Finding Treasure in a Creek - Jeremy & Tehila Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

we're in pennsylvania now and uh so far the trip has been um an adventure every day we never know what's going to happen um we're in pennsylvania now and i just wanted to show you like what tahila does when we first arrive at a new place and she walks around and just tries to find a little treasure and if you see where i am i don't know if you can see it but there's this like beautiful little creek just somewhere in the middle of nowhere in pennsylvania and this became our synagogue this is where we dive in in the morning we take our kids out here on shabbat and you know i'm a big fan of calvin and hobbes that's like the comic book with the little boy has a toy tiger and the toy tiger when no one's looking becomes alive and there's one calvin in hobbs where calvin is digging in the ground and hobbs is like what are you doing he's like well i found a weird-looking rock and two worms and hobbes is like already wow there's treasure everywhere and so tayla's able to just find treasures everywhere and so we're in the middle of pennsylvania in just like this beautiful creek that i just thousands of people are driving by no one really is paying attention to but if there was a creek like this in israel this would be historic this would be king david something this would be some sort of prophet a drunk from this creek and like there's just so many beautiful natural beautiful things in this country that um if you don't dig in the ground and look for some worms you might miss it and i've been thinking a lot about what are we doing here and i don't exactly know that's the honest truth i mean i booked these tickets months ago thank god because everything is so expensive now thank goodness we booked our rental car and the tickets way way way back when we would never be able to afford this right now and um my only answer is that i i had an inner intuition i had a gut feeling that we were called to go out into the nations most of our fellowship members although there are members from 50 countries the vast majority of them are in north america and i said you know it feels like our work in the fellowship is of the most important work that we're doing in our lives that somehow the work that we're doing in this fellowship is manifesting itself on the arugula farm it's like the arugula farm is some sort of physical manifestation of a spiritual move that's happening and i want to i want to meet those people i want to create stronger bonds and as soon as we landed in newark airport literally like within hours members of the fellowship come out to meet us and people that were just screams and people on zoom became human beings that we now have a relationship with and the more relationships that we're building it feels like we're like weaving a tapestry into the walls of the tabernacle spiritually but i i don't exactly know how to explain um other than you know we can live by this guidance we can live by an inner calling an inner intuition to really trust that to live by that i think is one of the fundamental claims of the bible abraham didn't hear a voice in his ear he heard a calling in his heart and joshua the same you know we're right now i mean although this has been sort of interrupted by this tour but i've been focusing a lot of my studies around the book of joshua because that's what i'd like to be learning with together with in the fellowship and in the first chapter one blessing repeats itself over and over again strength and courage if you want to enter into your promised land if you want to conquer your demons if you want to conquer the land and inherit the promise you're going to need two things and he's blessed over and over with strength and with courage and i'm just now kind of getting into the american vibration the american energy the american culture and what can i tell you but everything that mainstream america is promoting now is cowardice and weakness it's the opposite it's like the students here have safe spaces and they get warned of triggers you might be triggered if you hear this idea and it might scare you and it might offend you and you need to i mean they're raising a generation of people that are weak and that are cowards they can't even listen to ideas that might challenge them never mind do something courageous that challenges them in their lives just hearing controversial ideas they need to have trigger warnings and safe spaces where they can hide from being courageous where they don't need to be strong and they don't need to be courageous and you think about that like what a counter movement to the blessings of the bible and you know it's fourth of july weekend here in america and somehow we find ourselves in philadelphia which is like where america was founded i can't help but feel like that's a spice cart we didn't plan that it just sort of unfolded and in the middle of philadelphia tequila saw that there is a beautiful museum called the faith and liberty museum and it's run by i think the biblical association of america and it talks about the founding fathers of america and how the entire establishment the entire move of america was based on faith and that faith is what granted liberty and just the interrelationship between the bible and america and liberty and and it was just it was free so forget about it if you have to heal a free museum on the 4th of july we're going to be there so that's what we did and my kids loved it we loved it it was so interesting but the beginning move of america was a faith-based movement literally based on faith courage and strength just like the document that joshua gave over to the people of israel and the war within america now which