Emet Inspire - Rabbi Yakov Musheyev - Want To Do Something Different This Year?

Welcome back to this week's Emtt in Inspire. Little known fact, um the last time that we were in Israel, um and we were a sovereign country, um we uh eventually uh descended into civil war and there was a lot of chaos, internal chaos and each faction in the civil war invited a foreign power to help them. One side invited Greece, the other side invited uh an Arabian king. And uh eventually these foreign powers took very strong interest in Israel and said, "Hey, why are we why are we using this as a proxy? Let's just take over." And eventually unfortunately um the land of Israel eventually um fell into foreign hands and the Jews lost sovereignty over their own land uh because this internal feud forced them to to seek outside help. Um and that really started a downward a a downward spiral uh until the destruction of the betach and the destruction of our own sovereignty and we were at the mercy of foreign powers until about 100 until about 70 years ago around 100 years ago where um we we we now are able to be more or less free in the west and more or less uh we have a sovereign nation in Israel. Um the truth is that we can lose it again um with internal uh conflict. Uh and the truth is that Hashem said that um it it really only took 70 years uh after the first temple was destroyed to come back to Israel and rebuild. Uh because it was the the the main issue that we were thrown out of Israel was that we broke the three cardinal sins. There was a lot of murder amongst the Jewish population. um a lot of idolatry and and other sins. And the the interesting thing is that those sins all combined um um are at at the very least just as bad as um baseless hatred, which is actually what causes civil wars and stuff like that. And we need to replace that with baseless love. So we might think, you know, it's so hard. What else am I going to talk about around the dinner table around, you know, in in in in Shul I have to speak badly about this person or that community or that country? There's there's nothing else to talk about. And the the truth is it might be a challenge, but you know what? It it might be worthwhile because lives real lives are at stake over here. Um our sovereignty in Israel is at stake. Um foreign powers are already salivating over the thought of controlling Israel more directly. So, it's really um interesting to see that um people are willing to give up a lot in life in order to have a future goal. And we should do the same with when it comes to security in the state of Israel, security in our communities. Um God told us that our security depends on how much we love each other, how much we can get along with each other and inner fighting and bickering. the more inner fighting and bickering, the less safety there is. There's a direct correlation between that in our history and right now in our uh recent very recent history which we can see with October 7th. And um we have to we have no choice. We have to do this. Um and those of us living on planet Earth, anywhere on planet Earth, know that we really have no friends. um whatever friends we thought we had, we we realized very quickly after October 7th that we do not have them anymore. We can't rely on them. We literally can only rely on each other. And so if you see a guy who looks very different, but he's Jewish, but he has funny things hanging down from the side of his his head, he's your brother. Um and if he's kidish and he looks at us, he looks at us as his brother. If you go to certain hospitals in Brooklyn, you'll see um right before Shabbat, people carrying huge bags of Shabbat food, giving it to every Jewish patient in the hospital for free. These are um charity organizations that um collect money to to be able to supply food for people who didn't have plans, let's say, for before Shabbat. Uh the truth is, if they're Bahin, they probably brought the whole kitchen with them to the hospital. But um they don't ask you, wait, are are you kid? uh they don't do that. If you're Jewish and you're in need of some food or in need of somewhere to stay, they always have your back. And the truth is we can copy that that model within our community and we can look at our community as brothers and sisters. Anyone who needs help, let's help them out. So, um, and the truth is practically, um, within Israel, um, one of the biggest issues, if we're being honest, one of the biggest issues is the the the fact that there is a a deep divide between several factions in Israel, which keep fighting each other, Jewish factions within Israel, which keep fighting each other and weakening each other. And it's a reality that everyone knows. And the moment that that stops is the moment that our enemies will literally be frightened of us because when they see us fighting and they see us, of course, now's the best time to attack. We are literally tearing each other apart in the streets. So why wouldn't we attack? They're they're distracted with their own internal issues. When there's no more internal issues to distract them with, suddenly we're free to focus on our enemies for real. not not like we've been doing for the past few years. And then we can literally defeat anyone. Um and we can also tell America, we don't need you. Uh we got it. We we we'll take care of it and America will back off. And the truth is that we had that. We literally had that um during certain parts of the first temple era. Um, and since really since that time in the first temple era, we really haven't had a uh a consistent era of peace in Israel. And the main thing has been because of this internal fighting. So, I want to wish everyone a a a more peaceful uh life by taking on this responsibility to cut down on our evil gossip, cut down on our judgments of other people, especially if they're Jewish, especially if they look different from us or act differently. And I want to wish everyone a shabbat shalom.