Israel Inspired: Becoming a Father

[Music] and now live from Jerusalem you're listening to Israel inspired radio here your hosts rabbis Aria bream woods and Jeremy Gimpel [Music] Shalom friends around the world welcome to Israel inspired on the Land of Israel network at the Land of Israel calm this is Jeremy compel I'm here with Aria brand Watson we are broadcasting from the Judean frontier the last of the Judean mountains before the Judean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea it is beautiful today the winter is over the sun is shining and Arie has a new identity this is true it's spring new beginnings new beginnings and I'm very excited to announce that we have two new camels at the Arrogant farm two new camels what else do we have we have a little girl named Vash I became an Abba it is I'm probably gonna start crying now I've been crying so much I haven't cried I think that I did the math three years I haven't really cried you are about to cry I'm gonna cry and I've been crying every day every time I know I can't I can't every time I look at this little girl changing her diaper her little chin is quivering and she cries and then I cry babies cry all the time and I'm crying all the time I became an Abba it's you know for like how many years tehila actually said that you were planning your family or like we can't have a third kid or he doesn't even have a kid yet right thank God we didn't wait your favorite idea to build yes who even thinks about building their own family around their friends schedule normal but anyways but you shared your kids with me all these years which was awesome because I love your children they're like my own children and I'm like the perpetual uncle everybody calls me uncle Ari and now I became an Abba and I was nervous am I gonna I might just like do I love everybody else's kids I'm not gonna be the greatest album it was like a wave but the truth is the first four seconds I had little moments of disappointment because I was convinced that this was a boy but the minute that this baby came out and and they handed it to they handed her to me because Shane had just started bleeding profusely I'm probably gonna get in trouble for getting into too many details she was just like bleeding out so all these doctors rushed in and they handed the baby right out of her to me in my arms so I'm thinking I don't know is Shana gonna live I was terrified of that and I'm holding this new baby in my arms and I'm blessing her right yet she met I'm kisara rifki rocof Alea right and Sarah Rebecca Leia are for mothers and I was blessing her in a shambles name and were singing to Hill him together as I'm hearing a Shana okay what's going on is a very dramatic very dramatic very scary in the middle of the delivery were like Shane is breathing and breathing through she had before she went into labor she had to give me her gun to hold and in the middle of the delivery right as the baby's coming up the gun falls down off of me onto the floor huge clash and the doctor thought what's that I'm like oh it's a gun they're like okay it's like such a crazy like convinced that it was a boy you didn't know beforehand you didn't check we didn't check you wanted it to be a surprise in it to be a surprise but all of the doctors are saying whoo-hoo-hoo and I'm like enough Latoya d-mint I mean lo Cubano whoo but I was like they say like oh we call every fetus by the masculine term but I was sure that they were slipping up and it was really a boy and it was just supposed to be a boy I was sure as a boy so when they came out I was a girl I'm like no no maybe you know it's me you're mistaken look closer time to grow but but I just felt madly in love with this little girl I just love her to pieces and yeah and Shana was a real hero natural birth no epidural it was it was very I don't know how you've done that six times six times six times and then the last time I had a baby you gave me grief for not going to me Liam together with you and I'm like I just had a baby only now can you really look back and be like wow it's hard to have a baby yeah you can't just leave your wife alone and go to me Louise right that's true I was actually called up to me Louise and I was gonna do it and I asked each I and each I was like no don't do it don't you stay with you or something like okay I didn't realize how critically important it is that I'm around right now because it doesn't make sense it's the hardest period of time when she's the most depleted she lost all this blood she's exhausted and now there's like a new baby that used to take care of we're both 40 years old you know so this was the answer to all of our to feel it's none another of us new are we ever gonna have children is this gonna be what's gonna be in like all of our prayers and prayers of so many people around the world praying for us I was already tired I was tired of praying for you yes the 40 years it's been a long time praying for me for 40 years at least 20 40 years one this is a long time yeah so uh so it's a very big deal you know and and so her great-grandmother our daughter's great-grandmother her name was Esther Cecil she survived Auschwitz a very special woman Zeisel means sweet and Esther like after like Esther from the poram story so she passed away just a few months ago so Cecil means sweet so we named our daughter dvash meaning honey Astaire after her great-grandmother who had a very powerful balance of attributes from ability to be strong and answer the calling of the generation and face genocide of the Jewish people in the eye and overcome it but not lose her sweetness and her kindness and her compassion so we were blessing our daughter that she should have that same balance of attributes I think that really is the power of the Jewish people that we're never just detached there's always a connection there's always a story we light our Shabbat candles here and it's to heelas great-grandmother's Shabbat candles and she was born in the shtetl before the war and you think about that on the Jewish star in the middle of those Shabbat candles it says seoane Zion in Hebrew and so to heelas great-grandmother now we have already chosen so it's her great-great grandmother's children's will around her Shabbat candles as she was in the shtetl in Poland praying one day to return to Zion and here we are in the mountains of Judea lighting her Shabbat candles and so when people have an identity like dvash astaire that she knows that she is named after her great-grandmother that survived the ashes of Auschwitz and from that was born in the mountains a legacy it's uncie I think about often I think about what tequila's grandfather said to you and you married into the family said you're entering into a family of seven generations of rabbis and ritual slaughters do you have some Iike I like Pearl Jam yeah that's the story of the Jewish people yes so so I'm gonna and also we got we have camels now we have camels we have a mother and it's also a baby camel and yeah and I'm super excited because when I first went into the Judean Desert you know we're right here on the cusp of the Judean Desert and when I first went in there it was like this history magical enchanting world of wandering camels and Bedouin cemeteries and it was just so enchanting and so beautiful and I saw these albino camels on like that's probably the last thing I have in the world that I don't have that I want it's just an albino camel and now we have an albino camel an albino camel what do they have names yet I don't think they have names I think Josi called when one is Gamal and one is gamla okay I don't know yeah we have two two kennels and further listeners around the world we have here Adam Amasa and Tamir who are filming our podcast right now they're broadcasters they're documentarians very unbiased very good guys and they live here in the Land of Israel and that's whose voice you just heard breaking the third wall all right okay and geremy so in addition to the two camels which is very exciting because as you know it's been quite a drama with our animals out here we had a big animals and then money was frozen by the Swiss government so we needed to use those sheep that we had to pay our contractor to continue building which is cool because we're in Judea where Judeans were paying with sheep this is how things are supposed to go it's just right but so many things are happening right now like where the building is moving forward spring is starting we just had this big