Israel & the Garden of Eden - Jeremy Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

is I want to offer a new way of understanding The Garden of Eden's story because you know it's such a fundamental story that if we can see it in a new way then we might see everything in a new way and it sort of ties in what we're trying to accomplish at the fellowship what we're trying to build in Judea and it all goes back to the Garden of Eden in some mystical mysterious way and so what I think most people when they read about the story of the garden it's like well we were going to have an existence in the Garden of Eden but we sinned and then we were kicked out of the garden and now we're not really allowed back in anymore now there's two cherubs that guard the way to the garden and now it's kind of inaccessible but that's not the only way that you can read the story and I would say arguably that's not the shot that the simple way of reading the story that's not the way it was supposed to be and so what I want to show you here is just one of the first couple of verses in the first two chapters in The Book of Genesis in chapter two here's what it says Genesis chapter 2 verse 15. it says Hashem took the man and placed him in the garden to work it and to guard it that means there was existence outside of the garden outside of the Garden of Eden Man was created outside of the garden God took him from outside of the garden and placed him inside the garden and then after Adam is banished look at what it says here this is the very end of chapter 3 verse 23. so Hashem banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the land from which he was taken so there's just no arguing about it there was land that was outside of the garden Adam was created there and then he was placed inside the garden so I think the right way to actually understand the Garden of Eden and I learned this from my rosh hashiva Emma Cohen is that the initial intent of creation was that Adam would have access to the Garden of Eden he would be able to go in out of the garden and out of the garden in the garden out of the garden it was a place that he could go visit he would be able to see God's presence walk with him in the garden to experience the presence of God In the Garden of Eden but then the initial intent was that he would go out of the garden that he would go out into the World experience life outside of the garden and when he wanted to he'd be able to go back into the garden he sinned he fell ugh that was a mistake now he's banished from the garden and he no longer has that easy access to go in and out of the garden because now there's two cherubs that are guarding the way back to the Tree of Life but now look at this if you look at the story of the geography of the Garden of Eden the Torah is clearly pointing us to something not only spiritual but also physical in the world and so here's what it says in the second chapter when it describes the geography of the Garden of Eden can we get that slide up on the screen screen oh this is now okay it's okay keep that oh Genesis chapter no not that one next you keep that there that's fine Genesis chapter 15. we're going to start with this one this is now the Covenant of the parts breach where God promises Abraham the land of Israel and he says God to Abraham to your descendants have I given this land from the river of Egypt to the Great River to the Euphrates River and so now let's go back to Genesis at the very uh middle of here we go chapter 2 verses 10 and 14 and it talks about the river that issues from the Garden of Eden look at the names of the gardens the river issues forth from Eden to the water of the garden and becomes four headways the name of the first is pishon the name of the second is spring we all know there's the famous spring in the city of David that is the living water under the Temple Mount called the gihon Spring in Jerusalem the name of the third is and the fourth river is the river Euphrates now if you connect those two Genesis chapter 2 and Genesis 15 you have from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates with Jerusalem the gihon river in the middle you can't help but realize that the Garden of Eden is pointing us to the land of Israel that the Garden of Eden is somehow represented through erits Israel and what is the Torah teaching us that the ideal existence for all of humanity for Adam and Eve is that they would have access to the land of Israel that they would come to the land of Israel on Sukkot that they would come to the land of Israel for a spiritual renewal in a recharge and then they would go out of the garden and they'd go out into the world and they would come back into the garden and they would get recharged to be in God's presence again and then they'd go out of the garden and what we're actually rebuilding in Israel when it talks about Isaiah the Nations will stream to Jerusalem and here we are now streaming the Torah from Zion and the word of God from Jerusalem around the world as people from the fellowship came to the land of Israel as right now Esther in a team of her German colleagues members of the fellowship are coming to work on the farm for the next week as Ryan and Brandon from Colorado are now spending the week on the farm it's like they're coming into the garden and what are we doing in the garden we're guarding the land and we're working exactly why God planted Adam to be there was to guard the land and work the land our farm today is guarding 15 000 dunams of state land and what are we doing we're making the desert beautiful again we're gardening and we're turning the desert into a garden of eden-like Oasis so what have we done we've taken the model that was given to us in the Torah and we are aligning our lives with the vision that the Torah had for all of humanity and we're living it out and that's why all of our lives in some ways were living out an experiment an experiment that could never have been lived out before until our generation and our generation we are so lucky that our fellowship has been chosen chosen to have a passion and a desire to want to live out the vision that God had for the whole world to live it out in our life to spend this time every week reconnecting to erits Israel and when we can to come into the land to be in the presence of God and so all of us should be blessed as we restart the Torah we restart our year we renew ourselves realizing that we are so blessed to not only learn the Torah from the land of Israel be blessed not only to have the opportunity to build such a beautiful place in the land of Israel but to take the vision of the Torah that was given so many thousands of years ago and the first time that that Vision could manifest in the world with the Jewish people and Believers all around the world to come together to align themselves with the vision of the prophets we are the luckiest people on the planet and one day I believe we are going to inspire so many people and so thank you all for joining us today thank you tahila thank you Ari thank you all and we will see you again next Sunday Shalom from the mountains of Judea Shalom from Jerusalem and we'll see you again next week