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

Yom Kippur: A Fast Too Fast

by Rabbi Cohen

Dear Beth El,

Shalom. Never in my life can I remember ending a Yom Kippur not hungry, not thirsty, filled with energy, and wishing the prayer vigil could go on – and on – and on. As I, your surprised rabbi, see another Yom Kippur come and go more quickly, more effortlessly, and more spiritually dynamically (especially during the afternoon Prayer/Worship vigil) with each passing year … I can’t resist saying the following things.

1. Thank you to everyone who did anything to make it happen.

Scott, Billy, and the Mishkanites for set up and tear town twice in two days. Debi, Wendy, Rowena, Beth, MeeAe, Michelle, April, and Paul … and anyone else who pitched into the oneg+kiddush set up, service, and clean up. Yum. Wow. Urp. Lance – for the service outlines and additional readers contact work. Iain, Randy, Billy, Wendy, Scott, & Matt for the worship leading all afternoon. Iain for soundboard management under different and challenging circumstances.

2. Thank G-d for a Yom Kippur so different from the ones with which I grew up!

It is hard to express how amazing – how different – how life-giving and life-changing the shul life we have is, as compared to what I grew up with. My eldest son had the chance, at the time of his Bar Mitzvah, to visit the non-Messianic Bar Mitzvahs of two of his classmates right here in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, in the Jewish nexus of the neighborhood … one before his own ceremony, and one after — and the bookend experience drove home to him how special, real, dynamic and precious is the spirituality with which he has grown up in Beth El of Manhattan.

Every one of you who is sincerely seeking God, seeking to walk in His will for your life, and seeking to live a right life before God, is contributing to the atmosphere of the community we all are building together … and one day, it will not be only my children, or a few visitors who partake of its dynamism and reality — by the grace of G-d, in His time, I believe it will be a significant portion of the House of Israel here in the Capital of Judaism outside Israel – Manhattan’s long-unreached Jewish community.

So, we “remain in the City until we are endued with power from On High.”

Such is HaShem’s pleasure for us for the time being.

But our “remaining” is not passive.

We “remain” like Leonidas and the 300 Spartans “remained” in Thermopylae pass: being the best version of G-d’s soldiers/ambassadors we can be.

Kadima. We really mean it. Kadima. Let’s go forward.

No one has ever succeeded at building and sustaining what we are building and sustaining, where we are building and sustaining it.

We hope we are not alone in this … but see more and more Two Testament Judaism in Manhattan as the years go by.

The more, the merrier. (In good order, of course.)

Yesterday’s Yom Kippur was a step forward, in this rabbi’s view.

Never in my life can I remember ending a Yom Kippur not hungry, not thirsty, filled with energy, and wishing the prayer vigil could go on – and on – and on.

I spent around 1/2 an hour packing up my guitar equipment after the service, without noticing I had not eaten or drunk yet after the fast ended.

I had to be reminded to stop packing and come down to the Kiddush, so full of energy and so void of hunger, and still so full of the spirit of the day’s services.

Palmakh Prayer, anyone?

Shanah tovah – and sincere thanks again to everyone who helped to make it the amazing day it was.

Shalom.

__________________

Rabbi Bruce Cohen

www.bethelnyc.org || www.rabbibrucecohen.org

Believers and Black Swan Scotoma

by Rabbi Cohen

This is the third blog-essay I have been moved to write by the simple sentiment expressed by American President Abraham Lincoln: “We dare not promise what we ought not, lest we be called upon to deliver that which we cannot.” – Abraham Lincoln

Since at one time not so very long ago, I wrote and edited definitions for a well-known dictionary for a living, I do not mind starting out this essay with a definition:

sco•to• ma | scah-tó-ma | the psycho-physiological process

by which the mind sees within an entire field of vision only what

parts of the entirety it chooses to see.

