The Beauty of Simple Faith - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

as Jeremy said this week we did have uh some very special guests at the farm and now over the years I've seen more and more like our farm tends to be like a magnet for Holiness not only from the Jewish people but for the nations of the world we've had the great honor and joy of Hosting many of you our fellowship family we've had many of you here at the farm and I certainly hope we'll be able to host all of you someday but this week we had something called a Tish here at the farm Jeremy did you get to be at any of the Tish at all you know I didn't even know that that Tish was happening I just I miss all the fun stuff yeah okay so it was it was pretty wild it's a crazy thing to have happened at your own farm and you don't even know what's happening but anyways it was at the farm and they were hasidim you know what a lot of people label is ultra Orthodox but of course when you're in the fold when it's your own Nation the strands and shades are so different and varied that to call them Ultra Orthodox is missing the whole picture but anyways they came together to uh during a tissue and what's intentionally come together to celebrate either the completion of a certain track date of learning for example or even just to celebrate existence itself with learning or praying or singing or eating and and they gather around their ready now they don't really gather around to hear his teachings but to study his movement it's inspiring and it's super cool seeing the reverence that they have for their Webbie and it makes me sometimes it makes me want more of that you know what more of that and it's a nice refreshing change from the west where they do they idolize like this people of vapid ridiculous emptiness in Hollywood this they do for their Ruby that teaches them Torah the word of God the strain of the Torah the brand the flavor that they're that makes their soul dance anyways so uh you know I'll tell you that this week we had we have a lot of biala because in the biala sector and the biala rebe himself came to the farm not last week this is a while ago and I gave him a ride in my Ranger in my track Tyrone and he sat by the pool if you understood what a big deal the biala rebbies it's like what it's like imagine La hav do like Michael Jackson or something you know coming and sin and you're giving him a ride in your tractor and he sits by your pool that's a really bad analogy but you see where I'm going he's like man the Sloane pain with the slonema Yeshiva and this week I just I'm still trying to get over the fact or that you compared the biala revi to Michael Jackson like that's just ridiculous that's ridiculous it's a bad comparison but at least it's something new I guarantee nobody has ever done that before so just for them so to make it like somehow a little bit real for people to have a one-on-one meeting with that rebbe you would probably need a half a year in advance to schedule not a half a year but yeah it could be weeks months I think months okay all right either way it's a big deal anyways uh and so this week Thursday night we had the great revered and universally respected option of Arabi he showed up to the farm I told my friends from the biala uh settlement nearby the bialika said him that the option of a review was coming and they were like passing out and it's not even their revi it's the option of Arabic and so he came and uh he came to the farm and like Jeremy said you have to wait weeks months who knows to how long to see this guy just for advice or for guidance or for a bracha you know a blessing from from any of these rubbies and they all come to the farm our little farm and our Mountaintop why I have no idea and the fact is you know it's it's no recruitment efforts on our Park it's of their own volition it just strengthens my feeling that Hashem is doing something very special at our farm you know Hashem is bringing a certain healing and unity and light to the farm that is a magnet for these rebbies so these holy people around the world and uh my eyes are seeing it but I'll readily admit that my brain doesn't really understand what's happening anyways I wanted to share a little video that I took even though you know I'd pull out my my smartphone and they look at me videoing their rebby and it's not it's hard for them to get mad at me because it's my farm that I'm hosting them in but these people don't even have smartphones none of them have smartphones they all have those numbers you can look at them or you could deeply admire and respect them which is what I do anyone that pulls out a phone like that is automatically my ready these smartphones are are bad news but anyways so um so here's a video that I took and these are the students around him have been his not just with students his like disciples have been around him all night and despite their exhaustion of being up all night so this is like 6 30 in the morning they're hanging on every word that emerges from the mouth of their rep you check this out I just videoed this two days ago [Music] that's very true Lord it's like they're just watching him as he's downloading from above that's how I want you guys to look at me during this Fellowship I want you guys again that's a joke um you know I never saw that video and imagine that that was Thursday night I think it was Thursday I think they came and then the next Friday night we had the elite sayerit Golani Brigade in the same sentence House of Prayer like what a range the arm is somehow able to like hold it's really remarkable yeah it's crazy it's crazy anyways at shayna's suggestion I actually brought down Shiloh to see the rebbe and just to be near him um and uh so here's a picture of Shilo posing with the Revy it's all I had to show you so laughs so then Sheila posing with the revi um someday the Ruby will be very honored to have been in a picture with Sheila anyways um so the option of a sector that said I'm like all the other sex they really Revere their rebbe um you know just to give you a little perspective here's a video of the rebbe dancing at a wedding of one of his facetim which I guarantee was the highlight of this lesson of his of the of the young groom's life [Music] all right now the reason Jeremy's like what are you doing all of this for are you we get it we had the answer level like why are you doing this and the reason I'm showing you these pictures is to compare these simple hearted faith of these hasidim with other guests that we had for Shabbat that uh that Jeremy just told you about you know I'm talking about the parents of Harel Masood you saw his picture earlier a heroma student really like this sweet loving Shepherd that loves the land of