Israel Inspired: Destination Judea

[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 and you are listening to Israel inspired on the Land of Israel Network this is are you brand words here with Jeremy gun fell and it has been a long time it has been a long time Jeremy it is good to be here with you it is really special being back on the air special is a good work I don't know what else to say I'll tell you what I think is the right thing to say it's been there are times in life where you are from with inside to the out where you have a message to the world and there are times where you're going through a kiln of refining fire and the entirety of the battle needs to be played out on the inside beat it because it takes the entirety of your energy to fight that battle that's happening on the inside and that's what's been happening I think for you I don't know for me I would call it a battle as much but it's been very much the same internal I have been through a war a war with many battles I've been through many battles in a giant war that's what it feels like yes and I saw you going through that and I hope it comforted you that throughout I was saying that you know we've been partners now for what do we just decide it was 20 years no we just assess 16 years 18 years 18 years 16 to 18 years something in there and you know I am a challenging greater I grade myself with like harshness and sometimes you as well you have been doing very very well as far as the magnitude of the experience you were going through how you were rising to the occasion of your experience was very much as I feel really bad because I literally just fallen off the end of the world I have dear friends that I've just totally lost contact with people are sending me messages asking how I'm doing I I just I haven't been able to communicate with through our podcast through videos there's so many times that I want to just turn my phone on make a video let people know what's been going on but the trauma and the challenges with which I was dealing with I just couldn't bring myself to turn the phone on yeah I totally identify with that I empathize with that but I sympathize with that I don't empathize with that because that was not my experience well my experience it was but I was still going I was getting married that is a foundational redefinition of the self right that was a very awesome but very internal sort of so we were both going through this internal stuff at the same time so no show yeah it's really funny I I moved to the mountain the day before your wedding we're both going through these transformational realities and now we're both living on the mountain in Judea we're both and I just have to tell you there's something I mentioned this to you before but I want to share it with our um with our listeners is that since I was a little kid there was this is the story I'll just tell you the story I must have been in the first grade or before first grade but first grade and I gave five dollars that I took from my mother's purse now keep in mind I'm in the first grade okay so I'm like six years old so I'm not held responsible for things but I saw five dollars in her person I took it and I just gave it to some kid in the first grade and his mother's like what is this five dollars and it became like a little bit of a scandal involving my parents and they were like oh this is what happened and they asked me I'm like I wanted to give it to him so this school purchased a book for the school with a plaque to me and him in the book and it was called the story of the two friends I don't remember if it was the two friends of the two brothers someone should look that up on Amazon I will look it up looking for the story of the two friends and it was like wow this book is in the school with my name in it I'm in the sixth grade six years old like my name in something it was like a like a huge cornerstone in my life like you don't remember much when you were six this last is the story that I remember exactly so it's the story in the book of these two either friends or brothers they live on each side of one mountain one friend has six children and one friend is married in with no children trying to have children and the friend of the six children says to his wife he's like we listen we have these children to help us in the fields we have really more than we really need let's sneak food over at night to my best friend on the other side of the mountain so the friend on the other side of mountain is saying to his wife this is what we do we have it's only the two of us but he has all those mouths to feed we really have more than we need so let's sneak food to him so every night in the middle of the night they would just miss each other sneaking food to each other's houses and and then one and they wake up every morning they have the same amount of food and then one time they in the middle of the night they encounter each other and they see what's happening they're giving each other food and they embrace and that is where the Beit HaMikdash is built right that's the story that's the Midrash it's a Midrash right it's something like that anyways it's a little hard not to see some sort of correlation where I'm on one side of the mountain you're on the other side of the mountain you have six children I don't have any yet right on the top is the most epic historic unbelievably beautiful House of Prayer that I've seen in my life and that strikes aw into the eyes and heart of everyone that comes to see this place is so mind blown from the beauty of it it's a little much yeah it's hard not to see a certain signature of God there I learned the first grade right that's pretty