Building a Tabernacle in our Heart - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

you know you could either have fear or a desire and i'm noticing that a lot of people are being crippled in the world by fear and we need to strengthen our desire and to figure out what that desire is about and jeremy you mentioned that you had a few moments of relief when you were out with the sheep and uh relief when you saw that the attention was being distracted from israel well i had a moment of relief over shabbat because uh i've had a few moments of anxiety not a lot of anxiety uh war was never something that scared me too much but for some reason uh now that i'm a father it does scare me more and when i'm watching these ukrainian refugees you know they're jews that say uh you know they were horrible the hillman keeper grums and their nazis and they voluntarily participated in the holocaust and they're the worst there's not no explanation no words no historical context can keep me from crying when i see a mother holding their two-year-old baby running from russia nothing that can be said can take the the pain and the compassion and the empathy away and so it's difficult to see all of that um but uh but you know when i was sitting in synagogue this shabbat and i was reading this torah portion i had a moment of relief and again i'm really not this isn't getting me it's not like really shaking me too much but it's a little bit anxiety there's some anxiety here can i see some hands of anyone that feels a little bit more anxious now with what's happening in the world okay so there's a lot of hands going up a lot of people are feeling it there's no you don't need to feel bad about that because when i was in synagogue yesterday i found myself reading the portion and you know the the we read the torah portion of truma and it details everything that will happen in the building and in the implement implementation of the of the mishkan of the tabernacle and then as we get to vayakel and pakude we see that the tabernacle is actually built right it's completed exactly as planned and there was something that comforted me about that because you know so many people are riddled with this fear and anxiety and despite the fact that the members of this fellowship are among the most faithful people i've ever met in my life a lot of you have reached out to me and shared your concerns and your anxieties and many of you have expressed your desire to come here and visit right now that the gates are open but but you're nervous some people said you're nervous about coming here during such an unstable time and others of you are nervous about not coming here during these times which makes a lot of sense to me as well this feels like the safest place in the world to me but it seems like nobody really knows what to do nobody knows where to go nobody knows if anywhere is ultimately going to be a shelter of safety in this world that is violently shaking to its foundations and so um so reading this portion helped me realize the truth that when god speaks his words do not return empty right his words do not return void he has a plan and regardless if we understand how it will play out his plan will be fulfilled in fullness and in perfection and the result of the completion of his plan will be that his shrina right his divine presence will rest in the world and if we think about it that's what the tabernacle was before the tabernacle god bestowed these miracles and gifts and kindnesses uh upon the nation of israel most of which we really barely deserved at all we didn't do much to really deserve it we were the recipients whether it was the ten plagues the exodus from egypt the manna in the desert but actually with the tabernacle well the tabernacle was a home that we could build for god it's something that we were called upon to take part in something that we could do for god so to speak at least so you know we we have these labors and desires and and generosity and right we there was generosity moshe moshe had to actually come and say enough you can't give any more hold back your donations there was such a desire now that we can actually do something there's such a desire to give and we were able to build a dwelling place in the world which god could dwell in if you think about it it's like the most massive unfathomable achievement or ability that we could build a dwelling place in the world that god could dwell in because ultimately that's what we're trying to make the entire world into a mishkan into that dwelling place and so you know we look around and it feels like so much of this is out of our hands there's putin and the ukraine and china and europe and syria and there's so many moving pieces and it doesn't really appear that there's anything that we can do about it but there is one thing that we can do we can build the tabernacle in our own heart that's something we can do for god right we can build a dwelling place deep in our hearts which is which is pure and it's untouched and it's sacred and we can fill that tabernacle with as much faith as we can muster right in in our hearts we can build this tabernacle within which the shrina can dwell and if we build this tabernacle in our hearts then when the winds within which world history begin to blow with even greater speed and ferocity and uh and we we feel it's happening right it doesn't feel like this is slowing down at any point but it's just starting to speed up and the spirit of war and hatred and inhumanity and godlessness are filling the world well then we're going to have a tabernacle in our hearts within which god can dwell and within which we can take refuge so i don't know if you feel like this but it just seems like the world is just a series of smoke screens and just distractions constantly it seems like that right look over here there's corona and the canadian truckers and google and facebook and bill gates and the russian and the ukraine and it's like holy cow like strategic nukes did russia just say they'll use nukes but what about corona weren't we just talking about corona that was like everything to us and now nobody even remembers what corona even is so the mystical writings say that in the times of machia their chicken grows as the egg decays right the chicken grows as the egg decays and i remember you know seeing the final hours before jeremy's adorable little chickens were born you know the very chickens that uh my dog would eventually come to eat for lunch and before they were born uh from the outside it looked like the shell was just thin and tenuous and deteriorating but the real story is what was happening on the inside right a new life was being born and that's what's happening right now you know we're all being distracted not just by certain things in this world from other things in this world but being distracted by everything that's happening in this world from the real story which is the story of meshiach and redemption that's being born right now right and the the egg is just starting to shake right and something beautiful is being born and we just have to keep that faith and that knowledge that as crazy as things seem to be from it we're seeing it from the outside from the inside god is bringing redemption and he's bringing salvation so i want to bless all of us that we should have divine help and success to fill ourselves with prayer and with faith and to build that tabernacle that holy tabernacle that we can fill with shechina that will not only be a place in this world that god can dwell in during these times but that we can take refuge in as well because you know week to week i don't know the next time we see each other what the world's going to be like you know we don't know what's going to happen it's like a whole week from now what's going to be until then so i want you all to know that jeremy and i were always praying for you we're praying for you our family is praying for you are we're with you even though we may be across the world that's only physically spiritually we're together and we are praying for each other and we love each other and hashem should bless all of you shalom shalom