I write the following with the greatest of respect for the ministry and sincerity of musician, Stephen Curtis Chapman. One day before this famed Christian singer-songwriter’s teenage son ran over and killed the singer’s seven year old daughter with their family ’s car, Chapman could have been the author of faith-based “how to” books on acquiring meaning, impact, fame, fortune, and family happiness in the path of God-following; and Believers desiring the same blessings would buy the books by the ten-thousands, hoping to learn how Chapman “did” it, so they can “do” the same things, and “get” the same results.

One day after the Chapman tragedy, his target market for such a book would have dwindled to near zero. No one would want to “do” what he did, and “get” what he “got.” If Chapman later wrote a book, it would most likely be on “how to” survive and recover from such a tragedy and remain a Believer; and his market would be entirely different for that book. It would be bought by Believers whose lives have also been touched by deep darkness, who are also looking for a way to survive the devastation Heaven saw fit to allow into their lives. It would probably have nearly as little value for the man on the street as the previous book on success; because the man on the street does not have what is surely among the most important keys to Chapman’s “keeping on keeping on” – the knowledge that his income and continued fame derive from his public commitment to his faith, and his private adherence to it in such a manner that exposure as a fake could not ruin that income and status.

Right now, Joel Osteen is the poster-boy for Two-Testament faith’s “positive” side. Big congregation, apparent family blessings with spouse and children, impact, happiness, apparent “favor” from On High. How does he do it?

The truth is – Osteen has no more idea why deep darkness has not touched his children, than Chapman knows why it has touched his. Marketing what Osteen “has” right now is as ingenuine as it would have been for Chapman to market what he “had.” Both men are clueless. Scripture declares it so. In Ecclesiastes, King Solomon goes out of his way to point out that anyone who is actually looking at the whole world instead of a small slice of it can see plainly there are wicked people having a great time, and righteous people suffering devastation, as well as the opposite, and every stripe in between. Art DeMoss, among the premiere evangelical philanthropists of our era, dropped dead suddenly on the tennis court at age 50; and a short while later, one of his children was horrifically injured and impaired in an automobile accident. Before this season, every New Testament zealot with assets wanted to be Art DeMoss – and afterwards? We see Nancy DeMoss from time to time on talk shows and in print interviews describing how she keeps on keeping on. Yet – do you see high ratings for cable re-runs of any Art DeMoss interviews, tapings, how to be like Art seminars, or the like? Yet – you cannot turn on cable or satellite without seeing in fairly short order somewhere on the channel guide … you guessed it … Joel Osteen.

Most people who buy “how to” books buy them to learn how to become like the author, and acquire things the author has that they want. Many people adhere to faith because they believe their adherence buys them a certain amount of insulation from disaster, or advantage in competition for resources. Both sets of customers are walking in delusion. God has never been a reliable source of invulnerability or credit in the human sense: His faithfulness to his promises is peppered with irregularities that boggle our minds and bewilder our spirits. Consider the following ideas.

A mathematician and options trader by the name of Nassim Nicholas Taleb caught my attention a while back as I was listening to Bloomberg Business Radio on my way to lead our regular midweek prayer meeting in Manhattan. He spoke of how misleading much or most of the entire stock advising business was, existing on what he called, “the illusion of being able to turn a mathematical uncertainty into a certainty.” The uncertainty is whether or not a particular investment or array of them will do well. The advisor creates the illusion that he or she somehow has the knowledge and experience to be able to turn that uncertainty into a certainty: all the while, issuing in very small print disclaimers about past performance being no reliable indicator of future success. The reason the print is small is because what it says is unattractive, and the reader is usually too lazy to read it, or is using the smallness of print to avoid reading what he does not want to know. The small print is there because without it, the claims of the advisor are false advertising due to … you guess ed it … promising a certainty he is unable to provide.

In his best sellers, “The Black Swan” and “Fooled by Randomness,” Taleb explains how the impact of small-but-crucial factors in success creating extreme randomness in whether either success or failure actually happen, make virtual folly out of any “system” or “expertise” claiming to overcome the uncertainty. This truth is made obvious by a few simple observations:

- The most successful investors in the world have had their behavior tracked, analyzed, distilled, and then published into “how he did it” books – none of which reproduce another Warren Buffett, Donald Trump, or other baron of investing.