group of crazy vehicles come here half of them had to be towed away did you see that I didn't see that yeah half of them had to be towed away I went up to them there was this like massive group maybe 300 people that just stopped here and spent the night here it was called grotto rally is that he pronounced it right gluto Valley because a goethe in hebrew is like a junky car in a rally car so they've taken these junky old cars and they've souped them up a little bit to make them just ready to go through and it's like just insane things all over them Habad flags and and anyway so they're they're going through and they slept here overnight the rule is they said you have to buy a vehicle it cannot cost over three thousand shekels and then they just go through the entire country and meet everything and everywhere and stop cool places and they just swarmed our farm the other nights there's just so much vibrance and excitement and cool things that are happening here and I feel like we made it through the winter this winter was a little bit brutal it was a little brutal but I mean your house how did your windows hold up a lot better than last year last year it was like a waterfall into your house you flood into my house a flood it wasn't like leaking windows it was flooding windows that flooded my house yeah so and it's the side of the of the house that faces the arooga Valley because of the extraordinary winds that come in but now it's spring and building is happening and please yeah when do you think we're gonna finish the retreat center already I think the outside of the building is going to be finished by the end of this year so we'll debate - fela our House of Prayer and so will the pools in the gardens this year is a big year and it's just amazing to think that we got here four years ago and there wasn't any electrical infrastructure water infrastructure there weren't any trees there was just nothing here and now in two weeks we're having a group of Germans Holland people Dutch people Canadians and Americans that are going to live here for about ten days kind of tenting it out here because it's still a little bit camping and work alongside us building this place up it's like the dream that we had to open this place up to the world we're now moving even beyond just day trips where there's really a group coming to live here to learn here to work here it's like the dream is happening it's unbelievable yeah I mean just it was last Shabbat you came to me needed a key to the back gate because a big group of Germans were coming to each about dinner with you head of that what was that I don't know that just happens sometimes some girl that ran away from a her a teahouse not literally knocked on my door and she's like I don't have a place to stay for Shabbat and I'm like okay good welcome and she just does this marvelous amazing girl so like intelligent and so young and she literally just kind of like left her family behind and pretty much just moved to Israel without any family here and then at the same time this group of Germans said that they heard that we host people for Shabbat and they wanted to come and experience a Shabbat in Judea so we had a her a tea girl from Muncie and a bunch of Germans from Germany spending Shabbat together here in the mountains of Judea talk about a weird bunch of people yeah that's true and just yesterday we had a meat dress shot come here and these girls from like New York came here we're walking around and then the Eagles came out have you been seeing these Eagle have it's called an ayah Hoover right I needs a poof right so they're golden rare in the entire world there's they're an endangered species and three of them happen to live right here on the mountain right next to us so they come out at very auspicious special occasions and whenever they come out I tell people like the legend is that when they come out it's a sign for fertility or it's a sign I make something up whatever it is legend say when you say legend says you literally can say anything you hunt because it's a legend I mean you just made the legend up like the legend up right as if there's a legend that's not made up by some dude on the spot anyways yes so the farm is going I just want to address that point really quickly I want to just retract what Ari say when the Eagles come out it really is an auspicious it really is something marvelous and there is something about the universe speaking to us through nature itself that somehow Hashem through nature through animals there's some song I don't know what a communication every time the Eagles come out it is a special time it's a wake up it's a it's a wake up it's a special time they're very powerful if you come up close to them I saw one standing right in front of me it looked like a gargoyle it was like a massive massive powerful creature no it's wingspan is something like six to seven feet it's huge when it opens its wings it's like a massive every time I look up in the Eagles are there it's definitely yes I didn't mean to say all legends I make up just really amazing to like read about the height in the Tanakh it's we're talking about that eagle that lives right out here in these mountains and what's so cool about this is we're talking about eagles and old junked up motorcars and but meanwhile there's a whole world of things that are happening right now in the world of politics and Judea and Samaria and the West Bank the Trump peace plan our our place here was is like it would have according to the Trump peace plan in a state of Palestine right here is where it would be we would be Enclave number eight you're alive meaning the map is different because of what we did here entirely surrounded by a Palestinian state there'd be re and Jeremy and on Cleveland we would be like the Florida of the State of Israel within Palestine what does that mean the floor it's like a peninsula Florida is a peninsula surrounded by three sides no it would be more like where the Bahamas surrounded by an ocean all alone it's in Florida sort of connected to Georgia right we would literally be like Justin Goodway I find infuriating everybody loves Trump so much and you know what he's done some good things for Israel and give him credit for that and I think he's well-intentioned in his desire to do this Trump peace plan but the fact is for a foreign power another country to come into the State of Israel and start dictating to us what our borders are and that we have to give our ancient heartland the heritage of our very essence of our identity to a enemy that wants to wipe us off the map for them to dictate such a thing you know even if they're well-intentioned you know but everyone's like oh you know what the Palestinians and Arabs they're gonna say no but why do we have to count on them why do we have to count on the implacability and uncompromising nature of the Arabs why can't we be uncompromising - I don't know the whole thing sort of throws me off what are your thoughts on me on one end it's the most pro-israel American peace plan that's ever been issued it's just undeniable and President Trump is the most pro-israel president Israel's ever since I said good intentions yet said a lot of this was guided from Israel a lot of times Israel is really the guiding force here America it's silly to like point fingers and blame Trump or blame Bush for the disengagement Ariel Sharon did the disengagement and the truth is Netanyahu is the one that has been pushing this peace plan it was responsible responsive you know I understand but even more than that what was marvelous about the Trump peace plan is it has empowered the individual in ways never imagined before every single Jew that has conquered a mountain here is to stay now one shoe is to be evacuated so what does that mean that means that re Jeremy Yossi roni for families moved to this mountain we've changed the map we will not be evacuated what would have happened if four years ago there were 400 re and jeremy's and Yossi Zandro knees and we caught four hundred other mountains there be enclave number twelve enclave number thirteen none of them are to be removed and so in some ways it's really like wow one person can really actually make a difference because even the right-wing pragmatist it used to be what we're talking here about settlement blocs the big settlement blocs they'll stay but now we're seeing like wow every place the jewish people settle will remain in Jewish hands let's go settle the entire desert that's