Life Without Great Leaders - Tehila Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

hey guys so happy to be here with you this week i hope you're all doing well um in this past portion of hookah we read about the tragic passing of two of our great leaders aron and miriam while moshe is still with us we get the news in the middle of the portion that he's going to be passing on soon as well um after hitting the rock and he's not going to be leading us into the land and there's this feeling of like terror that i can imagine like being orphaned like there's no more leaders um some people note that the sin of complaining about no water in this week's portion goes unpunished as opposed to other sins that did get punished um and people ask about it and commentators offer different answers i think it might just be because it was like kind of an understandable freak out like if your kid misbehaves when they're really exhausted and normally you would you know discipline them in some way you might just let it slide when they're like so tired because you know they're just melting down and it's not you know it's not like they don't really mean it so when i'm reading this torah portion i couldn't help like but relate and connect a little bit to what's happening here in israel this past sunday we said goodbye to um to prime minister netanyahu you know an experienced weathered leader who navigated us through some tricky times obama iran intifadas stabbing attacks kovid um a leader that you know whatever you think of him and perhaps you know you know there are things that could have been done better i you know i feel that way as well but at the very least uh it would be hard to argue that he wasn't experienced in a competent dedicated leader so we said goodbye and switched out for a leadership that does not seem promising i don't want to go too much into the politics you know they they say for every two jews there are three opinions right so you know but but nonetheless there's kind of this feeling that we have a leadership now that doesn't really lack doesn't really have the experience and the even public legitimacy um and i i would be lying if i said that jeremy and i didn't go through a bit of a freak out like oh my god who's gonna get us water like who's gonna take care of israel um i didn't sleep great on the night between sunday and monday and i know that a lot of people uh around here have that same kind of feeling and can relate to that and i know that a lot of you guys out in different places can relate with that feeling sometimes your leadership whether on the state you know level or the community level doesn't really represent your values um and it's hard it's hard and um you know there's this idea in the jewish sources that whenever hashem gives us a challenge he simultaneously prepares us with the remedy as well in the talmud in the tractate of megillah it says that hashem never decrees a hardship on israel unless he prepares the remedy in advance it's taught in the context of the book of esther right because you know right even before him and decreed the genocide you can see how his senate set all the pieces in place so mordechai and esther would be in the right positions to save israel so with that idea in mind i said well if the parsha is teaching us about the hardship of losing your leadership and this feeling of not having strong leader to show you the way i thought to myself maybe hashem planted in the portion at the same time hints for us how to lift ourselves up and cope with this kind of situation so in the beginning of the torah portion miriam dies and then in the middle of chapter 20 moshe gets demoted from leading israel into the land and at the end of chapter 20 our own dies and the people mourn him for 30 days and so i said to myself why don't we look at chapter 21 and see how israel copes with this and maybe we can draw some lessons for ourselves what works what doesn't work so let's start with what doesn't work what definitely doesn't work is the whole snake story which starts in verse four it says that the people became disheartened because of the way but you can totally get it they've just been walking for so long it's been 40 years they just get disheartened and then it says that they spoke against god and against moshe why have you brought us up out of egypt to die in this desert there's no bread there's no water we're disgusted with this rotten bread like enough with this man we never have enough water we're just like so that's one way of doing things you can just become disheartened and complain i'm sick of this rotten bread we're just gonna die here anyway um and that ends with venomous snakes right so apparently this is not the right plan of action like exhibit a don't do that and what do they do when they get punished with snakes it's actually really surprising they say oh shoot we messed up and what do you think might be the next step maybe they'll repent maybe they'll pray right maybe they'll ask hashem to forgive us but what do they do they run back to motion verse seven they say oh moshe pray to hashem and then moshe prays for them and you know they make the snake that heals them from the other snakes and um it's sort of crazy though because the reason they got into this situation in the first place was they were complaining about moshe and basically saying he was an incompetent leader but when push came to shove what did they do when they needed him they came running back and begged him to take care of them so you know that's clearly what not to do what did work there are these two other stories in chapter 21 that are positive besides for the whole snake fiasco one is in the first two verses it says the canaanite king of arad who lived in the south heard that israel had come by the root of the spies and he waged war against israel and took from them a captive so you know this canaanite king hears that israel is starting to come back and they take you know they start a war and they take it captive what does israel do right do they go say oh no moshe ah we're so scared it says in the second verse it says israel made a bow to the lord and said if you deliver this people into my hand