really is a war on civilization as we know it because israel i mean america is israel's greatest achievement that's the way i see it america was uh founded by the gift of the bible the bible is the gift israel and hashem brought to the world and america is this manifestation of what happens if you give people faith if you give people liberty you give people freedom look at what happened the greatest civilization to ever exist in the world was an experiment of people that lived by faith with strength and with courage and as i'm on the move here and pretty much every night or every other night we're at a new location we're going from one place to the next place and it's in that move that we're kind of discovering something about ourselves something about our family it's hard to explain because i can't articulate it yet but in the move it's like if you want to see if something is strong so you test it you push it to its limits you challenge it and even push it a little bit beyond its limits to really see how strong that thing is and in the move whether it be a physical move or even a spiritual move a psychological move in the movement beyond where we are and the movement outside of where where comforts move outside of our zone it's all the sudden you discover where you are and imagine the move of the united states of america was like escaping europe which really is i mean we'll have to get this into a little bit deeper europe rome is the galut of edom it's the final exile and it's the strongest of all the exiles i mean rome is what destroyed the temple the european union is what is continuously right now trying to destroy israel and it is the european secular left a dome movement that is sort of corrupting the biblical foundations of the united states and they're trying to like squint that liberty because you know without faith really liberty is is is far off all of a sudden there's a tower of babel where everyone needs to speak the same language and if you tweet something that's politically incorrect the tower of babel will throw you into the furnace and that's amazing to know that one of the symbols of the european union is the tower of babel and like how did that even happen this elite group that's removed from the people that wants one language one government one rule the tower of babel is that representation and there's no question that the secular leftist movement in america is like a european branch that is the anti-biblical movement and what is the best way to rule over people well if you make weak cowards that's a real good way to rule over people you don't give people strength and courage because they might just stand up for themselves make people weak make people fearful make people just follow the rules whatever the rules are and sometimes the rules can't make any sense and that's when you really know you have them when truths become lies and lies become truths and you have to follow the lies as if they're truths that's actually one of the signs that we're entering into the end of days and it's amazing because the end of june here in the united states was a month that they celebrate sort of alternative sexual realities and the bible's pretty clear on um sort of just keep it natural keep it in the family just try to stay aligned with the natural course of things and in america they're celebrating the opposite and you know i just ten years ago i don't think anyone saw this coming that you would be a bigot if you thought that a boy could be a girl or that a girl could be a boy all of the confusion that's there but right now that is the law of this land if you are in mainstream of the united states of america you better preach that lies are truths and if you don't they'll scare you into that and so what a message coming from the land of israel right now is not just faith and liberty but strength and courage and that within the move we have to be able to be in motion in motion now some of us were in motion when we moved to the farm you know tehillah and i kind of gave it all up sold our home sold most of our possessions and then we moved into the farm and in that move i discovered who tahila was we were married for 15 years i had no idea who i was married to i had no idea the strength and the courage of that woman and in the move i discovered that when we were pushed to our limits pushed beyond our limits and i cracked and she didn't there's like a new level of admiration a new level of love was born because only when we're in movement can we really discover who we are only in movement is strength and courage really tested and so but now that we're in the farm it's like okay we're laying down roots here at least for the time being but now we have to be in constant movement and change to be alive everything that's alive is in change everything alive is growing and for us to be aligned with that movement we have to be moving and growing all the time and so that move is why the patriarchs abraham isaac jacob they're in constant movement all of the time all of the bible's in movement joshua is conquering the land and the one time israel is not in movement that's actually when we're called slaves in egypt when we are locked in our ways locked in our place and we are not in movement that's when we're called slaves that's when we become weak that's when others rule over us and so right now as we sort of approach these um times because times are changing the united states of america today is not the united states before corona because i saw united states before corona and there was food on the shelves in walmart right now we went to walmart and we couldn't find cutlery plastic spoons and forks like the shelves were empty walmart to me was always the expression of the endless abundance of