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 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.

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 occasionally go "on the blink."

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 self.