The Bible vs. Buddha - Jeremy Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

i mean this is one of the most famous verses in the bible and the true meaning of the verse isn't always understood because most people in the world don't know hebrew but you know the verse goes you should love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul and all your might is usually translated as might but that's really not what the word mean might is sort of power that's just not the word the word means very so what are you saying there's like an odd i love you very much i like ice cream very much is very but then you think the verse that sort of grammatically doesn't make sense so it says you should love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul in all of your very like what do we do with that that's not that's just so okay with all of your might it may vary like with your might maybe that's what it means um well you could imagine that when there's a word that's so peculiar in such a fundamental verse in the torah there's going to be 3 000 years of arguments of what that word actually means and so rashi quoting the midrash says that actually means with all of your money others say with all of your possessions with all of your time with all of your family just endless ideas of what does that mean with all of your very with very much what and the answer is yes yes all of those exactly yes all of those exactly that's exactly what it's saying it's like all of them and it's to love with everything that you got to love with everything that you have and that is one of the most insightful ways to approach life one of the most powerful rules for life i mean life is demanding life is challenging and you can try to escape life uh but you know more you know it's like another way life is just going to catch up with you you know and so how do you confront life so in the eastern traditions for example in buddhism they look at the challenges in suffering in life and their answer is just detach it's like detach from wanting detach from relationship detach from desire suffering can't hurt you if you've detached and you've let go of everything to start with it's like the world is just too much suffering so i'm just gonna remove myself from the world and just attach and detach from any desires that i could have anyway and i'm not saying that that's not a serious way to deal with suffering it is that's just not what the torah says that's not the biblical tradition that's not the wisdom of the prophets it's like the it's quite the opposite it's like we're called to love god a lot and to make this relevant for all believers and seekers and for myself alike who don't really know what to do with that it's like to love god like i could just barely wrap my mind around god to love god like so here let's just for for the for this sake let's interpret the oneness of god in his totality as existence and beyond as life and all of its aspects so the torah is telling us just love life with all of your heart with all of your soul and with all of your very with all of your might life is a gift and life is a blessing but in life you're going to encounter pain and you're going to encounter suffering and it's going to knock you off your feet and push you beyond your abilities and how do you confront life with all of its challenges its blessings and its pain what is the existential posture the torah is calling us to live like how do we how do we confront the world oh love life love it with all you got the power of your love will get you through any challenge and the people of israel are a testimony to the fact that there is no force in the world um that's more powerful than love we are the people that every force known to humanity has come to extinguish our flame and that verse about loving god about loving life that is what has kept that flame alive so the western modern world wants to put you to sleep it's doing everything it can to put you to sleep they want you to be addicted to sugar water drinks sitting on your couch unenergized watching netflix and zombified that's that's the state the natural state of the western world they like people sedated buying their products that they show you on tv it's not about being alive it's not about being in love it's just about being asleep and most you know young men today they're looking to do as little as possible to like avoid any real hard work it's like that's just not a good strategy for life and this is a beautiful ancient saying from the fourth chabad rabbi the maharash and here's what he says can we put it up on the screen the world says you can't go if you can't go under an obstacle then you must go over it however i am of the opinion that to begin we must go over we must set out with the strength from the outset and not be intimidated by anything intent on seeing through that which needs to be done and when you set out with this resolve then god helps it's like how do we really trigger divine assistance it's like when you give it your all and you actually do it with all of your heart hashem arrives there just like a it's like a love circuit that's complete but if we're just kind of like moping around just kicking those rocks down the road it doesn't open us up to really even receive god's blessing that is how do we do it it's telling right there this is how to do it love god with all your heart with all your soul and all your mind give it your all and blessing will follow with all your might the guidance here is like saying arouse your desire arouse your passion feel the love in your life and you can confront any challenge endure all of the pain if you love powerfully enough nietzsche famously said you know he who has a why to live can bear almost so it's like what's your why what is your why of living so the core according to the bible the core of that why should be rooted in love love should be the engine why are you working so hard why are you driving uh to succeed like what's driving you here the torah says the answer should be rooted in love because i love my family because i love my country because i love my people because i love my wife because i love animals because i love the world because i love life because i love god whatever it is that's driving you to act in your own way in your particular mission if the root deuteronomy is telling us with all of your might root that in love and like you're the american philosopher ralph waldo emerson said nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm and i think that is just a great line it's like you want to raise a great family you want to build a successful