up to us now right I wouldn't even say settle we have to watch our language very carefully it's really liberate or return we're at reclaim reclaim we're returning to our own like we're talking about such a tiny little sliver of land the size of Rhode Island like the whole world is up in arms about the insanity of a Jew living in Judea it's so crazy what's happening in the whole world and I have to say this is all compounded a little bit in my mind I just had a little girl this little infant that's so helpless and the whole world is being overtaken by this coronavirus what does that have to do with anything well it has to do with with the craziness of the I had this thought sometimes you just go back to the basics right and the corona virus is spreading rampantly throughout the world you see the Iranian Health Minister is saying no everything's fine is he sweating schvitzing and like falling apart it turns out he had the corona virus as he's telling everybody everything's finally whole Iranian government they say that the Pope may have the it's spread throughout the whole world and I had this thought in my heart just like do we not see that all of mankind is sick we're all getting sick together we're all interconnected can we not just put aside the missiles for a second can we not just take them I know it's like a silly basic sort of thoughts but I'm just like watching that the fights and the wars are still happening can we just not do that for a moment to just take a breather quarantine ourselves as a species just and just think we're all human we're all human beings that are sick with the same thing maybe there's a deeper message there that we're all interconnected we're all one Misha paja we're all one family I don't know I have another message okay flights from Europe have been cancelled to Israel that can happen folks ezreal can just shut its borders down and now imagine what happens if you're in the United States and flights are canceled and who knows what this coronavirus might do I definitely it looks like it's gonna trigger some type of recession because people are not running to the ballgame people are not running to movie theaters people aren't running to the mall sugar people don't want the recession hasn't even begun to fight yet did you see the stock market it went down 10,000 points and then it went back up and I'm saying that it hasn't even started yet people haven't even started to feel the ripple effects of what it means when the people of America stop going shopping well it's also it's a perfect storm because it's very communicable you don't have any symptoms and you're already able to pass it on so people are giving it to each other without even knowing but just understand meaning there are Jews that are in Switzerland right now we have one friend in particular she can't get to Israel she wants desperately to get here and she can't make it there she's stuck in Switzerland she can't come home and people are saying now that Israel is the safest country in the world because Israel is the only one that's first being honest with its citizens we've quarantine a hundred thousand people the Health Ministry are giving orders not to kiss mezuzahs to stay a baby Netanyahu said you know say namaste now don't shake people's hands being very like open and honest about the realities of this virus and four years ago this mountain was like at least perceived as the most dangerous place in the world but now situated in the State of Israel alone on a mountain were actually probably the safest place in the world and how that has just turned upside down it's just unbelievable how this world works in how fragile everything really is just like one little virus that no one can even see is about to throw the entire world economy for all rollercoaster ride and we don't even know what's going to happen and how did it even come about some dude ate a bat and didn't cook it well enough and now hundreds of thousands of people around the world it just shows the unpredictability the fragility they call it a Black Swan you know the Black Swan it means that unpredictable event that nobody could have ever foreseen that changes the entire course of world history oh and maybe none of the most cosmic terms but your wife Tina she was talking about yes the last time this happened was the flu of 1918 and this and this is more lethal than that and how does she know this stuff she just googles a lot I guess which is weird because you don't have internet here on the farm but but yeah it shows that no matter the technological advances how much we all feel like we're in control of our environment and everything around us some dude in China eats a bet and the whole world is reeling in terror and fear I want to open up a corner for the show today it's called the Tanaka corner and a piece of advice for all of our listeners here it is Psalm 91 that Psalm it seems like was written for the coronavirus written for a time like this and it is so beautiful I've read it now already three or four times and I'm sharing it with different friends of mine because I have some friends that are they're just very nervous people they're just anxious people and they're terrified about the coronavirus they don't know what's gonna be how many people are dying what's going on what's the fatality rate and because really no one knows anything about anything Psalm 91 is just about trusting and Hashem protection from all plagues and from all sicknesses and right now there's like a global plague that's striking everywhere and Psalm 91 is really encouraging and just a Shem knows what he's doing and we just have to sort of walk in faith knowing that we don't really have control anyway we have an illusion that we have some sort of control over this world but we don't really have in any ways even if we did get it god forbid we really don't have anything to worry about cuz only if you're 40 or above and you're in bad shape do you have to be concerned about anything and you and I are in pretty good shape we just hit 40 the word good shape I think we'll be fine I'm in better shape than you by a long shot do you want to arm wrestle here in front of all of our listeners around the world I'm sure that as I'm beating you you but like I'm winning I'm winning that's the power of radio over television but yes oh no but you're right you're right we really don't have control over it and throwing our hands up in the air is really an an art and a skill because on the one I have this sort of graph in my head there's like the x axis and the y axis and the x axis is he stabbed loot doing your best to try within your power to make things a certain way to stay healthy to stay safe to make a living to do those things and the y-axis is anxiety and negative emotions right so the more you try the minute you try so hard that it's causing you anxiety and fear and doubt that's when you have to throw your hands up in the air and say okay it's really in God's hands it's like a a balance it's a balance of what to do but but yeah you know what we're also approaching poram right now you know who's so happy about this whole virus before we go in to pour him all of my prepper friends I have a lot of friends that have just been waiting for this they're ready to live on their house for like four years dude we're not just friends we're best friends yes we're best friends I have hundreds of cans of tuna for years I've been hoarding antibiotics I've been filling those prescriptions I have boxes of antibiotics all sorts of like canned goods and huge amounts of water I am going to do but I want you to know that you aren't by your children from you in exchange for antibiotic I know I have some friends that live in Middle America that are professionals they are ready they they are ready they have bunkers they have dried frozen food that could go to the moon they are ready for any scenario and they're like finally the corona virus we can finally eat all this stuff like they are really they're like so excited that they can finally get their weapon they are ready yeah totally totally but but that I think also poram is part of that message it's coming in a good time the corona virus because poram is a reminder that this veil of of nature we look around why is it that we cover our eyes every morning and every night when we say Shema Easter why do we cover our eyes so for that moment when we're declaring the unity of God we're also able to cover up this illusion of multiplicity as we look