the united states and all of a sudden you go to walmart and the shelves are kind of empty we're like what's going on here now for the people living in the united states it's like a frog in boiling water the waters are getting warmer and warmer and the frogs don't notice but eventually it reaches a boiling point and the frog will pass out but because i've been removed from the united states for so long when i came here and the prices are so expensive now gas is almost as expensive as it is in israel and something is changing and that change is happening to everyone and the last prophecy or one of the last prophecies in the book of malachi which is one of the last prophets of the hebrew bible it says the sun is going to rise and for the wicked that sun is going to burn them but for the righteous that sun is going to heal them to be warm for them now change is going to happen in these days big changes but if we are used to change and we're used to moving and we're used to that flow and when the sun changes it's okay because we're always looking for the change and that sun will be healing for those that are ready to grow but those that are locked in their own slavery that don't want to move that don't want to be challenged well then weakness and cowardice kind of reigns and so right now there is a real culture war there is the bible on one hand and there is literally just a movement that has no rationale to it there's no theology to it there's no logic to it because a lot of their opinions contradict each other there's just it's just an an anti-god an anti-bible movement that they are defined by whatever is the progress away from the bible like whatever roots values were rooted here we're just gonna take the other road because why not because that's what we are we're just the anti-movement and so within that there's gonna need a lot of strength and a lot of courage because it seems as though the righteous among the nations there are just ten there's going to be small pockets of the righteous among the nations where the mainstream goes along with edom and then those that love the bible that love israel are going to somehow be pulled out and how marvelous it is to like meet them now in person on this trip it seems as though it feels like we're doing something so beautiful so historic so aligned with prophecy that we're literally gathering little sparks gems and jewels from across the united states now and i can't help but feel that you know jeremiah the prophet who i'm named after spent a lot of his time outside of the land of israel looking for the lost tribes of israel preaching to the nations we're going out into the world traveling just as he did we are now just instead of kind of calling for the destruction i think it's time to call for the redemption now and so as things change know that the sun is going to arise and a lot of people may feel burned by it but if we align ourselves with the destiny of israel that sun is gonna be healing and if we align ourselves constantly moving constantly challenging ourselves looking for the growth that when we're called to grow that's already in our natural movement and it'll be healing for us and so i want to invite to hilo uh on as well she's at a different location because we sort of had to divide and conquer hairs watching for our children so um i want to bless you from this beautiful creek in pennsylvania and um our next stop is western pennsylvania we haven't publicized where we're speaking um online but if you guys want to know where we're going to be at just send us messages privately and um i'll let you know for sure just kind of for security reasons in my own head we haven't like pushed it out publicly yet but if anyone wants to know where we are we would love to see you we would love to meet you um eventually um we're going to make shabbat in iowa and then our next shabbat is going to be in colorado so if you guys want to find us there we would love love love to see you and so i hope tequila made her way onto this zoom call and if she is then here she is oh no ari you don't have to unmute tehilo tabitha can you own mute tehila hey everyone so we are officially on our gimpel family tour of the usa and jeremy forgot to mention that i wasn't looking for treasure in that creek i was looking for a place to do a ritual immersion of the pots we bought so that we can make kosher food and every place we go i make him look for a creek so that he can climb down and risk his life to dunk our pots and then i always tell him he didn't do it good enough and i send him back to do it again so so yes for those of you asking on the chat what we're doing in the creek that is what we are doing uh so we've had the chance to meet some of you uh and we can't wait to keep on meeting more and we are in uh philadelphia and you know in anticipation sorry whoopsie daisy in anticipation of eddin's about mitzvah i am learning with her the track date of barajot from the talmud bavli from the babylonian talmud and we were studying on shabbat afternoon and came across this really interesting passage it says that rabbi yochanan who was a talmudic stage in the amarek period following shortly following the barakah rebellion and the exile and he says something that eden did not like he says one must not fill their mouth with laughter in this world because it says in psalm 126 then then our mouths will be filled with laughter and our tongues with songs of praise meaning only then in the future and eden said what i want to have laughter now i don't like that but i said you need to imagine we're talking about the generation following the generations following the destruction imagine someone being happy and joyful and filled with laughter how can you be happy and in a state