From Swords to Plowshares - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

I do believe that we have graduated from the days leading up to Messiah and we are now in the days of the Messiah now only Hashem knows what will happen and how it will all play out just this past Friday afternoon around 3M uh much of Israel was eagerly waiting for this super anticipated speech by nasala were you guys following this do you know what I'm talking about nasala you know the head of the the leader of theah so I told Shaina to be ready to bring the kids into the bomb shelter and I would stand outside ready for battle ready for anything I mean what speech is he giving he made an entire promotional video about this speech that he would be giving so what is he going to be giving if not to announce war and uh so that's what I thought it was going to be and uh you know I I I I I thought every war every time that there is any sort of mass mive configration there's these think tanks that do war games and if a nuclear weapon goes off anywhere in the world within a number of minutes to an hour tens of nuclear weapons go off all over the world at the very least in every scenario and so I told her that yes you know it it could happen and uh Shabbat was coming in very early I think it came in at 4:30 and I was supposed to bathe Das at 3:00 but I said no 3:15 I'm going to bathe her so I'm not stuck with her in the bathtub when World War III breaks out it's just another small example of the crazy reality that we're in that I'm delaying bath time by 15 minutes in case thousands of missiles start flying into Israel and a nuclear Holocaust breaks out it's so that I'm even saying these words and that they're not crazy is at least I don't think they're crazy do you think they're crazy it could have happened it could have happened and uh and so then there I was on the balcony saying the Psalms and spiritually preparing myself for any eventual and then the reports came in and he pretty much threw Kamas under the bus and said that the war was their independent initiative and that his war with Israel would be later on many different fronts at the time of his choosing meaning at the time of Iran's choosing and so I put dasos in the bathtub and Shane and I just laughed and said well I guess we have Shabbat together and so let's see how that goes and um my initial Instinct was maybe he's just trying to take us off our guard everyone felt very relieved by that I just thought that maybe he's lying maybe he's just trying to take our guard down and then he's gonna do the yeah maybe next week next week or then I don't know anyways but uh but you know I just walked away and said to myself that I guess we have more of a journey ahead of us as a nation um uh before the great day that we all know is is coming because as a nation we are definitely on a journey a journey of waking up a journey of of coming to uh a journey of coming to terms with the fact that we are indeed as the evil Prophet bam proclaimed a people that shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the Nations we're on a journey of faith and trust in Hashem of self-discovery and of realizing that really on a national level we are alone and I'll tell you what I you know what I what I mean by this journey of sort of of self-discovery um you know as we've been dispersed among the Nations there have been there's been much light that we've brought to the world and also light that we have taken from the world in our Journeys in our Exiles in the diaspora but also we've been influenced uh you know in some good ways I'm sure but also a lot of negative ways as well and we've adopted foreign values and Infused them into our Essences so much that we've started identifying with them we've started considering them to be our own values and thinking that's who we are and and so now there's this process of refinement where we're being disabused of our Illusions and our delusions and our foreign values and coming to terms with what it is to actually be a Jew in a real way because these foreign values and the people that um identify and are attached to them are rejecting us and leaving us and so my my my heart breaks you know for my friends and family in America that are quickly coming to this realization that they're not welcome there I have conversations like this every sing single day and they are just they're realizing that they're not loved and accepted as they thought that yes Jews are a minority but that doesn't count it doesn't count we're not considered to be in the family of intersectional minority victims no no no we stand alone and so just here's just one example of the hundreds of posts that I've seen uh and conversations that I've had that are all like expressing the same thing so this um Shaina showed me this it was one of her friends she wrote I had always lived in my safe Jewish bubble well my friends that bubble has burst I do a quick check each time my son leaves the house to make sure that he has a hat with him to cover his Kea I've taken off my car magnets that were once displayed proudly for my children's school and Camp if you know Jews in New Jersey New York they have all the camps and all the Jewish schools and all the Jewish things on their car nope she took them off she said I make sure my girls don't look too modest with their leggings and skirt before going to the mall I find that I'm hiding all my signs of my Jewish identity but I ask would you hide me think about that she's saying would you hide me and it's not melodrama it's not crazy she's actually asking that from a real place and a lot of Jews are really wondering they look around at their non-jewish friends that are silent in the face of the genocide that our people has just faced and they say if and