Sukkot for the Sheep - Tehila Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

hey guys i hope you all had a meaningful yom kippur and looking forward to starting sukkot tomorrow night um first of all i wanted to send out my huge thanks and gratitude for all the unbelievable support we've received towards building our flock here on the farm it means so much to us we don't just learn together on the fellowship but so many of our friends out there are such meaningful partners with us in our efforts to build the land through this project and other projects so we're just really really grateful to have you guys not just as study partners but as partners in rebuilding judea so yesterday on shabbat jeremy and i were out shepherding the sheep it was so beautiful we brought our two little guys noah who you guys met a few weeks ago when he joined me in the video and our baby and um we took them out to the pastor and we brought our little torah books and found a rock to sit on and i was sitting on the rock studying the torah portion with the kids while uh jerry was kind of like stumbling over himself and making a lot of loud noises trying to untangle the sheep that we're getting caught up in something and it's kind of a funny thing to watch because both of us grew up as city people and this is all still pretty new for us so i was standing watching the flock and watching jeremy and the first thing that you notice when you look at these sheep is how hard it is to actually see them like if you're not looking right at them in the eye they just kind of blend in so perfectly to the surrounding mountains you really can't actually see them and i was thinking how profound that is because you know there are a lot of farmers in israel that have sheep that were brought in from europe and like they're cool but they don't really look like they belong here are sheep are these authentic judean sheep and you could just see how perfectly they camouflage into the backdrop of the judean desert and then it struck me while i was watching jeremy that maybe that's like a microcosm or in some way a symbolic representation of what's actually happening to us because just like our sheep we're trying to adapt ourselves and fit in in a more real and authentic way with the land and i know israel is always known as like the high tech nation the startup nation and that's cool and that's important but at the same time we have to remember that there's something really profound about actually just going from people that lived in exile you know disconnected from our land and coming back to the land and being just judean and you know the people who lived the people who live here and the people who lived here before us in biblical times live off the land they lived off the land and they were part of the land they blended in they fit in um they might have done other things like think about king david he was a warrior a leader a poet a scholar a judge but he was also a shepherd just tied with every fiber of his being to the land itself and it's funny because it might just be the first uh lawyer slash shepherdist taking out a judean flock with my laptop uh working on my court documents but that's cool that's a new thing it's like a new thing touching on an old thing and i'm you know we're learning how to be more like the sheik fitting into the land they're teaching us to integrate ourselves with this holy place every single day and that that kind of connected me to sukkot because isn't that really what a sukkah is we have all these technologies all these protections these walls these nice comfy sturdy houses and then the sukkah is like this rickety thing just made of natural sticks and leaves basically and we just sit there like we go back to our own nature to realize how much we are actually just integra you know like integrally connected to the world to the natural world that hashem created even if most of the year we just wall ourselves off and try to forget about that and stay comfortable it's just a reminder of getting back to who we really are and to our connection to the earth and hashem and i think it's just a cool fun fact that the first time that the torah mentions the word sukkot it's not in the context of the jews living in sukkot after leaving egypt and it's not in the context of talking about the holiday of sukkot but it's actually in the book of genesis when yaakov jacob made sukkot these little huts for his sheep so to me that seemed just like a hint when i read that verse it was like a spice card for me and in sukkot we really are going back to that original connection with the natural world just like our forefathers were shepherding their sheep throughout the land and so we're learning from that we're learning and growing from that and as we're out with our flock in the area where the prophet amos lived i was reminded of a prophecy of amos and i just wanted to share one other quick idea about sukkot in amos chapter 9 verse 11 he tells us something about the redemption redemption he says on that day i will raise up the fallen tabernacle of david and i will close up their breaches and i will raise up its ruins and build it up as in the days of yore now in all the english translations that i saw it says tabernacle but the hebrew says something else it says sukkah and isn't that funny that amos refers to the kingdom the kingdom of david is a sukkah wouldn't it be more respectful to call it the house of david i will rebuild the house of david or even better the mansion of david the castle of david the sucker of david doesn't sound kind of dinky um and this is actually the verse that we quote every time we make the blessing after eating throughout all the holiday of code we say may the merciful one rebuild the fallen sukkah of david so the commentators um especially the maharal explain this isn't a coincidence i'm also sharing something really profound about the redemption when a house is destroyed it's destroyed like even if you want to rebuild the house you first have to clear off all the rubble and you start building something new it's really just a new house the destruction is a certain kind of finality but the sukkah is something that's easy to dismantle and we just kind of put it into storage every year and then we just pop it back up almost is saying that we're one day gonna feel like we're so far from the redemption look how dark the world is look at all the problems it can seem impossible to rebuild we'll look at other kingdoms that have fallen and they're like houses that fell they're just broken they're gone the roman emperor the greek emperor right they're gone but almost is telling us to remember that for hashem rebuilding the house of david is going to be like rebuilding a sukkah the kingdom of david has this flexibility that it was destroyed but i shall just put it in storage and in the blink of an eye we might not even see it coming just whoop there it is hashem can just rebuild it he can pop it up like a sukkah and that's really a lesson for us i think from sukkot for all of our lives that the things that seem so bad and so messed up in the world around us or in our lives and our personal lives and our you know communities hashem can just pop it up like a sukkah you know stand things back in place where they're supposed to be so with that i bless all of us hashem speedily rebuild the sukkah of david and rebuild all the sukkahs in our own lives that need to be re-established and i wish you guys all a beautiful happy and meaningful sukkot 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 they're 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 low 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 in seeing new depth and dimensions to scripture we're encouraged more and more every week calendar dell 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 tehela 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 you