of joy when you see the jewish people and all of their suffering let's say you know your business is doing well your family is doing well can you be fully rejoicing you know and rejoicing ignoring all of our suffering so on this passage rabbi avraham yet says laughter in its fullness and it's unbridled just you know joy indicates that you've achieved your life goal in its entirety and a person needs to understand that their life mission is not complete until the collective life mission of israel and humanity as laid out in the bible is complete when the earth is filled with the knowledge of hashem so this goal if it's in your mind if it's deeply embedded in the heart of every person you can't really be in complete joy for your personal you know whatever until the collective goal has been achieved now what's so interesting here is that rabbi yochanan in the talmud isn't saying that laughter and joy are bad like you know there's some religions that say you have to be stern and serious don't be too happy he's saying that laughter and joy is the goal but it's a future oriented goal and not a present oriented goal meaning the joy is not just on whatever you know leading pleasure i have in this moment but on thinking about a larger collective biblical vision that's going to bring us real joy and now what's so interesting is that this isn't the only place where there's a distinction made between present laughter and future laughter does this ring a bell for any of you guys where does this distinction appear in the bible between laughing now and laughing in the future i think the first place we see it is in genesis 21 let's go back there you know sarah has her son isaac and hagar has ishmael and in verse nine pharisees it says sarah saw the son of hagar the egyptian she had born to abraham making mary in hebrew it says meaning making laughter having laughter and you know just doing fun things being a comedian and she goes that's it she says to abraham drive out this handmaiden her son for the son of his handmaid shall not inherit with my son isaac well that's a little ironic did you not name him isaac which is yitzchak which means he will laugh like the what is the better way to get someone to laugh than put them with a brother that makes people laugh but she doesn't she gets it she says ishmael is he's making laughter in the present tense my son is named yitzchak which means he will laugh in the future i don't want this guy to inherit with my son because the torah is maybe setting up here this paradigmatic difference that sarah is identifying between the biblical worldview and the non-biblical worldview the non-biblical worldview is just eat drink be merry there's no purpose in life there's no goal this is what you have have fun while you can try to squeeze out as much merriment and enjoyment and sorry saying no no no no no he's not going to inherit with gitzhak the biblical worldview is the future tense not to focus on maximizing your enjoyment right now but to make sacrifices and to work hard now for a vision of the ultimate future joy i don't want it to be overwhelmed by this culture of just enjoying the moment i want him to be around people that will facilitate him becoming yitzchak the person who will rejoice who focuses on rejoicing when he achieves his future goal and you can speak and see this jeremy and i can see this as we're traveling throughout the exile we see there's this cultural war going on between those who just say enjoy yourselves now why bother having children why bother getting married those things are hard versus those say i'm going to sow now so that i can reap joyfully in the future i will build and i will work and i will do things so that the future will be beautiful and now what really astonished me is the continuation at the end of this telemedic passage the talmud says okay rabbi yochana so you're not allowed to fill your mouth with laughter now because the verse in psalm 126 says that one day you will fill your mouth with laughter but when does that finish like when does that expire when can we actually be joyful i thought the answer would be maybe when mashiach comes or maybe when everyone keeps the torah or when the temple is rebuilt there's tons of possibilities but talmud says no the answer is right there in the verse when our mouths will be filled with laughter and our tongues with songs of praise what's the end of the verse then they will say among the nations the lord has done great things with them the talmud said that is when the rule will be suspended and we can be on true joy the benchmark is when the nations say the lord has done great things with israel and i thought this is so beautiful because we can see the beginning of this as we're traveling right before our eyes and we're meeting people from all over the country saying because hashem has done great things for you how can we attach ourselves to israel how can we be part of this and you know sometimes people say to us well you know aren't there enough jews who need to learn torah why are you you know including the nations in the fellowship and i think the answer is in this very talmudic passage that says that the mark to know when israel is fulfilling their goal is when the nations recognize it and this gives us jews and gentiles alike something to work together for to make us worthy to live in a world to have to act in such a way so that the nations will say hashem has dealt greatly with you and it gives a goal for the nations to understand that they have an important role in achieving this biblical vision by encouraging israel and reminding us where we need to be focused on where we need to be oriented and so may we all merit to rejoice together and fill our mouths with laughter in jerusalem