when it comes to it who would actually hide me you know and and and that's a rude awakening and part of this journey you know here in Israel um is a a different type of refinement of of values and of attributes and these core Torah Jewish attributes that are being clarified for us are not just values sort of like you know in the normative fluffy sense of the word values but they're called midot we've spoken about this before midot which doesn't only mean attributes but it means amounts or measures because each attribute needs to be expressed in its proper balance in its proper measure um compassion for example right it's definitely a Biblical value a Jewish value kindness forgiveness Jewish values but so is strength and Justice God is a god of Vengeance right the Torah tells us Moses refused to die before he saw the Vengeance of God against midan but you know it's also forget forbidden the Torah tells us to take revenge against our fellow so what is it can we take revenge or can't we take revenge should we have compassion or should we not have compassion when do we apply which value to what degree to what amount to what measure you see if we all if we all agree that our purpose in this world is to cleave to Hashem to cleave to God to walk with Hashem through this world to be close to Hashem so then what does that mean because as you know it's my thing my Mantra the Torah tells us a I find that on this journey when I'm getting all wound up and a little bit nervous maybe a wave of fear I just start singing those [Music] words and I sing that to myself and it just helps massage in the truth that behind all of this that Hashem is really behind all of it running the show so there's nothing other than Hashem well if that's true that the whole world is godliness all of existence is God's undifferentiated unity and everything else is an illusion well then what does it mean to be close to Hashem or far from Hashem if we're completely and totally enveloped and immersed in hashem's unified Oneness and there's nothing butm so our sages teach us that in the spiritual realm you're close to something if you're similar to it and you're far from something if you're different from it so our quest for the Torah understanding of the TR balance of these attributes is nothing short of our mission in this world when we talk about you know Jeremy has these different fellowships about aligning ourselves with Hashem aligning our attributes with hashem's attributes that alignment what is it saying that our will is his will his balance of attributes we adopt that and we live that and we embody that we manifest that his will is our will to such a degree that he will use us as individuals and as a nation as vehicles to reveal himself to the world and to all of mankind time and so why am I saying this because while there's great Unity growing stronger each day within uh the nation of Israel there's also now vehement debates about who we are and what we are to do as a nation and I know because I'm getting into these debates and every now and then Jeremy barges violently into my home in the middle of a war and just vents about the latest person that he's having this debate with a good friend of ours that he's debating about these real serious questions difficult questions that facing you know but uh but fortunately we have a long tradition of being able to fiercely debate without having that necessarily affect our underlying love for each other so you know I I told him that my debate with this specific friend every other sentence I say you know I love you so much I love you so much but I love you I love you I and we're constantly reminding each other because the stakes are high and the emotions are high and and we're we're really getting into one of the great debates is about what we're supposed to do in Gaza right now because as you know I believe that we should be sending in Bunker Buster bombs from the first moment of this war sending in Bunker Buster bombs to Hamas headquarters and it doesn't matter what they've built them under schools hospitals whatever in my opinion any Innocents that die their blood is on hamas's hands for cynically capitalizing on our compassion of hearts and love for Humanity by headquartering their missiles that they're firing on our cities and the monsters that burned and beheaded our babies under their schools and hospitals and population centers that's on them I'm not holding any punches my friends I'm just sharing my heart with you and I hope that's okay and so while I believe that we should devastate Hamas wherever they are there are also those that believe the exact opposite that we should leave Hamas alone let them live let them regroup and rearm and prepare for another genocidal attack on the innocent pure children of Israel so last week I showed you a clip of these Jewish college kids that were doing a sit in for uh in Congress ex advocating and arguing exactly for that and I was so upset by this that I actually made this video for them that I plan on releasing after the fellowship here's a sneak peek this is a message to the Jewish college students who organized a sit in protest calling for a ceasefire with Hamas as you see right here 30 abdah Ramadan abaz and the reason it cuts so deep is because by calling for a ceasefire whether you realize it or not you're endangering and sacrificing the lives of Israeli soldiers people who love you and would die for you in order to protect the lives of the very genocidal Jihadi terrorists who hate you and would kill you because they would right now you're useful to them so they'll smile and whatever but when the time comes don't think you'll be spared because it won't matter whether you marched with them or against them you're a Jew and you don't deserve