Shavuot – Hag Symptomatic!
by Rabbi Cohen
“Nowhere in The Bible is any link made between Sinai and Shavuot.” – Rabbi Michael Strassfeld, THE JEWISH HOLIDAYS p 69 Harper Row 1985 Cambridge
Why do Two-Testament Jews practice Tikkun Leil Shavuot (all night study of Torah on Erev Shavuot)?
Ostensibly, our faith has a few bedrock stones in its foundation; and surely, Isaiah 8:20’s concept is among them: “To the Torah and the Testimony (of the Deut. 18 ratified prophets)! If they (any purveyor of allegedly sound religious ideas) do not speak in accord with that word, there is no dawn (actual inspired truth) in the them.”
Even someone as invested in Jewish practice as Rabbi Strassfeld of SAJ here in Manhattan, had to admit in the oxymoronic opening page of his Jewish Holidays book’s chapter on Shavuot – subtitled, “Revealing The Torah,” that “Nowhere in The Bible is any link made between Sinai and Shavuot.”
Strassfeld goes on to say, “The nature of Shavuot began to change after the destruction of The Temple in 70.c.e. Without The Temple, neither of the two agricultural rites of Shavuot could be observed. At some point in the rabbinic period (post 1st-century), connection began to be made with the Revelation at Sinai, which the Biblical text tells us occurred in the third month, or Sivan (Ex. 19:1).” (Strassfeld p. 71) Again – even a committed practitioner of the Matan Torah emphasis feels compelled in conscience to admit that before the removal of the 2nd Temple, there is no evidence of Jewish practice linking Shavuot observance to receiving the Torah at Sinai. That emphasis developed as an artifact of The Temple’s absence, the same way Rabban Yochanon ben Zakkai substituted good deeds for sacrifice with his out of context, partial quotation from Hosea (see Avot D’Rabbi Natan 4:5), and virtually created non-Messianic Judaism by that complete avoidance of the letter and spirit of Daniel 9:24ff and Isaiah 53.
There is, however, a significant body of Torah and Prophetic content – as well as New Testament content – on the concept of “firstfruits” and “the harvest.” Shavuot is, in the Scriptures, called Hag HaBikkurim (Feast of The Firstfruits).
Messianic congregations could be holding ceremonies in which the congregation stands to make the statement in Numbers 26:5 with all first-born children at the bima – and perhaps donate five shekels (the amount for which they were redeemed in their pidyon ha-ben as first-born infants) to their shul or some worthy Jewish cause. We could, in accord with the commandments regarding harvest, bring a portion of our income for that year thus far to be given to the widow and orphan – as Torah commands, and which allowed Ruth (whose book is read on Shavuot) to survive long enough as a poor sojourner to become the great-grandmother of King David. We could ponder the implications of Yeshua, the Suffering Messiah risen from the dead, as what 1Cor. 15:32 calls “firstfruits” of resurrection from the dead, and Believers as what Yaacov/James 1:18 calls “firstfruits among his creations.” We could hold all-night prayer vigils, seeking outpourings like the Acts 2 outpouring in our era.
I have always believed our People have as much to learn from what Messianic Jews do NOT do in line with historic Jewish custom, as what we do.
I became an Israeli media topic because I, as a rabbi, do not keep dairy/meat separation. I do not observe it because it has nothing to do with Judaism. If, by Judaism, you mean a Jewish faith expression consonant with the standard of Isaiah 8:20, and not some post-Biblical, medieval contrivance that has been absorbed across time as definitively “Jewish” in the same way the black coats and kaftans of the arch-Orthodox now seem so quintessentially Jewish, and were actually an attempt by European Jews hundreds of years ago to blend in with standard non-Jewish fashions of that era, and be less identifiably Jewish. My picture appeared in Yediot Achronot in a two page spread, with a caption next to my face reading in Hebrew, “HaRav ochel cheeseburger!” (The rabbi eats cheeseburgers!) It went on to explain in detail why I do. There is nothing non-Jewish, or anti-Scriptural about a cheeseburger – and certainly, in chicken parmesan, there is no chicken that ever gave cow’s milk in such a way that there is danger that the cheese on the chicken contains its mother’s milk.