unbelievable okay now Jeremy this is what I sort of want to talk about right now and let me just give a little disclaimer that I am on four days of a juice cleanse it's called what's good listener or lesson herbs and he like cleans out your body there's no food it's just periodic apple juice with some like herbs in it and so I've not eaten for four days no heart no food no food it's been a foundational reboot that I've found very mind-opening and spiritually interesting but so I'm a little bit out of it I sound great I appreciate that dude I appreciate that so let me talk to you let's find out about you what was what does this been like from kids I'll tell you tequila she started speaking to a group what she usually doesn't do and thank goodness I had the presence of mind right yeah to take out my phone and video I'm like this is a unique thing that doesn't usually happen so I video that and she was so beautiful what she shared without any preparation just from her heart about what's going on yeah that's a video on YouTube you can check out she's amazing I mean it seems as though I've passed this test holding on to Gila has flown through the test with flying colors she has just been like a superhero like I've been why is that I know I've been curled up in a fetal position sucking my thumb crying most nights only metaphorically I'm only metaphorically where she's just been like this is our destiny this is our choice this is what we're doing and she never looked back she's just like fought through everything she needed to fight through okay but I do think there's a little bit of arrogance involved ironically and you saying that you're in the fetal position because we both know that what you did is selling your one possession one asset in the world okay which is totally irrational thing to come out here to the farm and would build a house that does not belong to you personally you can never really sell and moving your family out here without security it's such a radical move that no one would have the courage to do that so I think you're judging yourself a little bit harsh well either way I judge myself harshly tehila flew through this test with flying colors there's no other she just like passed it in ways that like I see I've discovered new sides of tequila that I never even knew existed it's almost like without really being pushed to the test then you don't really know how strong you are how much you can do and I mean listen you know we moved out here we invested all of our money sunk into this place and when we moved out here because we didn't have a house our house would wasn't fully ready yet so we didn't have a washer in a dryer so we had to take our clothes at his parents house in Efrat the washing I mean our house wasn't ready yet so there's all this construction and dust all around the house that was like filling the house all the time with all this dust because we didn't put any earth around the house yet you know our baby room didn't have a door yet so the baby couldn't go to sleep we had no bars on our windows so I and you were doing guard duty at nighttime so by the next morning I'm exhausted because I'm that's something you know and a fraught they're establishing this new a Tom Hill and they're due they're establishing guards to leave from a front together so I wanted to sign up to go guard there and then Shane is like who's gonna guard me if you go there [Laughter] yeah I mean it's so in the beginning I I had no bars on my windows I didn't have any real guard dogs and there was no air conditioning it was the middle of the summer the kids didn't have schools so I'm now juggling six kids in this reality the guy who was supposed to build my kitchen I gave a huge downpayment the man took my money and took off we had no bathroom so we had a compost toilet outside the house so I'm waking up in the morning with tractors and Arab workers outside my house saying good morning taking my kids outside one by one to a compost toilet letting them go to the bathroom one at a time can I just tell you but I see the Arabs there with pickaxes as your children are running around little emunah ed and which are two of the most adorable little girls I've ever seen her running around screaming it's not all of them are jihadists but some of them one of them has definitely had that felt like Jews must kill Jews but they're so cute anyways it's just like a crazy situation like the the stone on my floor didn't have sealer so we couldn't even put furniture for the first week so we're in a house there's no place to sit there's no place to nurse the baby we didn't have beds because our beds broke with along with all of our other stuff in the move our kids beds were stolen so my kids are sleeping on we're all on mattresses on the floor surrounded in boxes with no air conditioning no bars around the windows and you were saying to yourself like why couldn't I have done this a smarter way but to me when I saw it happening I was like Hashem saw that you're willing to do the irrational so he's gonna actually make you bond with this place it was it had to go that way because of the nature of the bond that is happening well I'll tell you like all of that physical stuff that I just described was very hard it was very challenging and it's by far the hardest thing that I've ever done more than anything we've ever done in the military you know reserve duty more than anything I've ever done in my military service your picture though the house you also had your security dog which was meant to be your canine the most important security thing you have out here because there's no walls or fences or security systems all you have is your dog