i shall consecrate their cities and then hashem indeed delivers them and they keep their promise and they dedicate the city's tashem what have you expected based on the past and based on the snake story i would have expected they would have had a freak out said oh my god we're never going to be able to do this moshe what's going to happen oh my god help us but instead they don't even involve moshe like moshe is still here but they understand moshe is not going to be with them for long they need to get ready to face the canaanites they're going to be doing this soon without moshe so they come together independently it says israel not like one person of israel it was like israel drew together right they've spent enough time under the leadership of moshe to have seen example and know what they're supposed to do even without moshe telling him telling them and they understand at this point at this like they've gotten to this point where they understand that their health is going to come from hashem they don't ask for an intermediary they don't ask for a crutch they say hashem we want to have a direct relationship with you they call out hashem and maybe what they say seems a little bit basic like okay hashem if you do this for me i'll do that you know we'll do that for you but imagine they're just kind of like on their wobbly baby legs of standing on their own it's like when a baby's born they need their parents to do everything for them and when they get older they start to realize that they need to also take some responsibility so up until now israel's always been like oh hashem do this for me hashem we don't have enough of this we need some of that here for the first time they don't just say oh hashem you know help us we're going to take responsibility hashem doesn't work for us hashtag is not our like atm machine we need to be willing to get up do things have a relationship that's reciprocal and so they say hashem we are willing to take responsibility we're going to fight we're going to this we promise this to you please help us and that works out positively and the second story we see in chapter 21 is the song at the well it says that israel sang this song ascend oh well sing to it a well dug by princes carved out by the nobles of the people through the lawgiver with their staffs and from the desert a gift from a gift from the gift to the streams and from the streams to the heights from the heights to the valley and the field of moab and the top of the peak that overlooks the wasteland so this is the second time in the torah that there is a song sung by the people here's the one here the song at the well and there's the song that we all remember from exodus the splitting of the sea now the wording of this song starts with aziashir and then they sang right which is clearly trying to draw our attention to the song of the sea because it starts with the exact same two hebrew words it's trying to call us i mean it seems like it's trying to call us to compare the two songs so with the sea what did it say it says and then moshe and the children of israel sang the song and then later on it says miriam took the women and led them in song it's a song that's led by the leaders the people follow and it's this eloquent poetic epic well developed like long song it's amazing but who led the way it was leaders who pulled everyone in to this ecstatic song song here in our portion which is also interestingly about water it's not like the longest song it's not the most marvelous song i've never like heard anybody singing it like the song of the sea we say every day in our morning prayers people have made a million tunes for it you never bump into anyone who's humming to themselves and you're like oh hey what are you singing and they're like oh i'm singing the song of the well from this week's torah portion it's not super catchy but i would argue that maybe it's even more beautiful because look how it starts it says and then israel is saying israel came together no one told them what to do israel comes together people like grassroots come together as a community of prayer just individuals saying let's band together and make a community of torah to sing out to praise hashem so it might not be the greatest song you ever heard again remember like you know wobbly baby likes but it comes from them and i just imagine hashem loving the song like when your kid makes you something and they did it themselves it's so much better than if you like got they got you something from the store because it's like it's theirs it's coming from their heart this is you know this is israel's song and the song is also interesting um because it's like they're having this movement to give thanks and to give praise that's taking place specifically at the well right this doesn't happen like you know when they had the victory over the canaanites or the emirates i don't think it's a coincidence that this song this ability to come together in prayer happens at the well because we've talked about the well and the significance of the well in the torah in the past i'm really into this idea of the well as like the symbolic as symbolic of like the optimal relationship between hashem and people which is why i think the great romances of the torah always happen at the well because in israel and we've talked about this before there are three water sources right there's the spring which is just like a miracle it's like the splitting of the sea it just like pops up hashem did it and you're just like yay right then there's like a pit like a water pit like a cistern like you dig a hole and rain is gonna just inevitably fall into it um a well is like a unique combination it's a pretty cool water source when you think about it because you start digging it but the idea is that you'll eventually get to some water that hashem has put there way beforehand it's like hashem gifted you something and you're digging and like you just have to have faith that your work is not going to be for nothing it's not obvious that where you're digging there's actually going to be water so they dug a well and then when it actually works they erupt in song they say this well has been dug by us and then