business you want to have a great marriage it's just not possible without passion and desire and i love the word enthusiasm because the origins of that word in latin are en theos it's like god within it's like when are you enthusiastic it's like when you're filled with the spirit of god because just kind of paddling through life trying to keep your head above the water is just not a good strategy to create great things we're called to act with literally with enthusiasm with god's spirit like filling our hearts that we have the passion to move forward so how do you want to confront the world filled with god's spirit filled with a life force that we can summon from beyond ourselves because we can't do this alone this life is too challenging we cannot do this alone so we have to call our best self forward that's somehow beyond ourself we're somehow reaching beyond ourself to rise up to who we need to become and so you know and it seems as though the world's like is designed in this way to challenge us it's like outside of eden we're told we need to earn our bread it's like the world now is designed in a way that we instinctively pray because we need to derive strength from a source beyond ourselves to rise up to the challenges that face us but that's that's that's key the world was designed to challenge us okay well so let's ask the next question well what's the purpose of making a world that's challenging us so the people of israel have been challenged from the get-go just start off in egypt and then just go through our history we've just been challenged to the core we've been more challenged than any other people on the planet and we're here to deliver a very particular message to the world but in order to say it authentically we needed to live it diamonds are created through tremendous pressure that's one way of thinking about it so is pure olive oil that's extracted from olives it takes a lot of pressure to like extract the purity and the goodness of the olive so just imagine samson you all know the story of samson he was probably the greatest strongest um hero in the bible now had samson not gone out to battle with the philistines the way that he did had he decided to just curl up in bed drink a beer and watch netflix for a living all of his strength would have gone to waste and no one would have ever known he never would have become a hero and i think that's key you can't fully express yourself until you're pushed to the edge of your ability and beyond and until you push yourself as far as you can go you have no idea how far you can go and if the goal is to avoid suffering the challenges and the pain of life torment us but if our goal is to become our best selves then the challenge and the obstacle is the way and that's incredibly powerful it's like instead of sidestepping lizards it's like we're called to slay dragons it's if you think about it that way it's like what stands in the way is the way the obstacle is the way that's why israel is called to struggle and to prevail that's the essence of what it is to be israel and look at what the wisest of all men king solomon said in the book of proverbs chapter 24 verse 16. this is just so fundamental the righteous fall seven times they rise again but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes that's a pretty good translation it's not an ideal never to fail that's that's that's that's not realistic that's not what the torah promises that's that that's just everyone is going to fail everyone is going to be challenged life is going to knock us down it's just going to blow us off of our feet and we're just going to be like oh my gosh how did that happen that's just going to happen and then king david says in the book of psalms this is so beautiful the soul of man is the candle of god and victor frankl once said that which is to give light must endure burning only in the burn can we really shine but think about that for a second like you know wind comes and either wind can either blow out the little flickering flame or the same wind can stoke a fire now all of us get knocked down but the righteous use the wind to stoke the flame and rise up again seven times the right the righteous falls seven times that the righteous shouldn't fall at all the righteous should just be righteous why is he falling shouldn't he just have faith how could he possibly fall no the righteous with all of the faith in the world the righteous are going to get knocked the heck down but what happens is that wind stokes their flame it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't let us stumble when calamity strikes it stokes the flame that we're able to rise up again with a more powerful fire now that's why those who join israel in the end of days are seen as the soldiers of the king think about that that is who we are and just so happens we're we're literally our headquarters of this fellowship is in the place where david assembled his mighty men we are called to be khabad actually call their youth movement hashem's army that's the ideal mashiach is the king of israel and who are we we're soldiers of the king that's the biblical ideal soldiers of light and of love to battle the forces of darkness in the world it's like we're called to be heroes you can't be a hero unless there's a challenge and to serve the world heroically that's our goal period it's like a soldier of light and love a soldier a hero that's that's what that's what king david's army represents that's why jacob is called israel to struggle with men and god and to prevail vato it's like everyone struggles i've never met a single person that doesn't struggle i've met billionaires that struggle i've met simple people that struggle doctors then just everyone there's no such thing it's like the design of creation it's not that we have a life and then we meet a challenge an obstacle on the way the challenge is the way to bring the hero out of us and through the challenge we emerge who we're meant to be to struggle and then to prevail and when we prevail jacob is revealed as israel and in fact you know if if if if we weren't struggling just like nothing heroic happening here like just bumming around all day long like what is that that's just there's nothing that's admirable about that there's nothing that's noble about that it's like the greatest traits of human existence come in hardships and the fact that life is hard and in that hardship you go and help others you think about others that's that makes the deed godly that makes the deed like of the highest order living it's like such an amazing opportunity to live in that way and all of us have