you didn't even get your windows and your dog was like putting rocks in his mouth it's like a puppy a puppy yeah yeah there's like you look in his eyes no one is home yeah it's like there was it was the hardest thing I've ever done for sure also you know it was just me and tequila or just by myself all right we can like handle it the six kids with no school with all of that environment alone on a mountaintop in the most contested area in the world like we're in the heart of Judea it was just really hard but I feel like more than any of that was the feeling like Hashem left me that's what it felt like sometimes in life you know you feel like there's a certain presence that's guiding you how McCain meets a de Guevara that Hashem is like preparing the steps for you that you see Spice carts all around you where you can see God's signature in your life where you just feel a certain comfort and confidence and be to hone that like Hashem is with you and you're on this mission and I felt like I made such an intuition based decision it was such an irrational and there was no place in the mind it was just from the heart that I felt like Hashem wanted me to move here wanted me to build this place wanted me to dedicate my life to this place and from that and munna place I made this move and when I made the move God is like by that whole Emunah thing goodbye I'm not here with you anymore right so that for me was the hardest of all of it it's literally why did Hashem have us come back on the air partly because this is when you know it's like unless I go to your what your story is exactly what hazael say our sages say that Avram Avena when he went through all of these tests the allegory that's given the Rebbe Nachman gives is to a king that marries his wife queen and then divorces her and then has marries her again has a child and then divorces her marries her again and has a child and then divorces or why is it that journey because the divorce that happened when when you're in the test it feels like Hashem has left you yeah you know that's been that's been my experience like you don't feel that closeness that that you know the the light there but you have to know it and live according to the truth that you know rather than necessarily always feel it while you're in the test here I have this quote that I've been carrying with me that my good friend ov sent me maybe two months ago and it's based on this week's parsha about Avraham and in my life I've never identified more powerfully with a parsha with a character in the Tanakh more than Avram because I really feel like you know when I came out here I had a moment you know how many times do we really have moments in our lives meaning those moments how many stories do we even have of Avram a handful like the most influential person in human history and we don't have that many stories about him you know his whole life is you know a dozen chapters in the Tanakh that's it we haven't we don't have anything we just have this story this story this story so in our lives how often do we have those moments and you got to hold on to those moments and the question is like what do you do with those moments that mean to me I know so many Jews you know from the United States from Australia from around the world they come to Israel and they they have like this moment they have this moment where wow this is this is my place this is my home this is my destiny I should make alia and then they go back to wherever they go back to and they have to contend with what that moment that they had are they gonna ignore that what happened to them while they were in Israel are they going to hold on to it are they gonna act based on it because you don't have many of them maybe you only have one of those moments in your whole life and for me when I came out here and I just felt this calling to not come out here would have been the biggest regret of my life because now that I've followed that calling maybe I'll get another calling because I feel like if you get a calling and you don't follow it it could be that you won't get any more you know I'm from a V know it says that the the Midrash cuz I was just reading they they say that when he heard la flaca he get up the next morning he left he didn't tend to his financial needs he didn't he left behind all his men and also sorry his wife and they were all tending to everything they needed and he just started moving very slow but he started moving immediately and then they all caught up with him and he left but he sensed that if he started tending to all the financial matters again it was just never gonna happen that's why when you came out here I was trying to talk some sense into you and you just didn't want to hear it you know you didn't want to hear it because obviously you knew that I was gonna be making very very very good compelling points but the minute you start playing that game you have to just this is what you're doing well here's what happened that once I made the move and I took all of my money and I invested it in this place that I will never get the money out of and now I brought all my children here all of those arguments that you very kindly as a good friend wanted to bring up with me that I just immediately shut down because I saw them I wanted my work yeah oh my god oh the worst the worst was the moments of what have I done those moments no the ones that were worse for you we're fine what have I done to my family what have I done the whole thing was insane so here this was a message that I want to read it's a beautiful Torah you know from breslav and here's what it says before attaining any new height one must pass through many confusions and