Names Intertwined - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

and so as we kick off today's session let's kick it off with some Torah and so I'm going to invite Ari Abramowitz here to share some Torah from the mountains of Judea and kind of plug us in really to the message of the parsha and so Ari take it away hello my friends early on in our journey Jeremy and I started meeting Israel loving Christians Jew loving Christians the very idea was a challenging one for me and made me question a number of preconceived notions about Christians and their relationship to Jews but I'll get into that another time the topic provided levels of both challenged and fascination for years to come albeit for different reasons that it evolved over time and until today there are many Jews who feel the Christian love for Israel was born of ulterior motives and sinister motivations and judging from a couple thousand years of Christian Jewish relations perhaps you can understand why they feel that way but since the beginning that has been very far from my experience with some exceptions of course but but I remember early on when I met one of my very first pastor friends in Tennessee and in one of our late-night discussions I asked him if all he really wants us to convert me and I'll never forget he humbly responded he said not at all my friend I leave that in the hands of God God says to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 he who blesses Israel will be blessed and he who curses Israel will be cursed and I want to bless Israel I want to bless the Jewish people and now that I've come to know you so well I love you because I now see that we're brothers and it's that simple and that had it really it stuck with me that conversation and if that answer was good enough for me because if there's any somatic proof throughout history it is that any nation from Babylonia to Greece to Rome to Spain throughout world history when great nations and powerful empires turn their hatred against the Jewish people it is the beginning of the sharp decline and fall of their glory now this torah portion adds a beautiful dimension to this principle of he who blesses in zero will be blessed and it shows us how the nation of Israel and the God of Israel are existentially intertwined it shows us how God has attained his name as I'm sorry has has attained a level of attachment of his name to our name just as the prophet Isaiah says in chapter 43 he says the Vata co amartia but now so the Lord says the Lord your God who created you O Jacob who formed you Israel fear not for I have redeemed you I have called you by my name you are mine God calls us his witnesses because our very existence bears witness to God in the world we're in eternal people who after two exiles pogroms inquisitions Holocaust all of the persecution we simply shouldn't exist anymore yet the laws of nature imply that we are not subject to the laws of nature and so in this week's Torah portion God tells Moses nekoma Nakumatt Benes Tyrell to exact the vengeance of the children of Israel against median for the horrible campaign of genocide and spiritual warfare against the Jewish people and Moses then turns to the Jewish people in the very next verse and he instructs them latet Nakumatt hashem been median to exact the vengeance of hashem against median you caught that Hashem says the vengeance of Israel and Moshe says the vengeance of Hashem and Rashi the great commentator he comments on that verse he who stands against Israel is one who stands against the Almighty another of this example that I'm trying to convey is what I'm sure you all know very well when King David encounters Goliath mocking Israel by saying I taught the armies of Israel to this day I taunt the armies of Israel on this day and when he heard this King David shouted with a fearless righteous indignation who is the uncircumcised philistine that he should talk the armies of the Living God Goliath said it he was taunting the armies of Israel King David understood that to taunt the armies of Israel is to taunt God himself and that a war against the Jewish people is a war against God so Goliath was taunting the armies of the Living God Hitler he was the embodiment of darkness and evil and he declared the same truth when he said the ten commandments have lost their vitality conscience is a Jewish invention it is a blemish like circumcision the Hitler Youth even sang a song with these lyrics they said we have no need for Christian virtue these were the lyrics we have no need for Christian virtue our leader is our Savior the Pope and the rabbi shall be gone we shall be pagans once again pagans they wanted to be pagans the reason that Hitler needed to murder every last Jew and not merely re-educate them is because he realized that the very presence of God lies in every Jew he said quote if only the country for only one country for whatever reason tolerates a Jewish family in it that family will become the germ center for fresh sedition if one little Jewish boy survives without any Jewish education with no synagogue with no Hebrew school it is in his soul what was that it he was talking about it is the God of Israel Hitler said that he went on to say even had there never existed a synagogue or a Jewish school or the Old Testament the Jewish spirit would still exist and would exert its influence it's been there since the beginning and there is no Jew not a single one who does not personify it Hashem please a brother for reasons I honestly don't fully understand you've done the kindness of intertwining your great name with the nation of Israel and you've appointed us as representatives and witnesses in this world allow us to be worthy of this mission and for your great namesake please bring your people home from around the world as you said it said through the prophet Ezekiel and when they came to the nations which they came they profane my holy men in the men said of them of the Jewish people these are the people of the Lord and they are gone out of his land the Exile is a desecration of your name God and and Hashem our Christian friends who are out there our friends from among the nations who are seeking to bless us bless them bless them as you've promised through your holy Torah and Zakaria right in Sahara chapter 2 verse 15 Vanille volga Umrah beam by oma who and many nations shall join themselves tosh em on that day and the Serbia shall be to me a people and I will dwell in your midst and you shall know that the Lord of the hosts has sent you hash of for your name's sake redeem your people Israel redeem the righteous of the nation's and redeemed the whole world send the healing warmth of your love and in your light into the world for the darkness of exile it's just been so long it's so long please redeem us and redeem the whole world and bring priests peace to all of humanity thank you my friends back to you Jeremy Thank You Ari thank you for the blessing thank you for bringing us the parsha every week and making it real for us