- Almost none of the genii guiding people’s investments have been able to predict the stock market crashes of 1929, 1987, or 2008.

- Almost none of the people guiding others’ investments are überwealthy themselves. Most investment advisors are “grunts” having earned degrees in undergraduate college, or perhaps a master’s in business or math: but have no record of success and no substantial wealth, themselves. Yet, as “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” author Robert Kiyosaki points out, people still put their fortunes into the hands of these people who cannot genuinely guarantee or predict anything, and are often less wealthy than the people whose investments they advise.

Moreover, people still buy the “how to” books by the millions, thus increasing author-baron’s success while continuing not to obtain their own – and seem not to notice this pattern.

Why?

There is a story about Arthur Miller, the playwright, that after he won the Pulitzer Prize for his play, Death Of A Salesman, he took a stroll through the old, poor neighborhood in which he grew up – and saw an old friend selling hot dogs as a street vendor. They greeted each other and the vendor asked what Artie had been doing. He responded, “I became a playwright – and my play just won the Pulitzer Prize!” The vendor shook his head as he made a hot dog for his old friend, and said, “Yeahhhh – play writing: I shoulda gone into that.”

It is astonishing that any a reasoning process could believe for a fraction of a moment that the difference between a hot-dog vendor’s life and Arthur Miller’s is only the choice of whether or not to become a playwright. If he had done a few of the things Artie did, naturally he would be just like Artie: right? Obviously, not.

In a recent movie called, The Incredibles, about a family of superheroes, the parents try to get their gifted son, Dash, to hold back his speed so his other classmates won’t feel badly about not being as fast. The mother tells Dash, “Remember, everybody is special in some way.” Dash hangs his head and replies sotto voce, “Saying ‘everybody is special’ is the same as saying ‘no one is.’” Smart boy. King Solomon – a very special person – put what Dash’s parents were trying to say this way: “I have seen an evil in the earth, that for every good thing a person accomplishes, his neighbor is exceedingly jealous.”

Here is the delusion upon which the Investment Advisors and the Joel Osteens feed: the inaccurate notion that the only difference between the life of Warren Buffett and the guy living in poverty, or Joel Osteen and the guy with three out of his five kids having Multiple Sclerosis – is nothing but a series of steps anyone can learn, and which will transform anyone from who they are into Warren Buffett or Joel Osteen.

Where am I going with this?

Joel Osteen cannot tell you why the Chapman’s little girl died while his kids are still all alive; but Joel Osteen and his like can ONLY sell you his books and CDs if he or his marketing team can get you – if not directly, then by implication – to believe he DOES know and CAN teach YOU. The only difference between the televangelist playing to huge crowds and you – is a few things you need to know how to do, that a master or guru can teach you. Of course, you pay them to get the information you hope will be your fiscal and social salvation – so more money goes into their success column – while you do what? For the most part, you remain who you are and what you are. What is really going on in this ongoing game?

The Book of Job comes into play here.

It is not a book about how to handle disaster.

It is a book about facing human cluelessness.

It tells us Job did not curse God or sin with his lips, but it does not give us much information on how he achieved this. At the end of the book, we receive no shattering insight. Job tells us that he heard of God before, now he sees him clearly: but he does not clarify the difference between his earlier and later experiences. We are left mystified because the book of Job is not a book of self-help secrets for handling hard times: it is a book about how utterly absent we are of enough crucial information to know definitively what any given situation really “means”.

Job’s main theme is that we humans are so far out of the loop that the only thing we genuinely know is that we know too little to know what is really going on in human affairs. The Book of Job starts by showing us the actual motivations of Job’s situation occur in another universe to which he barely has access. They involve matters between God and His Adversary (sah-tahn) in Hebrew. The core-factors at play are never even factors of which Job and his friends are aware. Job’s friends’ offerings of analysis and advice are not only worthless in the end, but are offenses against the truth so foul that God says it will take forgiving intercession from Job to prevent them from being punished from On High for their little advisories.

Neither testament of Jewish Scripture is allergic to the idea of a mystery.