doubts so let me tell you I doubted everything confused entirely that's why I couldn't turn on my phone that's why I couldn't talk to people I literally didn't know what to say I barely got to talk to you yeah it was just like I thought I was like wow you were in it's like it was like one of those roller coasters where there's loops and there you go upside down and spin around but it's just like there's loop after loop after loop after loop after spin and it's just total confusion doubting everything what have I done where is God where am I and then Rebbe Nachman continues or every not sin continues their form when God told Abraham to leave his homeland he did not reveal to him right away that his destination was the Land of Israel due to his uncertainty Avraham was forced to seek out the nature of Hashem will this uncertainty was his main test and similarly it is the main test of all tsadikim so it's like what you said it seems as though like when you have that moment of inspiration and you have that moment of truth I believe you have to act on it but then once you act on it the inspiration is gonna go away and all you're gonna be left with is why did I act on that that was then why who am i what am i doing all of the doubt and all of the uncertainty that's where it happened but that's why you just said this morning you're like I'm starting to feel like I'm you sit up so don't feel like I'm finally coming back to myself that's what you said this morning and I really thought to myself I understand what you're saying you're coming back to yourself in the sense that you're becoming centered again but you now is a very different you than before you came out here meaning that yourself is a new self but I think you mean a centered well let me just tell you what you know I feel like there are two Jeremy Gimpel there are two Arya bran watts is there are two sides to every person in the world and you know maybe in a little bit more spiritual language we would say the higher self or the lower self maybe an Aussie dupe you would say Melinda collude and Melinda Knut maybe we would say the me of this world and the me of the world to come but all of us have this inner dialogue with ourselves I mean how often do you find yourself being like oh my gosh Jeremy what have I done Who am I talking to who is Jeremy here and who is Jeremy conversing with I'm talking to myself but it seems as though there's like an inner dialogue with two selves that are communicating and so rough Daniel taught me that you know we have the meat of the world to come and that was the me of the eternal soul of Jeremy Gimpel that before I was born there was a certain dream that Hashem had for me my ideal self and my soul knows who that self can be and who that self should be and when I'm conversing with that me of the world to come I'm really touching in some ways to a place that like knows the path that I should be on and it feels now like I am finally fulfilling my mission I'm fulfilling my Schlick ooh it feels like I'm in touch with the dream that Hashem had for me I feel like I'm back on track and it feels like you know there was like a magnet that was pulling me to this place and pulling me to this place and now it feels like I'm plugging in to the wall of this place and a new stream of energy is being energized to me and it's like I've made it to where I was supposed to be and I already see the transformation that's happening in myself in my marriage with my kids tehila and I have started waking up now at 4:30 at 5 o'clock in the morning we've never done that before usually when do we wake up we wake up when we have to wake up because our kids wake us up because there's a school bus in fact that's the way we're trained to wake up but tehila you knows reading one of her books and then she immediately gets inspired and then she's like inspiring the meet everybody every saguru yes unbelievable and so she's you know it's like when you're a kid it's like you know you have to wake up but kiva wake up it's time for school and when there's no school you get to sleep late so already from a very young age you know modern man is being trained to only wake up when he has to and Tina's like why are we only waking up when we have to let's wake up an hour and a half earlier and then hour-and-a-half when my kids are still asleep and it's still dark outside here and it's just me and tequila and sometimes it's me alone journaling praying meditating sometimes it's us together learning the parsha it's like it's the best time of the day and we watched the Sun Rise over the mountains of Judea it's the way a Judean morning is meant to be lived now for some reason in Nevada al in my community there I just it wasn't the rhythm of the way people were living I wasn't able to sort of break out of that box but coming out here to this mountain I'm just Reed redefining the ways that I want to live and I haven't even discovered the full extent of it yet but I feel like finally I'm starting to live the life that I should I mean my children they come home now and I am a big believer in raising children that you need to be around them as much as possible the just being literally like them being close to you around you that you're their main influence they can go to a friend's house sometimes but for the most part I believe just the more time you have with them that they are with you the more you are supervising them then when they do something that's a little bit off you can immediately correct them and say like this and that's not the right way to behave this is the right way to bathe but if they're out of your sight then you really don't know what's happening with them well when you