around and it seems like there's this leader and that leader and this threat and that threat and we'll remember oh there's one God in the world that actually controls everything and this whole world is a mask that behind this mask is God who's in control and loves us and wants only good for us and only good things are going to happen even if they're painful we know that it's good for some reason that we don't fully understand so it's important this is an opportunity you know these holidays roll roll around poram is a time that is auspicious for the internalization of this truth that God really runs the entire world and we're supposed to wipe out Amalek right that's what poram is about killing Haman Haman is amma like and what does amma like it's doubt and you have to wipe out Amalek but when you erase something you have to erase it what are you gonna write in its place you have to have something to write in its place and I think that that's the part of the message we have to be willing to write words of faith words of conviction you know not in English the word is emunah right but there's also be Tejon Emunah is faith but be Tejon is how would you define be trust trust right so what's the difference between faith and trust in your mind so the way that I define it is that Emunah or is it's moments of inspiration it's moments of revelation it's like wow I can see God's intervention right now in my life this is a moment of faith then be Tejon is sort of walking in that realization that you had long after that inspiration is now lost how long can you really grow and walk in that moment where you had a truth you experienced it you knew it then but after three or four days the memory is sort of like did that really happen was that did that so that's where trust comes in where it's like walking in that faith in another dimension Emunah is intellectual the way I understand it's like an intellectual understanding and B Tejon is the internalization of that intellectual knowledge to where it actually has physiological effects to where you're feeling anxious and wound up but then you're able to internalize this faith and it causes you to come on a physiological level your body is releasing less cortisol less fear Len and you're able to walk in a deeper level of serenity that has a real effect meaning that's like it's not abstract but it's internalized to be a part of who you are so I guess we should maybe wind down right now this show and bless our listeners in Israel around the world that we should have really be able to internalize the message of Purim that this whole world is a mask and and God is really running the show and venafro who all of these evil terrible things coronavirus somehow is going to be flipped around and we're gonna see how is the greatest blessing and it was part of the story of the unfolding Redemption of the Jewish people and all of mankind it seems also a lot of times when hard times hit it's that's when we really like to pray when things are rocking and rolling it's like all right things are I'll say thank you but like it doesn't really come from that place of like azúcar like a call out to God and so this is a real opportunity to really discover Psalm 91 it really is a psalm of protection it's a song a psalm of healing and it's a chance to really like speak the words of King David but in our mouths and in our time and it was literally designed for this time right now so that's our gift to you Psalm 91 I'm owning it in that I'm sharing them Psalm it's a little big book there's 150 chapters which one you're gonna open to I'm giving them like the the Codex okay Psalm 91 go right to it I love it some hashtag Psalm 91 nice open up a new corner a hashtags anyway sorry at the Land of Israel you could reach out to Jeremy Jeremy at the Land of Israel and it's been a pleasure being back we are going to real we're gonna do this every week this time we mean it this time we mean it this time we mean it Salaam Salaam Purim Sameach [Music] while we're facing a threat of an endemic disease we conducted a whole election nothing can stop our Jewish Democratic state we want to have a say in the future of the Jewish people that is being written as we speak we are in the glory days of the Jewish people and even more glorious days are yet to come because of the strength of the Jewish people showed in this election listen to inside Israel today with Gil Hoffman political correspondent for The Jerusalem Post every week on the land of Israel dot-com Shalom and now we are here with a very special guest a very special interview my dear friend and brother Yehuda Cohen who with whom I have great disagreements but even greater respect for his self-sacrifice and dedication to the Jewish people and to his extraordinary work for Israel and I love hanging out with them particularly because of our differences because I feel like I've definitely grown and evolved because of our arguments because of the truth within them I'm very excited to have him on the program now we're in a very special time in Israel's history in Jewish history and many of you may not even know this entire campaign this entire war is going on within the wzo so I'm we're gonna talk to you a little bit more death but you first just tell me wzo what is it it stands for World Zionist Organization ari tell me what about it no so the World Zionist Organization was created by Benjamin Zev Herzl in 1897 in order to create a movement that would bring the Jewish people back to the Land of Israel and I guess the big question we have to ask is why 53 years after the liberation of Jerusalem do we still have as I organization or a Zionist Congress so answer that question well it's a the way I would answer the question is by saying that the question itself you're asking it should be obsolete by this point I'm saying that yet doesn't really make sense in the surface that there would still be a World Zionist Congress or World Zionist Organization 53 years after the return to Zion it it seems like tsiyon ism as this kind of as it was defined by its thought leaders at the time has succeeded to a certain extent or it succeeded in accomplishing many of the aspirations of the Jewish people like the revival of the Hebrew language the in gathering of the exiles the cultivation of our soil the liberation of our country from British rule and ultimately in six incredible days the liberation of the cradle of Jewish civilization including Jerusalem including Zion and yet this world zionist organization continues to exist and roughly every fight you've roughly every five years we have a World Zionist Congress and the question is why why is it important why should we care why should we participate and the what happens at this world Zionist Congress let's start there well so there's a lot of Jews first of all from all over the world to get together and it's a big tent of self-define Zionist self-defined Zionists from all over the world who are meeting to ultimately what is happening is beneath the surface this is usually like more behind-the-scenes if you were to go to a World Zionist Congress what would you would see is a lot of networking a lot of committees a lot of people discussing things and some resolutions being passed and some resolutions being debated but what's happening behind the scenes is a lot of jobs and budgets are being allocated that impact the direction the Jewish people take and the State of Israel takes so it's not just abstract or symbolic there's no there's real stuff going on but but you have to be powerful to be privy to the real stuff you have to be able to come in powerful to be able to put your hands on the real stuff so what are the real stuff well first of all billions of dollars in annual budget that should in my opinion be going towards identifying and achieving the next goals of Jewish liberation meaning where were these billions of mothers coming hold on a second if if if we're saying that there's still a zionist movement over fifty years after the return to zion then in my opinion the best use of the achievements of Zionism the conditions created by Zionism success by the resources of the official Zionist movement all of those things should be allocated and utilized towards identifying and achieving the next goals of Jewish history figuring out where we are in the map of gula where we are in the map of redemption where we are in the map of Jewish liberation what tsiyon ism succeeded in accomplishing meaning what are the goals of