Shavuot is The Holiday of the Firstfruits.
Shall we not treat it as such?
Shall we not cease merely “going with the flow” of a manner of observance that cooperates with avoidance of the doings of Heaven and all their implications? The Temple is gone by Heaven’s own doing – and the sacrificial system with it. We cannot practice Shavuot as it is written in the Torah. Messiah has come and died at exactly the time Scripture said he would (Daniel 9:24ff): between Cyrus of Persia’s decree to start rebuilding of The Temple (445 b.c.e.) and that rebuilt Temple’s subsequent destruction (70 c.e.). The need for an offering on Shavuot BEGS contemplation of that reality – and “Matan Torah” reformatting avoids it entirely.
I am all for healthy observance of the Acts 21:18-24 mandates that we observe Torah and hold to the customs of our ancestors: and as rabbi of a synagogue in the capital of the Jewish world outside Israel for nearly twenty years now, I am keen to be authentic and authoritative in our Jewish observance.
However, during Passover, I do not allow the post-Biblical total focus on the Exodus to obscure The Lamb to complete invisibility. “The Pesach” actually refers to the lamb sacrificed to insure the survival of the Jewish household. The Afikomen (“I have arrived.” in Greek) ceremony now embedded nearly ubiquitously standard Passover observance, is surely an artifact of 1st and 2nd century Messianic Jewish fulfillment of the Yeshua’s commands about the Passover matzah and wine, “As often as you do this, do it henceforth in remembrance of Me.” Two-Testament Judaism needs to be diligent in regard to its stewardship of The Book (Matt. 5:19).
What does Two-Testament Judaism have to bring to observance of Shavuot?
Heaven only knows. But – the key is in The Book.
In this rabbi’s opinion – an authentic, sound, and authoritative Shavuot will not be found going along with the “Matan Torah” reformatting of the holiday, and the Tikkun Leil Shavuot, dairy and greenery purchases, and all other amplifications of that emphasis, which even the most committed of Jewish traditionalists admits “is nowhere in The Bible.” The words “nowhere in The Bible” should not describe the foundation of any of our practices in my opinion.
So – while I wish all a “Hag Sameakh” – I see Shavuot right now more as “Hag Symptomatic.” Symptomatic of a great need among our People – and in Two-Testament Jewish faith also – to stop reading past the words on the page, adopt more caution in regard to desiring to “act Jewishly” – and become erudite in the actual content of Biblical Judaism, and its expressive practices.
Let’s sit down with a nice cheeseburger, and set to work on the recovery of The Holiday of The Firstfruits for our own, and following generations? May our children’s children see a Shavuot observance in their era that cannot even remotely be described by the words, “Nowhere in The Bible.”
Rabbi Bruce Cohen
19 May 2010
YouTube Videos of Rock Purim 2010 Available
by Rabbi Cohen
Videos of the individual songs from Beth El of Manhattan’s Purim 2010 Rock n’ Roll Worship Service are now available for free viewing online at my YouTube Channel [ http://www.youtube.com/brucohnyc ]. These videos are an improvement over last year’s, since we added the lyrics in captions. No more need to ask for the lyrics or look them up on a separate page. 
Enjoy.
The Night Before Pesach
by Rabbi Cohen
In 2008, I wrote this poem for the shul just before Passover last year.
As Pesach approaches this year, it seemed to me perhaps to deserve just one more time around the horn.
For whatever it may be worth – Happy Passover.
Rabbi Bruce
A SMALL SPONTANEOUS POEM FROM YOUR RABBI
8 April 2009
‘Twas the night before Pesach
And all through the house,
Not a bissel of chametz
Remained to de-louse.
Every corner was empty
Of crumbs and of pieces
No chameytz or se’or
Left for any meeces.
(I should have said “mice”
But “meeces” would rhyme
With the pieces I referenced
Just above it one line.)
So now comes the Seder
With Matzah and stuff
Meant to recall our journey
To freedom – quite rough!
But He did it – G-d took us
From under the whip
Through the sea and the desert
On a forty-year trip
In to chay-root – that’s “freedom”
In our ancient tongue,
Now in every language we say
“His will be done!”