Israel his life was dedicated to settling the land of Israel and uh and he was really in our farm a lot and and we I had the honor of meeting him and knowing him anyways so his parents as Jeremy said came to the farm and we got to know them and I just picture you know with the overwhelming crippling fierceness with which I love Shiloh and he's a year and a half you know picture 20 years seeing your boy grow and then he's ripped away from you in such a horrific way I can't even imagine what they've been through and it's still raw it's still real it's like just weeks ago that this happened anyways what I saw in these two seemingly different groups was a human manifestation that was very different but at the same time it was a manifestation of the embodiment of a verse in this week's Torah portion which is perhaps one of the most important directives in the entire Torah so what is that is from this week's Parsha Torah portion chapter 18 verse 3 right it says you shall be wholehearted with Hashem your God now of course this is a translation some people Define tamim as wholehearted some say simple some say it's just pure but to me it's really all of these words put together it's it's the faith that I see manifested in Israel in Jerusalem the faith that's demanded of us here at our farm I don't know that we always rise to the occasion but we try to every single day really and my friends it's the faith that so many of you I see it in you I see it in your hearts that I'm I'm continue to be inspired by that simple faith that you have when we see each other and these fellowships and our fellowship connections if you missed the one last week I mean it showed up in every single one of our fellowship connections that we had last week all of the interactions that we had that I'm blessed to have with you now as all of you know you know I'm saying the special kaddish prayer it's the prayer for the for the dead and again we don't talk about death during this at all we talk about sanctifying hashem's name and I'm saying it for my father you say it for uh for a full year after a parent passes away and so there I stood in our house of prayer side by side saying the prayer in perfect synchronicity with the father of Harel who's praying the same prayer for the dead for his son the difference is that I'm saying the prayer for my father as the world should be you know a son mourning for his father and he's saying the prayer for his son as one could legitimately feel is not the way things should go that's not the way things should be in the world a father should not have to bury his son and you'd think that this would be the last thing a bereaved father would be doing sanctifying and praising God's name in the week in the wake of such a devastating loss like that but there he was by my side shoulder by shoulder and we are saying the prayer for the dead together and he had such simple faith and this is the time really to reflect on this in the month of elul as we prepare for the high holidays because that's the very heart of the work we're supposed to be doing here in less than a month we'll be celebrating Rosh Hashanah in which we accept the Yoke of Heaven and the coronation of Hashem as king of the world as King in our hearts and what does that mean how do we how do we fear our King how do we love our King I'm going to talk about this more next week the idea of what it really means to fear Hashem but how do we do this by accepting his kingship with simple hearts with hearts of faith and hearts of love by by accepting and even embracing all of the circumstances of Our Lives no matter how painful or difficult they may be and we all have something in our lives everybody has something in our lives that's hard to accept we each have questions and we all have doubts and fears it's human but what does Hashem tell us in the verses leading up to this verse the verse that says to be simple how pure-hearted with God what does it tell us verses 10 to 12 chapter 18. it doesn't say that here let no one be found among you who consigns a son or a daughter to the fire or who's in auger a soothsayer a diviner or a sorcerer one who casts spells or one who consults ghosts or familiar spirits or one who inquires of the Dead for anyone who does such a thing as a parent Hashem and it's because of these important things that Hashem your God is dispossessing them from before you meaning it's because of these things that they were thrown out of the land of Israel Hashem doesn't want us giving into this very human impulse of seeking to take control of things that's what idolatry is that's why they were thrown out of the land that's why we were thrown the land of Israel is a land of Faith because you know when we seek to take control of things what are we really doing like I said what are we essential we're we're essentially taking the place of Hashem and usurping his throne and calling the shots of the world this is how things should be and this other thing shouldn't be and this is how we're gonna control the fertility and this is how we're going to control we're controlling things or we have the illusion of course obviously of controlling things because it's impossible to control things and trying to do so is the opposite of what Hashem wants Hashem wants our hearts he wants a relationship of with us he wants a relationship and that relationship is most beautifully manifested and wholeheartedly walking before him knowing knowing that while sometimes it's unbearably painful everything he does in our lives is an act of love for us and for our own good and so what does Rashi say my my friend says this is the favorite Rush he has in the entire Torah Rashi says about that verse Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God he says walk before him wholeheartedly put thy hope in him and do not attempt to investigate the future but whatever it may be and it comes upon you accept it wholeheartedly and then you shall be known as as part of his portion you will be the portion of Hashem when you accept with simple whole Hearts what happens to you in your life and so my friends I want to bless us all that we're able to really simplify to be pure and wholehearted with Hashem to lovingly accept what he does in our lives and with that acceptance with that acceptance may we Merit that to enter the upcoming year with the shanatova um with a good and a sweet year and we've taught it before why do we say good and sweets because as we know everything is good everything is good but not everything is sweet not everything is a revealed good but by accepting everything in our lives that happens to us as good may we all Merit to have everything not only be good but to be actually revealed to be sweet goodness as well