they call it a gift in the song which is kind of funny because they've been digging and digging and they're like oh well it's a gift like if you worked all month and got your salary or you got your paycheck you say to your boss thanks thanks for the gift but that's exactly the nature of the well you work hard you do your part but you hope that hashem meets your efforts with a gift of abundance and kindness so it's like if i look at this chapter as a whole i feel like there are these two models of responses to losing leadership and feeling that sense of loss and despair of being on your own the torah is pointing this out to us and showing us what works and what doesn't work one way is to be down to complain to refuse to grow to stay dependent not really learn to forge your own way and the other response is the response that we see in these other two stories in the chapter that are really similar to one another it's this model of israel drawing together and saying we might not have a great leader anymore maybe no single one of us is good enough to fill the shoes of the leader that's been left you know the shoes that have been left and you know maybe i you know as an individual can't really do that i can't lead the way but maybe if we band together like this grassroots movement we can be a sort of a force like instead of waiting for moshe and miriam and arun they draw together in prayer and create this community maybe they would call it a fellowship to seek a direct and mature relationship with hashem a relationship where they don't only expect to be taken care of they're also willing to put in the elbow grease to work hard and to recognize that they're in a relationship and there's give and take and so the lesson that i'm drawing from this week's portion and maybe it'll speak to some of you guys as well is that in these times where we don't necessarily have leadership that we can count on and we feel a little bit like in a freak out um we don't have you know some sort of leader that can represent our values maybe hashem is saying to us okay you've had enough time with that crutch it's time for you to walk on your own it's time maybe it's like a call to us like an imperative to grow and be independent you might be wobbly your song might not be you know topping the billboard charts but it'll be your song draw close to one another draw strength from your community from your togetherness from finding like-minded people right even if you don't have a great leader to lead the way and put the power of your prayers together to build your direct relationship with hashem having faith that hashem will hear that and meet your efforts and that's giving us you know that idea of giving us some strength here in israel particularly on our little farm uh as you know jeremy and i and arya and shaina try to forge our way forward even without you know the support of the government and you know knowing that we don't have necessarily like-minded leaders at this point you know we just keep pulling together enjoying the support of this larger community planting another tree building another building and just having faith that hashem will meet us and meet our efforts and you know bless our efforts to be successful so i hope that in not too much time we'll be able to meet here together in judea and all of our community draw together in a grassroots song of praise and faith so with that i wish you guys a good week bye hi my name is jeremy gimpel a lot of people want to know exactly what the land of israel fellowship is and what members receive when they join so let me explain the land of israel fellowship is a global online community with hundreds of members from over 40 countries around the world their live sessions and gatherings that create a direct personal connection to the land of israel and the lovers of israel from around the world there's no online gathering that i'm familiar with that is connected to the land of israel that unites and brings together such a diverse group of people backgrounds and nationalities it feels like prophecy it feels like something we need in these times a window in to a better future on the horizon there's a divine unity we experience every week in our fellowship broadcast we heard these amazing teachings from an authentic hebrew and israel perspective and our jaws drop not only because they ring so true and are such a blessing because they are so consistent with what we believe these sunday morning gatherings are nothing less than a house of prayer for all nations cindy lo the united states of america the land of israel fellowship is an amazing resource for learning torah the bible and the prophets unfiltered and uncensored directly from the land of israel we've been studying torah for almost 20 years but we feel we are stepping into it more than ever and seeing new depth and dimensions to scripture we're encouraged more and more every week calen ardell usa members receive access to all the archives in the library of teachings on every portion of the torah the biblical feast hebrew prayer prophecy sessions on the ancient wisdom of the prophets of israel to help us navigate through these turbulent times these sessions are so rich i re-listen to each and truly each session is the best one yet tehila is a tremendous asset and the teachings ari shares are so rich i've read the bible so many times and i've known the things you are teaching the hebrew understanding is what christians have missed for centuries sister georgian from germany the land of israel fellowship is truly unique because it's built upon personal relationships with the teachers of the fellowship myself rabbi arya bramwitz in tehillah gimpel every member has direct access to the staff 24 6 via email or direct whatsapp to ask questions to comment to connect directly to all the teachers and over the last years we've connected to some of the most beautiful people on the planet so if you want to find out more and join the land of israel fellowship you can click on the link below and if you want to try it out for just a month you can email fellowship at the land of israel.com and we'll hook you up i hope to see you shalom from the mountains of judea