How To Respond To Tragedy - A Torah Based Formula - Jeremy Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

and so i just want to focus on that for a moment in hebrew is stillness and silence to stand dome in the army means you're standing up straight not moving silent at attention it's like like the flag is going up stop and this in some ways is the heart of the bible and the core strategy of how to deal with challenge something happens there's a cause next there's an effect something bad happens to me i hear terrible news has happened it's cause i burst out crying and find my bed to go lie down and hide from the world effect cause effect that's the way it works the tour is telling us something absolutely critical here vaidom stop be silent be still do not respond there is a space in between the cause and the effect there's a space between the stimulus and our response we need to hold that space by dom in that space is our freedom to choose the revolutionary jewish psychiatrist victor frankel writes in his book man's search for meaning this is what he writes between stimulus and response there is a space in that space is our power to choose our response and our response lies our growth and our freedom victor franco in one of the most powerful books that i've ever read man's search for meaning rooted deeply in jewish thought he tells his experiences of living through the nazi concentration camp in auschwitz watching people give up on life in total despair with no reason to live suffering day after day starving being tortured day after day physically and mentally so many jews just broke and gave up on life but some people were committing suicide the people though around them some of them found the strength not only to survive but to help others around them in need it's like some people are absolutely breaking and then others are like emerging so strong it's like wow how did they do that that's so heroic how did they find the inner strength it was in the power of vaidom at the height of his greatest joy tragedy hit aaron his two sons who he had raised and trained to be the next leaders of israel they were struck down in front of all of israel arun holds the space between what happened to him and his response by dom he was silent and still here's another quote from man's search for meaning everything can be taken from man but one thing the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances to choose one's own way anything can happen to us but no one can take away our freedom to choose how we respond our freedom to choose how we respond that's the agency that makes us uniquely human that's why the culmination of the covenant is choose life that's what moses says in the book of deuteronomy before the jews go into israel the choice we look at this tragedy in israel and before we blame the politicians and point fingers and shake our fists in heaven and resentment and anger it's like wait a minute i want to create a space i want to choose my response now and in that way i want to invite god into my life to face this tragedy together with him my initial response to maron i was like king david i'm like i am pissed what is going on here god really after all we've been through a year of isolation finally believers come together to worship you in goodness to pray for mashiach and that's what they get like why what is going on here but then i was like wait a minute god didn't do anything here we did this but our politicians are to blame our government in israel has become so incompetent and dysfunctional it's like in two years we've had four elections we're on our way to our fifth election we're still not able to form a coalition it's mostly because of people's egos and feelings there's not even ideology here it's just ridiculous and in the chaos of years without a stable government and disorganization tragedies like this are bound to happen that's where most of israel's attention is at right now we're just up so angry at our politicians and that the government but there's no space there either that's just pointing outside it's like wait a minute pointing and blaming anyone outside of ourselves is not a good strategy it's not the right question to ask it's not useful nothing useful will come of it blaming god asking why it's like we have no idea why and we never ever will period but the hebrew language guides us to the right question here it's pretty amazing we want to ask the question why and the hebrew teaches us what really to ask look at the hebrew word why for a second the hebrew word why is lama but the same exact word lemma for what it's the same word but it's just teaching us the right way to ask tehila taught me this idea in the name of rabbi joseph sullivan it's like in matters of the ultimate it's just improper to ask why it's not in the human capacity to understand humans it's not possible for us to know why the proper question is for what not lama but lemma for what purpose lama y is looking at the cause it's looking at the past for what purpose is looking at what we can learn right now for the future for what what is this situation calling me to do now what is my purpose here now what is my best response in this situation in the space that we create the torah teaches us we take on full and total responsibility for the future in that space we have agency of choice and our own free will and we need to take full ownership of our situation people could say wow full ownership of my situation i mean my child has cancer god forbid my husband just died i'm alone now and i i with the responsibility of raising nine children by myself now i'm not saying you take responsibility for what happened but in the space that you create you take complete ownership of your response to that situation look at what victor frankl says once again when we are no longer able to change a situation we are challenged to change ourselves each man is questioned by life and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life to life he can only respond by being responsible there are things that are in our control and there are things that are out of our control and most of the things