have six kids on a mountaintop just from a security level they can't really be out of my eyesight and they come home and they'd have no friends here because we're alone on a mountaintop they're just spending time with me and tequila now and with each other and with each other and it has been such a blessing it's why I moved here I mean in some ways although yes of course this is the most strategic area in southeastern Gush Etzion connecting four other settlements in the deepest settlement in the West Bank and there's all of the political stuff that's there but this move for my family is what we wanted we wanted to live a life connected to nature connected to Eretz Israel with our children around us as our main influence you know parents it goes so fast I mean Lavi he's my 14 year old I'm like he's out of the house already he's already now in a dorm school he comes home twice a week I mean whatever like education or impact that I could have given him like my job isn't done yet but like the the quantity time with lovey its I'm finished so we don't have that much more time with our children it's very limited and I feel like you know the time of sewing is very limited but the time of reaping is eternal so this is the time that I have now and I already see that like it's changing my family they're becoming closer with each other and it's just I don't know my days and my time with them have to be more thought-out when they come home I need to have a plan what am I doing with them why am I doing this with them we're alone on a mountaintop we better have an activity we better have a project we're working on we're better learning something and it's just making it's the life that I believe Hashem had dreamed of me to live I'm actually now finally starting to live it and I feel like Hashem presents returning somehow out of a long battle with confusion and doubt in fear it's like settling in it's like my soul has taken a longer time to settle here than my body but that's why I think sometimes people beat themselves up when they're in that place with the darkness and the confusion and the fear and that's exactly the opposite thing to do right because it's during those times that all of the magic happens that's when you know you say our o me ma Hashem key delete Ani raise me up Hashem because you lowered me we've shared this idea I think it was from rabbi Richmond he said delete Ani is from the LeSean of Daliya like a bucket that when you put a bucket down into a dark well and it disappears into the darkness you think it's it's gone but really when it comes back up it has water in it there's something that we're doing in those places that when we get out of it were at an entirely new level like a butterfly from a caterpillar and so what you're saying literally just speaks into the end of this breslav Torah and here's what it says as I heard from Rebbe Nachman directly at the moment when anyone is tested his mind is not completely lucid concerning the matter at hand if his powers of perception were at their height the test would not be a test at all for him meaning if my emunah was strong the whole time and I just saw this to be the clear truth then there's no real growth there there's no real test there so what happens is every time someone goes through a test he has to go through a time of confusion and doubt where his perception is being challenged and therefore God tested Abraham by not immediately revealing to him where he was going it was necessary for Avraham to be confused and nevertheless to seek out God's will so that he could attain greater merit the same principle applies to all of us through seeking and yearning we can attain the greatest spiritual Heights yeah when Avraham went into Liholiho go into the land of Canaan and he goes into the land and immediately there's a drought and he has to leave talk about like questioning leaving opening of a door to question everything this is not how this is supposed to go and he had to go down to Egypt the minute he got to the promised land right it's like constant it short you know uh curveballs you just you you just don't know what to expect and that's how Hashem keeps you on your imeem people here is talking about a shaman lot but it's become so clear I see Gila said this in her video that Hashem is just the reality of the unity behind God's name at least when I'm out here becomes more clear to me in ways that are difficult to explain like realize that even just when it comes to the finances of this place right I found that the financial situation has been so intimidating and I spent a long time working hard saying what can I do to try to raise funds for this place right and I would work hard and I feel like a shrimp saw I was that I was doing it and why I was doing it and the reasons I was doing it was for good reasons but then what kept on happening on in unbelievable ways is that people that just show up they come in so I'm working at this and working at then working on all these different angles and then Hashem just sent someone and they just say I've been moved to my heart to do such a thing and it's given you know and I feel like I've realized the message here has been I have to work hard and I have to do what I have to do but ultimately it's it's going to come from Hashem so I started redefining Who I am out here and the redefinition I found so liberating and it's brought me so much joy in my life and I realized I'm not here to like raise funds for this place or I am here to do Houston Assad or him to welcome people into my home I'm not always as great as it as I would like to be but I love doing that I love hospitality in this place has a lot of opportunity for