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.

The story of the reaction of Pinchas reveals to us how we can be in lock-step with God and how that condition manifests in action! INCLUDED BONUS: a brief teaching on "A Tale of Two Spellings," resolving the movement-wide issue of "Yeshua" vs. "Y'shua" – is there a genuinely, clearly correct first-name spelling of The Messiah? Happily, the answer is, "Yes." A VIDEO of the "Tale of Two Spellings" (not the entire sermon) is provided, because the teaching on Hebrew vowels has important Visual Aids supporting it.

Bil'am heard and knew the will of God – and connived to do otherwise. King Saul did the same, and was told, "because you have rejected the word of The Lord, God has rejected you from being king." Being religious, but "rejecting the Word of The Lord" is how Bil'am and King Saul met their fates we all hope to avoid. So, this week, let's learn from their "anti-models" – and strengthen our relationship with our Father in Heaven.

The song entitled, "Cover Me In Sunshine" by contemporary songstress, "Pink" on her album "All I Know So Far" was the inspiration for this attempt to get to the core of what every heart expects from God – how we handle "the real world" as we grow past youthful fantasies of life as a kind of Disneyworld-on-Earth – and how evildoing often arises from people simply trying to get enough of a slice of the pie to feel some measure of security and dignity for themselves, their dear ones, or the "crew" on earth they consider "their" circle of interest. A special section in presents the Biblical passages explaining WHY Israel's enemies ceaselessly bear down on the Jewish State and the Jewish People.

It is basic human "hardwiring" to weave stories giving us a sense of safety, starting as children believing our parents to be all-wise and all-powerful - thus creating a sense of perfect safety. This natural instinct both SERVES and HARMS us. How do God-followers & truth-seekers escape this trap, when we are commanded to "speak truth in our hearts" and "cease lying, and speak (only) truth to one-another" as Scripture clearly directs us? "The truth," Messiah taught us, "will make us free." Let's get free.

This week's parasha contains the source of our Manhattan synagogue's logo since 1993: the image of Joshua & Caleb bringing back the "eshkol" – the huge cluster of fruit of The Land; and in our logo, the central fruit has a Jewish star embedded in it. The symbol is of 2 people out of 10 who "got it." They had the clarity, the courage, and the trust in God to GO TO where God wanted them, and DO WITH VIGOR what God wanted them to do – despite the risks involved. This from-the-heart idea is shared by Rabbi Bruce with the Cape Town congregation he has been serving intermittently as a shaliakh since 1986.

We explore via the commandment in this portion to the Levites, that they be "cleansed for fitness to serve God," and Peter the Shaliakh's mandate that to be healthy spiritually, our godly qualities must grow, not stagnate ... we celebrate Asian Jewishness in our synagogue and the world at large - and the multiracial nature of both the Jewish nation and all humankind. In age of increased "Othering" - we seek to "give effort to the spirit of unity and the bond of peace," as Paul exhorted us in Ephesians 4.

God is a Person. He cannot only be "known about," but "known." Far too many "Believers" relate to God as if relating to or liking ideas about Him is the same thing as the "knowing God" Scripture holds forth as necessary. This sermon explores the two primary ways God communicates with human beings interested in being governed by Truth. (There a bonus at the end: a song based on Psalm 95 called "Ki El Gadol Adonai" (A Great God Is The Lord) from a Jerusalem worship band we have been featuring in our service broadcasts. Enjoy!

Peace in The Middle East? Really? With 3000 rockets fired by Hamas from Gaza onto Israel – and things heating up again for the nth time in memory - is there ANY GENUINE HOPE for peace between Israel and the hundreds of millions of Arabs surrounding her, and living inside her borders? Thank God, the answer is YES – a long future of peace is FORETOLD in the Scriptures - and we will look at those encouraging passages and precepts in this sermon.