in our life are absolutely out of our control the only thing that we can change is ourselves to life we can only respond by taking responsibility to fully own our response something happens to you you take full responsibility think about that word look how it's written can we get that up on the screen responsibility look at the word response ability we have the ability to respond in any way that we want you have the ability to respond that is a hundred percent in your control that's the only thing we have complete control over our ability to respond something happens i'm not just going to immediately have a cause and effect the spiritual and psychological practice is to create a space if there's one consistent message throughout all of the bible so you will find extreme responsibility the prophets of israel put the full weight of responsibility on the jewish people the prophets don't blame god they don't blame other nations tragedy that's our reality now we had our nations been more unified things might have been better now all we can do is figure out how to be better from here on and in that place that's when we invite god into the tragedy we've been spoken we've spoken about this before but the word blessing in hebrew is the same root so deeply connected to the word which means pool it literally is the same letters we're opening ourselves up to receive like a pool being filled with water blessing god is bringing we're bringing god's blessing his guidance into the equation here it's like israel is experiencing a day of national mourning in the situation for those families is too much pain for me to think about for too long stop silence still stillness it's like how do i respond now lima to what what am i called to do now that's the only thing we got how we ask that question and how we answer that question is going to make all of the difference in a very real way you are the sum total of choices you've made throughout your life up until right now your life situation who you are who you've married everything that you've created is the sum total of choices that you've made throughout your life some of your choices were deliberate some of them weren't but your choices have brought you to where you are today the more god is involved in your choices believe me the better your life will be think about it this way your future self will be made up exactly the same way a good rule would be to make choices that your future self will thank you for and if you invite god into the equation that's a wonderful way to ensure that you're making a high level choice and not just an immediate impulsive response so now i want to address how do we choose to respond in the space that you create how exactly do we invite god into that place what's the technology there how do we invite god into that time into our lives and this is the answer from the torah you enter into a conversation with yourself in hebrew this form of meditation is called heat vodidut rooted in the word alone it's just you and yourself alone you enter into a conversation with yourself ask and you shall receive what does that mean ask the question something happened to me how should i respond now tragedy hit me hashem what do i do now how should i respond wait you'll start to get answers information will be revealed to you where do these answers come from i mean they come from so down deep inside your being that no scientist has a clue i mean you might get several answers and the answers might contradict each other you might have to enter into maybe a gemara-like argument between those voices and those ideas so ask the question clearly how do you want to face this challenge do you want to respond well do you want to respond by just getting by do you want to respond great or do you want to respond in the best possible way that you can that's the right question to ask what would be the best possible response in the world that i could come up with right now facing this challenge what is the most noble the most loving the most heroic the most compassionate the most wise what is the best possible response right now that's why your purpose isn't found your purpose is forged it's like the challenges of life life they force us to find our way they forge our path toward victory the challenges push us to rise to this occasion the challenge is the way to bring out our best possible self a self that we can admire a self that honors what it means to be created in the image of god a self that's a light to the people who need us that are around us it's like in tragedy we can either choose to become bitter or we can choose to become better we can lose our faith or we can apply our faith shalom my name is jeremy gimpel a few months ago we started an online seminar teaching life-changing biblical wisdom revealed from the original hebrew and straight from the mountains of judea with global instability on the rise more and more people are turning to god realizing now they don't exactly know where to look for guidance the bible says the guidance will come from the land of israel what started as an online seminar has grown into a global fellowship with hundreds of members from over 30 countries we are participating and fulfilling prophecy as we learn the bible through the eyes of prophecy with a focus on what it's telling about us in our lives today what you will discover is that the wisdom transmitted thousands of years ago is speaking directly to us in our time right now instead of learning the bible as a religion it's the torah of israel the living guidance of god so please join us for our next online gathering and get access to the full library of teachings that the land of israel fellowship is offering join now and get an audio series on the prophecy encoded in the book of joshua absolutely for free just click on the link below or email fellowship at the land of israel.com i don't know how you found this video or what compelled you to click on that link but i don't believe in coincidence and i would encourage you to take the next step on your journey toward the land of israel i hope to see you at the land of israel fellowship shalom you