Everybody wants a pass: some people seem to get them.

But we never genuinely know why one person has it tough and another easy.

Why does one child die and another live?

Why does one person seem to suffer and another seem to luxuriate?

Why does one person appear blessed while someone far less righteous endures hardship or loss.

If you say you know … you may have joined the company of Job’s comforters and the self-help booksellers club.

Nassim Taleb wrote in Fooled by Randomness, “It is impossible to assess the quality of the knowledge we are gathering without allowing a share of randomness in the manner it is obtained, and cleaning the argument from the chance coincidence that could have seeped into its construction.”

There are too many untraceable random and chance factors in the success of Warren Buffett, or the suffering of Stephen Curtis Chapman, for anyone to write a “how to” or “how not to” book on either.

The ancient Greek philosopher, Solon, was asked by the immensely rich King Croesus to declare if Croesus was the happiest man on earth. Solon’s response what that due to his knowledge of how suddenly and drastically a man’s circumstances can change, Solon could not make such a declaration until the life of the king was over. Later, when Cyrus of Persia had conquered Croesus and was about to put him to death, the Greek king told the Persian ruler of Solon’s words, and that he was prepared to die: Cyrus was so moved, he spared life of Croesus. None of these twists and turns could be seen by Croesus when he considered himself the happiest of all men on earth; and in Hebrew, the word “happy” is also rendered “blessed” (ashér).

To put people in the pews, sell books and teaching series, we dare not pretend that we know more than we do. We dare not promise (nor imply promises) we ought not, lest we be called upon to deliver that which we cannot – and so become religious frauds.

There is great merit in calling a mystery a mystery.

There is great comfort in letting go of the notion that faith is a magic one can learn, which will repel all harm and attract all enjoyment.

God takes complete responsibility for the full range of the human experience: “I kill and I make alive, there is no other God with me,” – and “Not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from Your Heavenly Father.” He is in it all – not just the fun stuff.

He has not built the universe as we would have.

The universe does not “work” as we think it should.

What did King Solomon of Israel tell us he gleaned from a long life of observation as one of the most gifted intellectuals in history? “The final word on everything is this: respect God and obey his commands, because this is all humanity.” What does this mean?

These two choices are in reality all any human being has within actual reach. We can choose to honor the reality of eternity and we can choose to obey the promptings of moral law set in our hearts (Ps. 19, Romans 1, Ecclesiastes 3:11). Beyond that – we are in the company of The Black Swan whenever he shows up; and he arrives always without warning, and contrary to the “how to” books pontifications the prevention of his arrival.

Abraham Lincoln said, “We dare not promise what we ought not, lest we be called upon to deliver that which we cannot.”

Believers cannot deliver certainty of any kind – and it should not be part of what we “market.”

And we cannot advance the kingdom of truth merely by telling people the lies we know they most want to hear.

We can wholeheartedly advocate the merits of truth, truthfulness, and truth-following.

This we should do.

Truth should be followed because it is true.

God should be honored because He is God.

Any guarantees of what people choosing to walk these paths might “get” from it – other than the eternity of blessedness the exact description of which Scripture directly tells us “had not entered into the mind or heart of humankind” – is folly and fraud.

Folly and fraud are not the bricks of which the kingdom of truth will be built.

We are not “selling” anything.

We are supposed to be holding for truth for anyone who wants it.

Holding forth something that is attractive but untrue may put people in the pews – but they will not be the people Scripture describes as “saved” (2Thess. 2:11), and we in the pulpit will not be doing them any good by preaching with our fingers crossed, hoping nothing ill befalls them we cannot, with our pontifications on CDs and DVDs for a mere $19.95 per set, nor for people’s weekly tithes and offerings, explain away.

Rabbi Bruce L. Cohen

New York City

8 July 2009

Earlier edit of Korach blog mistakenly sent out

by Rabbi Cohen

To all who read my Blog: an earlier version of my blog on Korach went out before the edits were finished. My mistake. Please disregard and delete it and refer to the actual finished version on the site’s “Rabbi’s Blog” page under the header of that title. Thank you. – R”B