to live and don't take my word for it just listen to them noce not gas the zionists not gas the settlers gas the Jews I know it's hard to wrap your mind around because in the end of the day I'm sure you're good people and you have good Hearts but we haven't seen this degree of evil since aitz and trinka and even then even during those dark years leading up to the Holocaust there were Jews that were falling into the same suicidal trap you're falling into right now look it up for yourselves they were called The Association of German National Jews and they came out in support of Hitler and they were passionately opposed to zionists who they considered to be a threat to Jewish integration and carriers of a quote racist ideology serving British Imperial purposes right sound familiar their founder was a guy named Max nowman and he issued a press release explaining that quote we have always held the well-being of the German people and the Fatherland to which we feel inextricably linked above our own well-being thus we greeted the results of January 1933 even though it has brought hardship for us personally they greeted the results and you know the end of the story they of course ended up in the same concentration camps in the same gas Chambers as every other Jew listen these are confusing times not only for you but for all of us but we're an ancient people let's not get lost in the moment as Jews we need to realize that we're not right-wing conservative Republicans and we're not left-wing liberal Democrats we are Jews you're Jews and whether you believe in God or not you're the children of the Living God of Israel who has been protecting us and sustaining Us Against All Odds so please I beg of you their mission is to kill every single one of us every single one of you to put out all the lights we are not co-religionists we're family and when your family is in danger you put aside the differences and the disagreements and the ideologies and we stand together and it doesn't matter if the entire world is against us and they will be we will be victorious in the end and when we are you're not going to want to look back and feel the shame of standing against your brothers and sisters who love you no matter what so just please consider what I'm saying because it's coming from here I'm saying it with nothing but love so stay strong stay safe come home I'm Israel so that's uh that's my message I'm planning after the fellowship to send it out to everybody to all the colleges the college students that I know and if you know any Jewish college students send that out I'm going to blast it out on our uh Fellowship uh on the the arugot farm WhatsApp if you're not a member of that Tabitha you can put it there you could join our our WhatsApp group and you could blast that out I want college kids to see that because they're you know I'm not filled with anger at them or hatred or resentment only love the type of love you feel uh honestly for like a mentally ill delusional brother who hates you despite the fact that you love him and care for more than anyone else how can I expect them to be you know smelted in this Kiln of lgbtq transgendered wokeism from morning to night from their professors that they're paying to teach them this stuff and expect them to have even a semblance of understanding of their own Jewish identity you know and plus it's not like they had Michael abramowitz as a father that taught them that there's virtue and value in just being different and standing different they've never taught that so all they want to do is to be loved and accepted it's like they don't even have a chance how can you hate them or be angry at them there there's so much room for compassion there you know and they they sing of compassion you know but as I read through our Torah portion I saw example after example of how Hashem deals with evil because this portion contains within it one of the greatest paradigmatic examples of an evil Society right Sodom and Gomorrah we see the depravity of this city and not only of this city but of lot himself whose values too have become so twisted and distorted by virtue of his fact he's living there he's immersed in there he's dwelling amongst them so what happens the people of Sodom see that he has guests and they Converge on his home to I'm sorry I'm just going to say it it's right to to gang rape and murder them and so lot L learned his compassion and his Hospitality from Abraham but even that had become twisted and distorted when he offered them this unimaginably horrifying deal what does it say and lot went out the door to them and closed the door after him and said I beg of you my brothers do not do so wickedly behold now I have two daughters who have not known Men Let me I beg of you bring them to you and do to them as is good in your eyes only to these men do nothing seeing that they have come under the shadow of my roof I I've always shudder at that he offered his own daughters he offered them his own daughters to rape to death how sick is that I mean these people were so evil that even when they were struck by blindness they're still grasping there's like no getting to these people you know and and he offers his daughters to them you know clearly he's got the wrong balance of attributes there and the sages even say that as a punishment for that attribute for attribute it would be him that would end up lying with his own daughters and the angels escort lot and his wife and his daughters and we later learn by the way that it was really not necessarily because they deserved it but for Abraham's sake that the Angels were saving him and the angels took them into the mountains warning them as all of you know warning them what don't look back don't look back H tahila has various teachings on