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 mythology" rebuttal.

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: and here, in this sermon, twenty years after – it is. May it be all for shalom.

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 national identity/Homeland.

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, foreign exterior. In this parasha, we see a pattern for making sure whom we think we love, we actually do "love" as a person.

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 days in Israel, is a real eye-opener as to what God is doing ... and how we can seek and find our place in His plans.

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?

On 9th of Av in the Jewish lunar calendar, both the 1st and 2nd Temples were destroyed on the same date: the 1st in 586 bce and nearly 700 years later, the 2nd in 70 ce. The Sages of Israel attribute God's choice to erase our Temples and scatter our nation primarily due to "seenát ḥeenám" (baseless hatred). This Shabbat, we seek to understand "baseless" as a description of truth being lost and replaced by contrived and inaccurate "narratives." We hope to learn from our history, so we do not repeat the worst episodes. May it all be for shalom.