: and it happened to us twice! Our story should be heard:...

RabbI Bruce Cohen, invited to share the Rosh Hashanah Sermon for Beit Ariel of Cape Town with which he has been involved as a 'shaliakh' since 1986 – a heartfelt outpouring of encouragement and exhortation to pour ourselves into "The Return" – the long-foretold thing God is doing with us in our era, scattered throughout the world, but pulled by God toward returning to our God, our Messiah and our...

פרשת נִצָּבִים Nitzavim, "we are standing here" before God to enter into covenant with Him ... or are we? Do we "tell" God what we are willing to do, and for how long? How do we leave His rightful Kingship over our lives in the hands of our rightful King?

פרשת כִּי־תֵצֵא In this parasha, we see God show compassion on us by giving us commandments which, if heeded, can prevent us from giving away our lives on impulse. It is human nature to be drawn to diverse genetic traits in mates – diversity helps us avoid genetic inbreeding are repeats of genetic errors. This good aspect of our instincts renders us vulnerable to being overwhelmed by an exotic, fo...

בּוֹנֵ֣ה יְרוּשָׁלִַ֣ם יְהוָ֑ה נִדְחֵ֖י יִשְׂרָאֵ֣ל יְכַנֵּֽס׃ "The LORD builds up Jerusalem; He regathers the outcasts of Israel." Much of the world has no idea what Israel is: they view it through the narrow lens of their own religious predispositions. This teaching from our weekly midweek "TnT" (Torah & Tefilah" - Teaching & Prayer) Meeting on 11 August 2021 after our Rabbi returned from 17 day...

פרשת רְאֵה What happens if we accept or decline God's invitation? Yeshua the Messiah taught us, "When invited by the Master, some began to make excuses, and for those reasons said to The Master, 'Please consider me excused.'" Now, the place is empty God Almighty intended to be yours since before time, itself, existed. What happens now?