“Connectedness, Right and Wrong” (2010/01/30) Sermon Audio
Torah Portion: BeShalakh – Ex 13:17-17:16, Judge 4:4-5:31
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Torah and T’filah (Study & Prayer)
| January 5, 2010 | ||
| 7:00 pm | to | 9:00 pm |
| 7:00 pm | to | 9:00 pm |
| January 12, 2010 | ||
| 7:00 pm | to | 9:00 pm |
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| January 19, 2010 | ||
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| January 26, 2010 | ||
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| February 2, 2010 | ||
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| February 9, 2010 | ||
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| February 16, 2010 | ||
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| February 23, 2010 | ||
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| March 2, 2010 | ||
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| March 9, 2010 | ||
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| March 16, 2010 | ||
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| March 23, 2010 | ||
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| March 30, 2010 | ||
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ttendance limited to Beth El members and invited guests:
Torah (teaching) and T’filah (Prayer) have been going on every Tuesday in Manhattan’s Upper East Side for the last 15 years. Come be a part of New York’s longest enduring Messianic Jewish (Two-Testament) congregation. Tuesday Bible studies are for members only, because of the deeply personal nature of intercessory prayer. Come and explore the adventure of Scripture study and prayer! Info@bethelnyc.org or call (212) 772-7500
Come join us for Shabbat Services this and every Saturday morning at 10:30 am.
| January 9, 2010 | ||
| 10:30 am | to | 12:30 pm |
| January 16, 2010 | ||
| 10:30 am | to | 12:30 pm |
| January 23, 2010 | ||
| 10:30 am | to | 12:30 pm |
| January 30, 2010 | ||
| 10:30 am | to | 12:30 pm |
| February 6, 2010 | ||
| 10:30 am | to | 12:30 pm |
| February 13, 2010 | ||
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| February 20, 2010 | ||
| 10:30 am | to | 12:30 pm |
| February 27, 2010 | ||
| 10:30 am | to | 12:30 pm |
| March 6, 2010 | ||
| 10:30 am | to | 12:30 pm |
“Explanations” (2010/01/23) Sermon Audio
Torah Portion: Bo – Ex 10:1-13:16, Jer 46:13-28
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Speaking Of Earthquakes
אמן אמן אני אומר לך, את אשר אנו יודעים. אנו מדברים. – ישוע המשיח
“Truly, truly I say to you, we speak that which we know.” – John 3:11
When natural or major disasters hit, it is the habit or compulsion of some religious leaders to say something definitive about why the disaster happened. These pronouncements often take the form in which CBN spokesman, Pat Robertson made his January 13th statements on the supposed cause of the recent earthquake in Haiti.
I gave a sermon on this religious phenomenon this past Shabbat (January 16th), and offer it into the conversation regarding what religious leaders’ roles are – and are not – when disaster strikes.
Chiefly, my sermon embarks from the above text from Yochanon, and the stunningly clear, sane, and humanizing rule Yeshua our Messiah gives to us for speaking about anything: “we speak that which we know.” Conversely, we strive not to say things we do not know, as if we do know: and there is a vast difference between knowing something (as a certainty) and thinking, feeling, intuiting, or guessing at it.
It is my hope this sermon is helpful to anyone in the faith world laboring over the nearly instantaneous death and maiming of 100,000 human beings in a natural disaster in contrast to the “God is good all the time” reductionist epithets rife in certain religious sectors, along with a co-dependent compulsion to “get God off the hook” (as if He is not big enough to take care of Himself), which usually takes the form of blaming the victims of the disaster – along with the presence of certain marketing dynamics motivating religious leaders to assume the role of “the one who knows what God is doing.”
As a survivor close by the 9-11 World Trade Center attacks here in Manhattan, I still marvel that the only two voices in the world following that disaster who were publicly blaming the victims – rather than the perpetrators – were some Muslim extremists sympathetic to the terrorists, and some fundamentalist Christians in the United States.
My sermon, “Earthquake in Haiti” can be found on our shul’s website under the Sermons button (http://bethelnyc.org/category/sermons), or on iTunes in the Beth El of Manhattan Podcast (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=261742853).
May it be for truth and shalom.
Rabbi Bruce Cohen
20 January 2010
“Earthquake in Haiti” (2010/01/16) Sermon Audio
Torah Portion: VaEra – Ex 6:2-9:35, Ezek 28:25-29:21
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
“Upgrading Moses” (2010/01/09) Sermon Audio
Torah Portion: Shemot – Ex 1:1-6:1, Isa 27:6-28:13, 29:22-23
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