that is so much that it can sometimes be exhausting but I love doing that I said that's what I do and then from where the financial resources come for this place that is up - M Hill the the steering wheel is in his hand I mean you talk about how can I SOT or I'm bringing guests into this place I think over Sukkot we had close to a thousand visitors that is overwhelming I mean there were times where there would be four to five groups coming a day they would like come from eight until 9:30 off and then from 10:00 until 12:00 and then into the night time and I had this image that you know I grew up with rips limo and Rev Kahana as these two rabbis that were like hovering over me as these legendary figures of people that just dedicated their whole lives to the Jewish people that did whatever they had to do to bring light into the world for the Jewish people in for Israel and you know rubbish Lama would go to these concerts in the Ukraine and give them an experience it would light a spark in them and someone in the crowd would be like wow this is Judaism I really need to explore more what that means to me I'm a Jew and it would send them in a certain direction and I feel like the people that come out here a spark is ignited in them they see like Judea for the first time in a new way and they see a Jew in Judea living this life in building this place in the Zionist Enterprise of making the desert literally we're making it into an oasis it's so beautiful already and it's only getting nicer all the time and like a spark has lit up and it's it's changing people and maybe sending them into a different direction and imagine a thousand people are coming here and a light as being lit up in them and they're Jews and their car 80 choosing their secular Israelis around you what I notice is it lights up everybody but from totally different elements in areas and angles most of which I can't even begin to understand all I know is that I'm living in this place and people come to it and leave from it radically changed yeah not even radically change definitely deeply in touch it they have been impacted they've been told a radically chance radically change but even an impact in touching someone deeply on like a soul level to touch their hearts it's like something that doesn't happen you know every month it doesn't happen every year and to be able to be the custodians of this place that's what it what the way I see us I mean I Shem has given us this place to guard over to develop and to invite the world to come and experience it and it's just been such an adventure and every day just like it's getting more and more built up and it's like what is and the way it's happening could you just share like this past Friday I come outside and they're these Germans that have just shown up here at the at the organic farm in retreat center you know we should also share about that our thoughts about like the evolution of what we're gonna call it it's been so challenging just to think of what to call this place because a name is a lot a name summarizes of what something is and who it is and what and how do you call something that a given name to something that we are selves no or is going to be of its still unfolding you know the truth of it and the reality of it is still coming into the world how can we know so we thought of a name maybe we'll share that with people but talk about these Germans well so the Germans they came out here for the first time now two years ago and you know it's it's hard to imagine because they are German Germans like we cannot communicate with them because they speak German they are not Jewish they are not culturally Jewish they are as far from Jewish culture as possible I mean there's Jewish time in German time those are opposites they're very exacting we're very relaxed they are descendants of Nazis we are descendants of our American Yaakov it's like the opposite the cultures opposite parts of the world we are just a an odd couple and the Germans that came out here said they want to do chuhwa they actually said the words chuhwa they want to repent for the sins of Germany and now the place that Germany wants to take away from the Jews the place that the European Union wants to take away from the Jews and call Palestine they want to come to Judea which they know belongs to the Jews and they want to make a stand and they want to help us build here well I don't even think though that it's as complex they don't look at it politically there's sort of you know Tamim like it was simple but in the most beautiful profound way that our sages tell us that we're supposed to be and you when you say well they're descendants of Nazis we're a descendant of Avram you I can yeah oh that's not fair that's not fair because they are also descendants of Avraham right Avraham had Yitzhak Anish Murrell and you shmeil was the father of the Arab world and yet stuck at Yaakov and ASA and ASA is the father of the you know Roman replacement theology Christianity European Rome that is ASA so they're descendants of Asaph right and the Arabs are descendants of Ishmael and when you're studying these Torah portions right now that we're in if you pay really careful attention you look really deep you see the seeds for everything that's happening right now and and not only that all the way to the end of the story that's how it like to me has to see these people coming back we believe that eight seven at the end of his life will do chuhwa and you Sh'ma l also will do chuva and i feel like that to the times that we're coming into right now and we're starting to see it unfold right before our eyes well it's just marvelous cuz they came one year and they