Jewish history what were achieved by Zionism by the Zionist movement what's left to achieve and how can we now utilize the conditions created by Zionism success and the resources available to the Zionist movement in order to identify and accomplish the next goals of Jewish history and that's something that hasn't really been done yet because Zionism has become such a catch-all and such a big tent you know at the World Zionist Congress you will see J Streeters and you'll see zio a people and you will see the reform movement and you will see the modern orthodox movement and even some horrid eeeem and in order to get them all in one organization there there's been kind of a watering down of ideology and so the vision movement the the movement I'm involved with that is running a slate of young activists to enter the World Zionist Congress is saying no we need to actually have real conversations about what the next goals of Jewish history are we don't need to agree but we need to have real conversations collectively the people of Israel whether in the State of Israel or in the Diaspora need to have real conversations about what the next goals of Jewish history are and we need to figure out how to utilize the resources available to us to achieve those goals okay you said earlier of the big umbrella I think you said the big tent of all these organizations you said self-defined Zionists right people who would call themselves scientists and that means would you disagree with the label of Zionists for any of the I don't know it means it means so many different things to so many different people so I think it's pointless to argue over the word one way or another I'm interested in in I'm interested in Jewish liberation I'm interested in advancing the gula I'm interested in achieving the goals that we say in the Amidah three times a day that's what I'm interested in personally and advancing Jewish history to the next stage you can call what you want you want to call sign is embed but the truth is Sian ism when it really was officially Zionism like in the time of Herzl in a harem and Jabotinsky in Katznelson etc had many different ideological streams that all saw Zionism differently and so you know some didn't even want a Jewish state or wouldn't say outright that they wanted a Jewish state so I think that you know there is enough room to argue that all of these different groups represent a stream of Zionism as applied today now it's interesting that the two groups that I might identify with the most in the pre state period the rough cook group and the lefty the local authorities are all the fighters for the freedom of Israel actually did not call themselves scientists ruff cook has a quote where he actually says Zionism is such a shallow ideology that it's too shallow to even sustain a living nation let alone revive a dead nation and although Ruth Cooke said we have to look at what the Cutler's borrow who is doing here and who is doing it through and support this because the return of Zion is an important step in Jewish liberation regardless of whether or not the people practically implementing it or driving it are aware of what they're doing and the importance of what they're doing well I think any ISM would have been too small for of Cooke perhaps and Lehi was very careful to say we're not Zionists we are an indigenous people's liberation movement that's fighting against British colonial rule in our land just like the zealots what the Romans and the Maccabees for the Greeks we are the continuation of that okay so I imagine you mentioned a few of the let's say more left-wing parties but there's also you know right-wing parties no parties I mentioned Jabotinsky I threw them in there and now I'm talking about the the wzo other wzo today the wzo today all right so there's you said it's a big umbrella there's a lot of parties from right two nationalistic two left-wing two liberal reform Orthodox conservative where does the vision party fit in here so vision is mostly younger people the majority of people on the vision slate are actually university students who are very involved in the struggles of our people in this chapter of Jewish history who are also very involved in really asking these questions decolonizing Jewish identity trying to formulate what the goals of Jewish history are right now and to be thought leaders in that struggle one of the things that might separate just to go back for a moment one of the things that I think separated the rough cook / Stern group from the Zionist group is that for the most part the Zionists related to the Jewish people as an object with a problem that problem could be assimilation that problem could be persecution that problem could be homelessness but ultimately Zionism was being marketed and presented as a solution to that problem whereas both of Cooke and the leaders of lefty related to the Jewish people as a subject with desires meaning that even if there was no anti-semitism and no persecution and no assimilation and no threats in the Diaspora we would still be be pushing to come back to our land and to declare independence again and to rebuild Hebrew civilization because that's what our people deeply deeply want in our collective soul and that's the purpose of Jewish history and that is the purpose of human history that we can only fulfill our function our historic role through an independent Jewish state in Ireland okay so it's not reactionary no not at all these people are not reaction where Zionism was like it's the idea that you know there's two primary motivations they can motivate you in life either fear or desire right so I would say that the rough cook / left group were about desire whereas the Zionist group was about fear and we today our group the vision movement is about desire not about fear okay okay this is that separates us from all the other parties right away okay well that that definitely sounds whether it's fear I'm sure many of them wouldn't identify that fear is motivating them nonetheless they would come and say well this is the problem that needs to be answered this is the problem that were real - right now well I think that's okay I think it's okay to identify the challenges confronting the Jewish people because we can be blind we have to be able to overcome those challenges and of course those are also things that the resources of the Zionist movement should be going towards but we can't but we have to but before you analyze the problems of the challenges confronting us you have to know your goal if you don't know your goal if you don't know where I'm still supposed to go then you don't know what is necessarily an obstacle you might confuse something for an obstacle that isn't or you might think something isn't an obstacle where when it is so if you don't know your goal if you don't know where you're supposed to be going then it's very difficult to know how to identify an obstacle and overcome the obstacle so I think it's very very and that of course comes back to the separation you know even in the time of World War two when you ear ident your Stern identified the British as the enemy the British as the obstacle even though the Holocaust was about to happen and even though World War two was taking place had just broken out because the British were the ones occupying our homeland and preventing us from being a free people that can act as a player on the world stage instead of like a you know a persecuted people being kicked around by the players right okay so there's um there's mise Rafi you know our listeners out there I've heard of music oh you spoke about mise Rafi before we interviewed them we're friends with them they are very much I guess if you had to put an ism religious Zionist you know you know there's the the COA right there also they're the revisionists I would say CoA and we could work together with some other people as well and I think for the most part they represent kind of a revisionist scientist Jabotinsky and and I would also say very kind of like Western conservative which is very Jabotinsky actually force there there's a lot of like Western conservativism there okay so in a practical way how would vision right be different okay then the success of Mizrahi or zo a Likud or anyone else of these sort of nationalists or right-wing party groups well first of all we have a proven record of doing of accomplishing some really unbelievable feats both in Jewish education in terms of inspiring college students to become