And one final word
For all you Messianics
About how Yeshua
Fits into these antics;
The Passover Lamb
Sacrificed for us all
Had His last Pesach meal
Before he took our fall
On Himself – our atonement
Forever He made;
“Afikomen” – “I arrived”
Is the message relayed
To untold generations
Of all humankind
One G-d – One Messiah;
New life will unwind.
A sweet and a kosher
Passover to one and all;
May the Lamb in your hearts
Make the day joy in full.
Happy Pesach!
©Bruce L. Cohen 2008
Speaking Of Earthquakes
by Rabbi Cohen
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
TEN YEARS WALKING ON WATER – EVEN IN STORMS LIKE 9-11
by Rabbi Cohen
“Revive Your work, O L-rd, In the midst of the years.” – Hab. 3:2
Was it not the year 2000 a few moments ago?
We all only get so many chunks of time ten years in length. On what have we “spent” the last decade as a community in Manhattan?
Like the Zionist pioneers of the last century, we have ventured into a no-man’s land between two megalithic religious conventions and established a “chomah v’migdal” kibbutz in the very capital of the Jewish world outside Israel. Why have we all done this, and why are we doing it still?
The passage we read often from Avot D’Rabbi Natan reminds us of the clear moment when “non-Messianic” Judaism was created by Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, and for the first time, a Judaism without blood atonement of any kind was wrongly proffered to our bewildered and newly wandering People.
Two-Testament (“Messianic”) Judaism – a Judaism locating atonement exactly in the place to which the Tanakh points after the destruction of the Temple (Dan. 9:24ff) is an idea that would remain only an idea unless someone lives it; and living it does not mean putting on t-shirts and handing out papers to people on their way to work, or taking Manhattan photo-ops and publishing them in newsletters to Christians for funds. It means establishing communities actually “not forsaking the synagoguing of yourselves (Jewish Believers) together, as is the habit of some.” (Heb. 10:25) Some Jewish followers of Yeshua of Nazareth as Messiah did cease living congregational life as Messiah-following Jews: they melted into the ever-increasing mass of the non-Jewish faith world, and those populating Jewish faith turf for Messiah dwindled, even as the number of Jewish souls standing the ground of Eretz Yisrael faded in the wake of the Temple’s destruction two millennia ago.
What have we all built together so far?
A Jewish Two-Testament community that worships so vibrantly within Hebrew and Jewish paradigms that when we go the The Wall in Jerusalem, we virtually lead the worship there!
An independent presence in Manhattan having endured longer than any other such effort, no matter how well funded from the outside.
A congregation reported in The Jerusalem Post, the Jerusalem Report, Yediot Achronot, and virtually every major news organ in the greater New York area at one time or another.
An assembly able to survive …
- The World Trade Center attack of 9-11
- Direct, repeated threats of radical Muslim violence against our synagogue
- And many other trials of patience, commitment, and loyalty to truth above all.
We were here before, during, and after 9-11.
We are here still.
We did not rush into Manhattan in 2001 for a few days, have some photos taken of us “ministering” before visible New York landmarks, and then run back to the countryside to publish the photos of us “ministering” to Manhattan in fundraising newsletters. We lived and ministered here: before, during, and after. Our presence in Manhattan was and is a matter of calling, not fiscal opportunity and image-creation.
We did not come here to exploit The City – nor desert it in its darkest hours.
We came here to love The City.
We came here to be a testimony to The City.
We came here to be part of The City.
It is said, when the King of England asked his Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, for proof of the existence of God, Disraeli is said to have answered, “Your Majesty, the Jews.”
The mere survival of the Jewish nation was, itself, so miraculous that Disraeli felt merely pointing the King’s attention to the continued presence of the Jewish people in the world was sufficient to create faith in the existence of God as the Scriptures held Him forth.
We are here.
At Park Avenue and 64th Street in the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
We have been in the Upper East Side of Manhattan since August 27th, 1993. In three years, this synagogue will be twenty years old. Twenty years – in Manhattan – where a room the size of our sanctuary rents for $25,000 per day and a two bedroom apartment costs over $1 million dollars. Where our larger Jewish community’s entrenchment into ossified faith-structures is more profound than anywhere other than Jerusalem.