this a beautiful teaching there's a lot of various teachings on this but um but one that really spoke to me concerning the times we're in is that the sages say that why were they told not to look back so they would not have compassion upon the residents of s they shouldn't send an energy of compassion through their G to that city which did not deserve compassion compassion would not be the right attribute to be broadcasting there so so then we learn about the destruction itself right Chapter 19 Verse 24 then Hashem reigned upon Stone and gamorra brimstone and fire from Hashem out of heaven right so it says Hashem there twice now to to really understand what I'm about to say you really need to know the original Hebrew because as we've learned before Hashem God has different names that are used in different places and situations where the the manifestation is most appropriately expressed and so you would think that in this verse the name Elohim would be used as that is the aspect of strict judgment because here stom is being judged so you would think it would say then Elohim reigned upon sto and Gomorrah Brimstone and fire from Elohim came out of the heaven but that's not what it says you think it was they're being judged here but Elohim is not the name that's used the name that's used is the tetragramaton the name of Hashem yud and he and VAV and he the name that expresses God's mercy because the sorno teaches us that that when that level of depravity is destroyed from the earth it's an act of compassion on them so sick and twisted and evil were these people that would be better for them an act of compassion upon them not to exist because one should not have compassion upon Pure Evil and this is a a lesson that is very hard for the nation of Israel because we are called compassionate ones the children of compassionate ones so compassionate as a nation we're so compassionate as a nation that the sages actually teach us that if you meet a Jew that is lacking compassion you should investigate their Jewish lineage nonetheless we are facing such evil right now that we need to overcome that impulse or perhaps perhaps not not overcome the impulse but to direct it to Channel The Compassion to where it belongs to the victims of their evil Nazi Jihadi programs to the babies that have been burned to the families that have been wiped out to the 240 hostages still suffering unimaginably under hamas's viciousness our compassionate our compassion should be directed towards them not on the the people that overwhelmingly voted in Kamas not the mothers who raised these monsters not in the society that celebrated in the streets and even raided the devastating and and de devastated The Villages that had just gone through these massacres to Rob them to steal from them to take what whatever survivors they would kidnap and bring with them a lot of these kidnapping victims are probably not even under hamas's opes just random Gins that took advantage of the scenario and that's that's where we're supposed to be putting our compassion no thank you that's not the right way to do it and that's what a lot of these debates are about and I think one thing that helped unite the knesset behind this Gaza operation to the degree that it has so far was the playing of the unredacted unedited GoPro videos from the terrorists you know conent members were collapsed to the ground broke down and uncontrollable weeping needed therapy after no one was able to sit through it unmoved so I'm not going to to I'm not going to sit here and monopolize this entire Fellowship I'm going to turn over to jerid but I will say that I too you know sing the the song that they were singing I yearn for the same words that my leftist brothers and sisters who so tragically used those those that verse that verse in Isaiah in Chapter 2 to call for compassion to the greatest evil we possibly ever seen what were they singing you remember what they were singing they were singing we've been singing this my whole life I sing I always thought it was the most beautiful it it shall come to pass that the nation that Nation shall no longer lift up sword against Nation nor shall they learn War anymore but let's read those verses just in a little bit greater context here start at just the beginning of chapter two of of the book of Isaiah the word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem and it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and All Nations shall flow to it and many people shall go and say come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the god of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths for from Zion shall go forth the Torah and the word of Hashem from Y and he shall judge among the Nations and shall decide for many people and they shall beat their swords into plow sh plow shares and their Spears into pruning hooks Nation shall not lift up sword against Nation nor shall they learn War anymore so I I am sure that those days are going to come there are the days will come and I believe they'll be soon when there will no longer be War I think about it all the time when I walk through my house and I see the sandbags and the defensive positions and I imagine people coming from around the world to see our homes and the sandbags and the shooting position and children are asking their parents for what who would want to hurt the children of Hashem who would want to hurt anyone we're all the children of Hashem that day will come but only when we eradicate evil from the world and shine a light of Truth and godliness and Torah to the world when the nation of Israel rises from the dust and shines a light of hashem's Truth to the world as hard as that may be and only then then will we be able to really beat our swords into plowshares