active participants in Jewish history to see themselves as characters in the story of a miss relevant yet something we're very good at and we would like to be able to utilize the funds and educational departments of the World Zionist Organization to be able to do that on a mass scale part of it is just you would be focusing more on education that's one thing for the last five years I think our biggest accomplishment over the last five years that no one else really did is that we were able to redirect a lot of the money of the Zionist institutions towards buying land in Judea and Samaria we are able to use we have been able over the last five years to use the resources of the Zionist movement to resist it two-state solution through land purchases in Judea and Samaria that is something that we've been doing and that's something that we want to keep doing but we need to come in strong in order to do it and that's something that means rafi early koozie I would not do I'm not sure they wouldn't they didn't initiate it I imagine many of them were supported there might be people in Mizrahi who are too Staters because there are people in the quote-unquote religious Zionist camp who identify as to Staters as I'm sure you know and many of your listeners probably know so I wouldn't be surprised if that exists on the Mizrahi slate that there are people who think a two-state solution is the way to go and and they have rabbis who would give ilanic approval to that just not my rabbis and perhaps on your rabbis I in zio way I doubt anyone would support a two-state solution although the COS position on the two-state solution officially is they reject a two-state solution that could endanger Israel or empower forces that would endanger Israel whereas our position is that we're against it because we demand our entire country be free from foreign rule it's not a question of danger it's not a question of security it's not a question of how good or bad the people we'd be potentially giving our land to it's just about the fact that this is our homeland and and somebody who understands that doesn't divide it so it's the difference is a ideological posture that's what you say that well not just a posture we've had a good five years of of utilizing the resources of the Zionist movement Ward's resisting and two-state solution now CEO I'm not saying CoA is a bad party to support CoA is more focused on other things like for example passing anti BDS resolutions now the InDesign is Congress I personally don't first of all I personally don't think top-down anti BDS resolutions are ever really effective or I also think it sounds a little ridiculous anti BDS what what does BDS it's anti so it's anti anti resolution but it's a lot of anti there instead of what you're saying right but within the Zionist movement to pass anti beautyrest BT and to pass anti BDS resolutions in the Zionist movement to me feels a little bit silly honestly also they recently passed something saying that we're not allowed to say West Bank anymore we have to say Judea and Samaria I don't know what that means practically if people saying West Bank will be fined honestly I don't have a big problem with the term West Bank obviously I prefer Judea and Samaria just because it's like my people's cultural word for these places but usually but but I do get frustrated I guess or I get a little bit annoyed when people refer to Judea and Samaria as a synonym i I like calling Samaria Samaria I like calling Judea Judea and sometimes I'll refer to the two of them collectively as the West Bank well I'm sort of surprised though that you don't have a problem with the term West Bank being there from the sounds of what you're saying you recognize the critical importance of language yeah I read creating an our thinking and creating our our posture so the West Bank is what most of the world today calls the cradle of Jewish civilization its land were absolutely determined to hold on to that should be part of the State of Israel that if anything it's Israel proper whereas tel-aviv in Netanya are greater Israel this is where our whole civilization developed this is where our ancestors are from this is where most of our national story has taken place and these are the lands that our people struggle to come back to for 2,000 years now people can call I again I get hung up on certain words in some words I don't and it's totally fine with me I totally understand where you or zo a or anybody else I'd have a big issue with the term West Bank it's not something that frustrates me I get much more annoyed when I hear people use words like settler or settlement that bothers me a much deeper level because it's interesting it doesn't bother me as much okay exactly so teaches on and if you want we can have a show where we you know talk about why I'm more bothered by these words in you're more by mother by those words but I think that the word settler in English has a very colonialist connotation it's almost like saying alien colonizer whereas the word nahele in Hebrew which is the word commonly used for you Jews like you and I who live in Judea that actually has a connotation of indigeneity like na holla so I think it's an ekala means heritage which anyway I'd like to point out no there's a difference between an inheritance and a heritage an inheritance is something you could give away your dad leaves you money you could give it away a heritage as part of who you are hmm it's a part of your essential niceties so that's an important distinction to make which is part of why I like where we're meeting not clean we're not meet Rasheen right so we're MIT not clean but I'm not a settler I don't want to live as a settler I don't want to be a settler I'm proud to be a mini hill and I think the best English word I've heard so far to translate that into is judean judean that works I'm like I like Judy and I also agree by the way with your point about Judea and Samaria you know we don't say let's say Mexico started saying you know Texas in Arizona like we have to group them together because they do know it's like when I hear a student the same place when I hear students saying they're going to Judea and Samaria for sure but I'm like where you going right right just tell me where you're going like you're going to you wanna have run you're gonna in Judea you're going to Allen Moriah you're going to Samaria you're going to beit el you're going to Judea by the way a lot of people don't realize that you did extends way north of Jerusalem people always think of a Jerusalem it's like the border and everything south is Judah everything north is Samaria the truth is you know I live on a mountain near Battelle and I live in northern Judea well for what you've told me though where you live in beta L is the border it's the border of so there's the border is actually a harbor Hut's or which is north of Ofra it's right it's wherever you are clearly within Judi I'm clearly within Judea but from a tribal perspective I'm on the border between Binyamin and a frying so when the king split I actually my mountain was like the southern part of the kingdom of Israel and not included in the kingdom of Judea okay it's complicated because there's so many different what you know what part of the problem when we talk about this land and we talk about different regions in this land there's so many layers of history and so many events that took place that depending on the time period and depending on who is deciding what I within our own people nevermind Palestine Eretz cannot on West Bank I'm talking about just like Judea and Samaria versus kingdom of Judea Kingdom of Israel versus tribe of Judah tribe of Benjamin tribe of Ephraim there's already so many like layers there that it becomes very complicated to unpack but in terms of Judea and Samaria I'm in northern Jersey or do we say Judea we're not saying the tribe of Judah of Judah because that is much more limited than the kingdom of Judah when the Kingdom of Israel in Kingdom of Judah were divided so the kingdom of Judah is what you're talking about Judea today not exactly but we can get very stuck on this let's move up you you mentioned one of the your students tell you they're going to Judea and Samaria this I understand vision is a student movement it's largely a student movement and again it's students who have already come to the conclusion there are older people on the list as well a lot of young professionals and people who have been political organizers