The gait of a man walking on water is most likely far less impressive in its stability and balance than that of a man standing squarely on terra firma: but the stance of which of two such men affirms that the power of God enables his very presence where he stands? I doubt that Shimon Peter looked like Superman walking on the water of Kinneret toward His Messiah: but he was walking on water – and one does not need to walk on water easily to be miraculous in so doing: all one needs to do is do it – whether handily or with less than agile grace – and a miracle has occurred.
Rav Saul (Paul the Apostle) wrote, “We have this treasure (the Spirit of G-d and His truth) in earthen vessels that the excellency of power might be of God and not of us.(2Cor. 4:7) He also wrote of his congregation in Corinth (the New York of the ancient world), “We are not many, and we are not mighty” (1Cor. 1:26).
I write this last blog of the year 2009, of the decade 2000 to 2009 – to a synagogue walking on water.
I write to “the flock that stands” in season and out of season.
You are still here.
I write to the synagogue that survived the “9-11″ and stayed in place.
You are still here.
I write to congregants standing turf that must be stood, for no other reason than Jewish feet must occupy Two Testament Jewish faith soil for Two Testament Judaism to be more than just an interesting idea.
You are still here.
I write to congregants with cancer repeatedly having beaten the odds and living on, and congregants with botched heart surgery whose hearts were miraculously healed afterwards by prayer in this shul.
You are still here.
I write to shul families having surmounted the challenges to marriage and family cohesion.
You are still here.
I write to single people having fought the battle of moral honor for long seasons.
You are still here.
I write to children becoming young adults, facing the time to choose following truth or not.
You are still here.
I write to people overcoming financial challenges in the most financially challenging place on earth.
You are still here.
I write to those who have sincerely ministered love and support – at times, even to insincere people who abused that love and trust for mere personal gain or motives.
You are still here.
I write to the “virtual” synagogue accruing to Beth El – those people not living in New York, but writing in from all over the world and telling us they are gathering in small groups to listen to our Podcasts and feed on the vision embarking from here.
You are now here – and we shall see what the future may bring.
I write to the Va’ad, Trustees, and Ministerial Staff of this synagogue, who serve “in season and out of season” to allow this vision of Testament Judaism to survive and thrive in Manhattan – and even begin to extend to Jerusalem.
You are still here.
For what do we look, as we enter a new decade together?
“Yad chazah, u’zroah netuyah.”
God’s “mighty hand and outstretched arm.
We are not a product and we have nothing to sell.
We are offering something on G-d’s behalf in a good a conscience and as correct a manner as possible. (1Cor. 1:12)
We are a “kehillah kedoshah” – a holy community.
We are here, we believe, by the direction of HaShem, and endure by His enablement.
We “walk on water” in Manhattan solely because it is His pleasure we do so.
Our ambition? George Washington’s words engraved on the south side of the Washington Monument in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village say it well:
“Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest may repair.”
Our goal is to “lift up a standard over the people.” Faith genuine, accurate, honest, unaltered.
Washington concluded, “The event is in the hands of G-d.”
We will not be event-makers, event-chasers, marketers, publicists, direct-mail merchants, MBA’s, economists, photo-op specialists, or the like.
We will – by the grace of G-d – seek to be the kind of people through whom The Almighty would wish to work when He lifts up His mighty hand and outstretched arm on behalf of our Jewish people here in Manhattan, in the greater New York area – Jerusalem – and wherever his unlimited resources are unleashed.
Where will we be in 2019?
What will Beth El of Manhattan be then?
Heaven only knows.
What I know for now is – I plan to meet you in shul every Tuesday night and Saturday night between now and then with all I can muster of heart, soul and mind, my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor.
The last ten years have seen us stand our ground here, establish a presence in Jerusalem, and come onto the radar of the entire Jewish world through its best-known media organs — and all of it — through no direct contrivance of our own. We are simply being who we are – and seeking, by the grace of G-d, to do what we are supposed to do.
Where will the doing of G-d take us next?
I look forward to seeing how our journey together unfolds.
Happiest of New Years – and New Decades.
Your rabbi in all seasons -
Rabbi Bruce L. Cohen
31 December 2009
