Pesach & the Spirit of Redemption - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

I know we're going into the times of redemption and I don't fully grasp what that is either because you know Pesak is not only um a celebration of freedom. It is the birth of am is the birth of the nation is of Israel. We talk about this a lot. A nation brought forth not just from slavery but into covenant into destiny and ultimately into erit Israel into the land of Israel. These things that we're seeing now, I know for sure while I don't understand them fully, I know only in the land of Israel in the hills of Judea and Samaria could the could these incredible redemptive leaps forth be happening. You know, Rabbi Cook teaches that true freedom, as we have discussed before, true, which is best not even defined as freedom, but as liberty, is not merely release from bondage, but the ability to fulfill our divine purpose. For Am Israel, for the nation of Israel, that purpose is inseparable from the land promised to us. The Exodus is not complete at the shores of the Red Sea. It points forward always to Mount Si. And from there to Erit Israel to the land of Israel. Only in the land of Israel can we complete our mission and can the nations therefore complete their missions. Can all of humanity achieve its mission. Only in the land of Israel. The sages of Israel say there's no one who is actually a a child of freedom a child of liberty other than someone who engages who is immersed in Torah. But I think a question I was having is what what kind of Torah, you know, because the truth is that the most complete and comprehensive Torah, the Torah that will bring us to the place of redemption is the Torah that arises from the soil of our homeland. A Torah that is not just abstract and exilic. And this is not to, God forbid, denigrate the Torah that we've learned in the exile. It's kept us alive. that's fanned the ember of fire that's been burning in our souls and in our hearts. But when we return to the land, those little flames, that little ember bursts forth into fire, right? That it's a it's a Torah that is that is not personal, but is national, is universal. It's grounded, it's res, it's redemptive. On Pesak, we begin to tell the story of that Torah, the Torah of a people that walks with God in history and in a land with a mission. You know, nowhere in the entirety of the Hagada do we find the name of Moshe Rabenu, of Moses. Nowhere do we say see the name of the earthly star of the show. And I believe that part of the reason at least is is that this is it's not it's not to diminish his greatness, but to emphasize that our redemption from Egypt was not about individual leaders. It's not about individuals. It was and is about the collective destiny of the nation of Israel and of all of mankind. And that destiny finds full expression only in the land of Israel. the only place where we can live out the fullness of our Torah in in its national, agricultural, spiritual, and political dimensions. This past week at the farm, I mean, it was just such a week of so many things that we we led we had a spiritual retreat led here by Rabbi Dove Zinger, one of the most prestigious rabbis in the hills of Judea. I'm going to try to explain and I'm going to fail, but I should at least try, right? Jews from throughout the land and throughout the world converged here in these mountains. And there was deep meditation. And I don't even like using the word meditation because that has so much baggage and so many people associate so many different things with what that means. But there was, for lack of a better word, deep meditation, communion, discussion with the Lord. There were hours of personal connection and reaching out to Hashem. the cultivating and refining and elevating the lost art of heat bodhedoot of breaking through the barriers, right? Of breaking through the barriers and pouring our hearts out to Hashem in the most real way possible. Now, being that I'm I'm in the army and I'm spending most of my time, you know, definitely during then it was I was out patrolling and doing things, I wasn't able to be a full-fledged participant. And I also don't think I was of the tier where I would have been amongst peers. I would have been looking upwards constantly, which is a great place to be. But I was able to dart in and out and to witness what was happening. And if no one told me what I was seeing, I would have said that I was observing an elite training of aspiring prophets that I was witnessing a school of prophets. And the truth is that whether or not they even realized it, that's what it was. You know, we learned that when the sea parted, the prophetic revelation was so great that Benzi, a maid servant at the sea. A maid servant at the sea saw what Yaskel Benuzi did not see. And as we know, the first redemption, the redemption from Egypt is the archetype for all true redemptions on a na personal level, on a national level, particularly the final one. And as the prophet Joel says in chapter 3, "And it shall come to pass afterwards that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, and also upon the servants, and upon the handmmaids in those days, I will pour out my spirit." That is what the prophet Yzkel tells us that in the days of redemption, the days we're in now, God himself, he says right in in the book of Yzkll, chapter 36, I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit within you and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. Passover is the holiday of of amuna of trusting Hashem that even things we don't understand that we don't get the path ahead is is uncertain. It's we're in uncertain times. We're not supposed to fully understand what's happening. It would it's almost like it would ruin the surprise. It would ruin the redemption. You know, just as our ancestors followed Hashem into the desert, today we're called to deepen our amuna in this modern phase of redemption. Even as we face threats and pain, we are living in the times of the beginning of the sprouting of our redemption. This is not a metaphor. It's a fact unfolding before our eyes, in our fields, in our soldiers, in our hearts, in our rebuilding. So, please God, let us make this Passover not just one of remembrance but of renewal, of redemption. Let us tell our children not only that Hashem took us out of Egypt, but that he brought us home and that we are here now and we are responsible to continue that journey with faith and with joy and with courage to the impending redemption ahead. May this be a a happy and a kosher holiday, a kosher Passover. May this Passover bring us all closer to the true redemption rooted in the holy soil of the land of Israel. [Music]