for a long time you know in their community is trying to advance Jewish history trying to have real conversations about whether or not you know Jews are white whether or not Jews belong in the United States whether or not you know we're what our identity is I think there's a lot to talk about a lot to unpack when it comes to decolonizing Jewish identity and realizing that we're not just like Americans with a Jewish religion those of us who were living in America I know you and I both did live in the United States at some point in our lives but actually you know descendants of B'nai Israel who happened to live in the United States because of a crime committed against them by Roman imperialists who destroyed our civilization and uprooted us from our soil or alternatively because of our own sins which again levels and levels of understanding they're both true both are absolutely truth truth both are absolutely true but the idea is if you have that consciousness whether what I said or what you said then suddenly returning home returning to yourself returning to your true identity returning to all of these aspects of yourself that you lost either because of external coercion or internal inadequacy becomes a goal that we should aspire to make aliyah I think it's much more effective to kind of change the movie a person is psychologically living in to the story of Ami's rel and then he'll just make Olly on his own rather than just like tell somebody who's living in the movie of the American Dream that he needs to move to some country in the Middle East I mean just a more effective approach so we again when it comes to Jewish education that's true and that's actually something I'm personally struggling with right now because sometimes when I don't have the proper forethought and willpower I just throw it out because I'm personally very perturbed and anxious about the fate of American Jewry not only I'm in a simulation level but also just on a physical safety level but but I agree with you that you know working on the overall narrative I just don't know if we necessarily have the time to do that but I want to go back to a point we were just talking I don't want to miss this so I said is it a student movement yeah it is a there it's a coalition of different movements that kind of got together led by Livi the majority of candidates are students or young professionals in their 20s or 30s which is very different from all the other parties most of the parties are you know running candidates who are probably grandparents and the majority of candidates I mean there is like a certain number of candidates that have to be under a certain age there are a certain number of candidates that have to be female these are like in fact it's funny because of the requirements to run like a certain number of females in certain places on your list the World Zionist Organization actually forced us to move females down our list meaning we had more females and we needed according to requirements but because we didn't have them like spaced properly we had to push them down our list which was interesting but most of those disappointing to me to see how deeply permeated is this identity politics within Western thought that they're in forcing and coercing so how about just the best people for the job and I'm sure you in your group you have decided the best people were those girls that you put high up on that's great but to coerce that and to just change it because it didn't fit the exact requirements that were mandated it's not silly to me but that's also neither here nor there right so but I wanna our listeners out there if they're not students okay so yeah first of all we are very much trying to empower younger voices in Zionist politics because these are the people who are really like living on the front lines dealing with the campus battles having conversations that the older generation even our generation didn't have and and applying like concepts that I think are very helpful in advancing gula some of these concepts by the way might come from the left sometimes but their concepts like the whole post-colonial conversation is a conversation that comes from the left but is very very powerful when applied to Jewish identity in Jewish history in order to essentially bring us to chuhwa meaning you know when we talk about decolonizing that essentially means chuhwa that means returning to who we really are returning to our true identity our true destiny our true homeland our true culture you know and our true worldview because it's not just you know it's also a worldview that's different it's also a concept of truth a concept of logic that might be different from other civilizations that have dominated us in history so I think breaking free of that requires these tools and some of those tools come from the left and we have to be able to utilize I think whatever comes at us whether it's from the right of the left we have to be able to to say can this be used in the service of Jewish liberation can this be utilized in order to advance guerrilla that's the question we have to ask no matter what we're dealing with and that needs to be the mindset and that's a very revolutionary mindset it's one that isn't operating from fear like you said before it's not relating to the Jewish people as an object with a problem but rather a subject with desires right and Burt and you know what you're saying about Western conservative for example conservatism that's something that you have in the past railed against not that there's not a lot of a practical overlap between let's say a CoA and a lot of their Western conservative perspectives on Israel you may stand in the same place as far as policies concerned but when it comes to we both a foundational worldview we're very very different which isn't important right so so I'm probably cut like for example the COA and I probably both agree that the two-state solution is wrong and should be resisted I don't want to speak for anyone else I'm coming at it from the same perspective as the maka beam and the zealots and the lefty and I'm coming and I'm saying that my homeland can't be divided I demand that my entire country be free from foreign rule because it's my homeland and because it's my soulmate and because like this is this is the place that I've struggled for 2,000 years to come back to and it has nothing to do with whether or not my neighbors behave well or don't behave well I think that it's irrelevant I know I don't have to I don't have to demonize on another people or other people in this land in order to legitimize my desire to hold on to my entire land I can say that this is my land because this is my land and I want to make sure I don't even have a right to it I have an obligation to it to make sure there is justice in the entire land and for me to make sure there's justice in the entire land I have to have some level of power I have to have some level of control right which brings me to why you drove out here to the southeastern tip of Judea today because while we're having great discussions which we always have you want to and the reason I keep on asking this question and I want to get the answer on I'm looking for work you want people to sign up vote to vote to vote someone a to number five make it clear yeah two people out there that are listening that aren't students yes so are octoly they're able to be a part of I would guess I will be very clear vision is trying to accomplish a number of very important objectives number one we're trying to empower younger voices and even if we are not younger and listeners aren't that young there's certainly a value in empowering the next generation who are actually dealing with these issues number one number two we're trying to push new conversations into the Zionist world about what Jewish liberation means now what does Jewish liberation mean after the six-day war what does Jewish liberation mean in the 21st century what are the next goals of Jewish history and how can we practically utilize the resources of the Zionist movement to be able to accomplish those goals what we've done so far by allocating Zionist money towards land purchases in Judea and Samaria is really in my opinion the tip of the iceberg right that's just the starting point we really we want to get our hands on Jewish education we want to be able to inspire the next generation of Jews and we're good it's speaking to the next generation of Jews we're probably the best organization