helped us build a left side of our retreat center and they came again last year and they helped us build our beta Fila and they worked in our vineyards and in our olive groves and now they're coming back again this year i think a group of twelve of them but this time Ari and I are living here and we're gonna be able to host Shabbat with them and we're gonna be able to like be with them it's like so marvelous that the reason why we are here is already starting to manifest even though our centre isn't complete yet and I feel like it's very symbolic that the first group to really come here to be hosted happened to be just last generation our fiercest enemy the Germans who wanted to annihilate the Jewish people they're the first group to come here that somehow this place is healing nations it's not just a place for individuals but there's something more global that's happening here it's a vision for all nations it's a vision that Judea somehow can be a place that changes the whole world so I'm sure that I've told this story but I'm gonna tell it again because of the conclusion that I've been coming to about it when the Germans were here last time and I said they were they wanted to volunteer to do other things and I don't know what to tell them to do so I'm standing there in my army uniform about to go to the army and I'm standing in front of them and I call Yossi nieces tell the men to go to build the Bates Fila the house of worship and the women to prune the trees so I said men to the right and women to the left right and there was like this awkward moment like men to the right and women to the left and then I said you're going to build the Beit Knesset you're going to the prune the trees they were so happy yeah they were celebrating right but that night I was talking to them and it just became clear that when I shared the experience of what that was like they said they were thinking about it too and we all laughed right and when we say yeah sure I mullet Pachuca shrimp at sea on a única hole mean when we return design will be like dreamers our mouths will be filled with laughter that laughter that is what I've been feeling like is going to be happening the redemption in general in general we don't know what that word even means we're all praying for their praying and we're praying for we're all praying for it but and I don't think any of us know what it means and when it happens we're gonna be crying we're gonna be laughing we're going to have such under deeper understandings of like how could we have seen things that way when we're all brothers and that's you know that's what I'm starting to feel out here that just something of consequence historical consequence is happening out here there is a sense of destiny in this mountain and in these mountains around us that can be sensed but just like others there's no energy like it anywhere else that I've been I mean these are the mountains that David ran to when he escaped Saul before he became King most of the book of Tehillim of Psalms was written in these mountains in these caves and I think that's why we're considering calling our retreat center David's retreat is because this is a place that he retreated from shell this is where we want to host spiritual retreats for people to come out to these mountains learn the to helium that David wrote speak them pray them come out into these mountains and have a Judean experience so David's retreat on the ARU go to farms I would love to hear your thoughts listeners what do you think of that name we'll just explain another thing here we're talking about David's retreat and just as you said it's both the retreat like a retreat center which is cool to do on the southeastern tip of Judea and make this desert into a Garden of Eden like retreat center but also David's retreat running away from Saul that's beautiful but to call this whole place David's retreat doesn't seem fully it seems like maybe that will be the retreat center or that will be one of like a retreat that they do here will be David's retreat but unfound a tional level it feels more real to me to call it on the IRA got farms right the IRA goat farms that's what this place is now what is that why is that so exciting the IRA goat farms I was like it just seems arbitrary or random sounding like it's not giving a message what are we just another farm no but our goat farms this it's we're on now how are we got right that's the valley of our God what do you know about the value of our Oh Jeremy well the value of our goat is the largest water collecting Wadi in Judea it spills into the aim Getty spring so the rainwater Samir go directly into the end getting springs and in to the dead sea and that's why the famous story with David and show will happen where he cut off the corner of his garment so that happened an 8-hour walk in the body right in our place just down there day and gety five hours that's with all of these epic legendary incredible stories the beginning of the kingdom of Israel before David became king it all started here in these mountains right so it's it's called Nahal arooga also in the book of Zohar II it says that there's gonna be an earthquake and hard sea amount of Zion and Mount of Olives are gonna rip a part in my water living waters are gonna flow from under the Temple Mount all the way to the Dead Sea maybe I probably fill up with water because this is one of the primary channels so it would be natural that this would fill up with water but also you know the reason I sort of like the I regard farms is because you know when King David says kale to a rogue elephant might just as a deer seeks out or yearns the water you know rivers of water so do I yearn for you Hashem right and so that's what the word is from rogue is for seeking or yearning and I y'all right we see the deer running through these mountains it's so majestic it's almost like the Psalms are coming to life when I see that but but the idea of seeking and yearning that's what I like about that message here well I regard farms of seeking and yearning cuz one of the Sookie my left to quote about is almost in the book of ammos he says he named me you mean by a mule mushroom days are coming when there'll be a hunger in the land and the hunger will not be for bread and the thirst will not be for water but to hear the words of a Shem that's what when it's a bit King David's is he smiling about Shem happy is the heart who seeks God not the one who finds God but who was seeking God and that's why I think this should be a place to come not to get all the answers but to ask the good questions to be seeking into yearning in a different ways of connecting to Hashem it seems like that's the that brings secular Israeli tel aviv secular jewish Torontonians Haredi lakewood rabbis they're seeking something and they come out here and it's sort of sparks within them this emotion we had a very big rabbi from the Orthodox Union come out here just before Sukkot and he came off he sat outside my staff house and he saw the beautiful views of Nahal our code and he's like what's the bra to make here what's the blessing I should make here and he's like I just I can't think of it and I my grandma I'm not sure there's a bra to make but the fact that he wanted to make a bra this place sort of touches the heart that makes you want to reach out to God that makes you want to like call out in a blessing even if it can't be fit into a holic box of what bra to make the fact this place kind of inspires that in you is I think what brings all of it together yeah and so it's a no I think that's why I think David's retreat on the ARU goat farms I think the ARU go to farms is critical because that really is what this place is about is to to yearn to seek to leap after to really make the move that we have to make in order to really find the meaning behind the illusion of this world but I think at this place we make it into a retreat where we design it where there's a mixture of different things from heat Buddha dude and he still Kaku different types of Jewish meditation that somehow have been co-opted by these Far Eastern religions but it's really Jewish teachings from thousands of years ago that now that we're back in the land you know that's what I feel like it says mullet lava vane of the prophets say that our hearts will become circumsized and that's what I feel like happens out here in the sense that prayer for me is cease to being just what you say by rote and it's much more just talking to Hashem in different ways in different levels of you know that's why the top of this this mountain we're building this House of Prayer it's not just a synagogue it's going to be a place to learn the deeper ways of can of connecting and of meditating and of internally silencing all the voices in your head that you start to over identify and over associate with and sort of connect with the still silence of what there is you know I've just been so overwhelmed with my own personal needs by moving out here just taking care of six children the chaos of building a house the chaos of moving into a house just all of it has been so overwhelming is the only word that comes to mind is just been like total swallowed me up whole but now that I've sort of I'm able to breathe again and I start taking a few steps back I really sense that you know within the context of Jewish history the destiny of Israel is unfolding right now and the struggle that is demanded of the people of Israel now is great I mean there is a big battle for this land there's a big battle for our future and somehow Ezra L literally means to struggle to struggle with man and to struggle with God and to prevail that is why Jacob received the name Israel and it seems like through our own personal struggles through our own national struggles it's bringing out this latent potential this hidden power that's within us and somehow I see like men coming to this barren mountain a few years ago there wasn't a single tree here there was no water here there was no electricity or there was no infrastructure there was nothing there was no Road and now people come out here and it's already like 4,000 fruit trees vineyards a flock of sheep our ecological pool is almost done our retreat centre is 70% done it's happening through a huge struggle but imagine the potential that is just blossoming at the edge of the desert it's just a beautiful thing and so for those of you that haven't come out here yet I think that's what they're my last message is that this is an open invitation to come into our homes to come and see what we're building then to be a part of it having planted tree come and join us for a day out in the mountains in Judea [Music] the question is why are the Jews there in the first place the Jewish people have been yearning to return to their ancient homeland for a long time the Yishai fleischer show the voice of a new generation of pro-israel activist and there's only two kinds of minorities in the Middle East armed or unarmed inspiring minds to think differently that jihadism doesn't just attack Jews it attacks Christians and it mostly attacks Muslims inspiration spirituality and politics so first and foremost this country is we're here to defend Jewish people and to live in a sense estriol homeland listen to the he Shai Fleischer show every week on the Land of Israel and that's worth at the Quran