running in these elections that are able to speak to the millennial generation in the language that they can hear tell the story if I missed out on the language they can hear and want to be part of now let me ask you a little bit more about that and we have to wind this down running out of time but you are talking about speaking in the next generation what is going on on campuses throughout America what are what is the situation with American Jewish students are they apathetic are they far left and J Streeters in order to I wouldn't hear them some what is all right I would never categorize J Street as the far left I would categorize J Street as a liberal organization liberal or left liberal clearly liberal okay what would be further left than J Street if not now they have a representation in the W no they won't vote you depends who I'm sure there are people in if not now who I mean if not now is a unique organization where there is space to be a Zionist or an anti Zionist a two-state ur or a one-state ur a BDS supporter or opposing media like their people in not now who are opposed to videos people who supported people who are to stay towards people who are one Staters so you have Zionists and anti Zionist and non scientist in if not now jvp is a decidedly anti Zionist Organization J Street defines itself as a Zionist Organization that is the stream of Zionism that it promotes liberal Zionism the quote unquote luminaries of that camp are people like Peter Beinart maybe a Jeremy Benari yeah Jeremy ben-ami certain politicians in our Knesset you know from parties like merits for example Stav Shaffir like these are people who are identified as kind of the leaders of liberal Zionism today and I think that a lot of the things they're saying are consistent with some of the values and some of the writings and some of the aspirations of a Zionist thinkers a hundred years ago they're definitely they have who to hold by in the Zionist canon i person that seems like a very interesting show we should do it another time okay because for me personally I just can't let that lie I have to throw my opinion in there which is that J Street is actively advocating for the what is practically the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel they are I think they very definitive I think you have a very strong argument I think you have a very strong argument there I think again I'm not one of them bothersome and I can't speak for them really like I the the truth is they are probably our biggest haters like the people who are most threatened by the vision movement are the J Street people because we are attractive to a lot of their students meaning the LA that's my question why are you attractive to their students because we're giving them like honestly we have a phenomena ask me what was going on on campuses yes one of the things we should be aware of that has been happening on campuses for the last few years is that a lot of Jews who come from what we would call Zionist homes AIPAC homes even Modern Orthodox high schools become chaste readers in college because they feel that the Zionism they were taught was too shallow or too one-sided or too narrow it wasn't intellectually stimulating fulfilling they felt there was another side that was being hidden from them I think that is a feature of the pro-israel community trying to hide the other side and some students especially bright students see through that and they need a deeper more intellectually fulfilling approach Jewish nationalism we provide that in a very different way than J Street does obviously I think Jay Street tries to be you know somewhere balancing like the pro-israel and pro-palestinian positions whereas we're giving them a much deeper Jewish nationalism that's able to confront the Palestinian story and even recognize some of the truth in the Palestinian narrative without suddenly looking to betray Jewish history on any level meaning even when we when we approach Palestinian issues we do so as an advancement of Jewish liberation and not a retreat like a retreat for example would be giving up part of our homeland Hospital where as an advancement would be finding ways to partner with certain sectors of Palestinian society in order to strengthen our hold on Eretz Israel or to resist outside pressures to force us to give up parts of our land you know years ago I worked for a member of Knesset Arielle Dodd I don't know if you know Arielle dud and the first thing I said to him when he wouldn't he interviewed me was like I had to you know full disclosure I had to say that I really do believe that if if there is no Western pressure we would be able to figure out our situation with the Arabs Palestinians in our country and Arabs around us very very quickly but if there was not one non Jew between the river and the sea the Western powers are tried to find another excuse to take our land away from us and he agreed he's a very without also yeah so she I don't agree with the first part of what you said we don't think we don't we don't you know I think we can handle it but I don't think that we can figure it out with them because of our our side of things there's to way too many Jews throughout this country who are colonial eyes colony in their own colonial colonized and and that's part of the problem I think this is again a the West has the prerogative and the right to try to interfere in things here they see their own interests yeah based on that they have the right to do that we though do not need to cooperate with that we should be resisting we should be resisting and I think that the vision party is shown itself to be very good at resisting and just using the the resources and the funds of the Zionist movement to be able to resist but we want to go further okay there's a bunch I would rather I would love to continue discussing with you but we're out of time yeah I noticed last slide number five people can vote at Zama does that means slate number four there's 15 slates competing in this election Jews in the United States have the ability to vote by going to Zionist election org there are 15 parties to choose from our party the vision movement you can check it out at vision movement org one of our leaders is very popular with the younger generation Rudy Rahman you know you can check him out on all of his platforms as well or he'll be promoting a lot of our materials and videos and we have a lot of young activists we're very inspired by people like Rudy some of them maybe even by people like you and we are we're looking to come in strong because we want to push real conversations about what the next goals of Jewish liberation are and how the Zionist movement can actually make itself relevant to Jewish history by allocating its resources towards defining and achieving the goals of Jewish history we don't all have to agree I mean I have my ideas of what's next and you might have your ideas of what's next and other parties might have their ideas of what next if we were to have the conversation but until now we haven't had the conversation so we're trying to push this conversation actually driving Jewish history forward advancing Jewish liberation forward we are slate number five vision because there you go to Zionist election or gorg yeah you're gonna you register and using a whole different part right it costs five dollars for Jews under 26 from 18 to 25 they tried to raise it to 750 for them but we fought this battle our students fought this battle in the American Zionist movement we succeeded about a couple months ago so now there is a discount for five dollars for like it was last time for students if somebody's over the age of 25 it's seven dollars and fifty cents to register and then you have 15 different sites to choose from my endorsement of course goes to the vision movement which is slight number five and if you want to learn more about the vision movement you go to vision movement org Judah Cohen thank you for coming out here thanks for having a little mountain on the southeastern tip of Judea always a pleasure always truly always a pleasure and I hope next time we could dive even deeper into some of these issues which everybody do couple weeks genom shadow so know [Music] this is Eve Harrow host of rejuvenation wanting to wish everyone a joyous warm holiday from the entire staff of the Land of Israel Network all year long we like Esther and Mordecai uncover the real stories behind the story and has gems actions behind the scenes [Music]