that opportunity it doesn't take money it doesn't take political power all of us in our own life can just reach out to the person that we know that needs it and literally be an agent of god in the world literally we transform ourselves to be his angels and helping them at that time transcending our own our own our own struggles and you know there are countless ways to view life on this planet and they're endless approaches and to living and the ancient wisdom of israel says like this voluntarily enlist into the army of the king joined the mission to build a godly kingdom on earth first in your life then in your home then in the world around you and ultimately in jerusalem and that life is it's like it's structured as a challenge the world around us in the eyes of the bible is broken and it's the mission to repair the world to restore the world to rebuild the world and as we achieve our goals and we're fixing the world through fixing ourselves it's like it's like fixing the outside on the path to fulfilling that mission we're really fixing the inside and more than anything it's an internal war in ourselves the soldier is really on the inside it's a war between our higher self and our lower self and the purpose of that war is to like bring the hero out let the higher self rule and you know this is so fundamental and we talk about this um we go we always go back to the garden of eden because just all of the world it's all of the secrets of the torah are all back in that story that's like the first two chapters it's all there and if you miss it then you really miss the whole torah you missed the whole why are we here what's going on here the biblical vision of man and women is that we're a reflection of god in this world our souls are an aspect of him a spark of his essence it's like he breathed from his depth that's the image that we have he breathed life into adam and then that life force is from him in us and now we're on this planet as a reflection of him and the entire journey of life guided by the torah is to express that spark let that spark like kindle let that flame burn let that light shine to reveal it in the world and when we reveal or manifest our soul in the world it's the highest level joy possible it's like we become closer to our true selves we become closer to our creator but listen expressing that life force is not easy it's not they're donuts krispy kreme donuts in america those things are delicious and it's like the world is the america is so good at like distracting us with so many other things but it's like that is the service of this world that's the avodah that's the work of this world it's like you know we were put in the garden to work and to guard that's what it says even in the garden of eden it was a work it was a work and so our work in this world outside of the garden it's somewhat similar we're working on ourselves and we're guarding ourselves it's the same work the garden of eden is right here on the inside and so i mean have you ever watched a seed sprout in a time lapse video i i sometimes it doesn't look comfortable for that seed to split open and have this thing like grow out of it it looks like a painful it looks uncomfortable that's the the word that comes to mind is ouch have you ever seen a woman give birth thank god i've seen six that is not easy to bring a life into the world and it's like okay you want to bring life into the world you want to express divine potential in the world get ready but here's that we have a chance to make the journey from where we are right now or where we were 10 years ago to where we could be and that's like you can start right now and it doesn't matter what's happened yesterday or what happened a year ago it's like the it's at our fingertips at any moment to choose right now i feel like that's it all right i'm right back on the horse i've fallen down i've gotten lazy okay i'm right back again the righteous falls seven times i'm so righteous because i've fallen seven thousand times and you can just go right back up to that it's amazing and right there you're right there again how do we do that it's like wow we can just be that we can reveal the best version of ourselves in the world and teach everyone around us to do that and imagine when we have a relationship that we really care about let's say it's with our wife what is my goal with i really truly want to help her bring out the best within her i want her to be the best version of herself that's an excellent foundation for our relationship what do i want with my children i want them to be the best versions of themselves i want that soul to shine bright i don't want them to be obedient to me that's not the goal that's maybe one of like the tools it's important to learn obedience but what that's that that the goal is that they become the best people that they can be in the world the best versions of themselves because when they're that's when blessing resides in our life that's when we feel joy simcha real that's when we feel alive we feel plugged in we let the light shine through us to the people around us you know did you know that superman was a comic created by a jew not many people know that it's true and it's a super jewish idea not just because there's one superman that's going to come and bring the world peace like mashiach there's even deeper things than that think about it i mean superman like it it represents all of us it's like when trouble strikes he like rips open his shirt and reveals his true inner power that's that's that's us that's that's that's the bible that is the jewish ideal that inside of us we have such a divine potential and when challenges come up just rip it open it's like time to be super jews in israel we all need to do that man if imagine if all of us decided that's it we're all going to be just super jews that's it we're just gonna rip it open all of it behind and let that shine the world would be transformed and that's the by that's like the the key to salvation i mean like you know the secular leftist uh world is so obsessed with the economic structures and the political structures as if the transformation of humankind is somewhat going to come from the government as if the government has ever done anything good ever and the bible's telling us no no the transformation and salvation is going to come when every single person finally rips open their shirt and lets their soul shine and they become the believers in their believers that their belief actually manifests in action that is when salvation will come and it's just it's on the shoulders of every single one of us and i think about corona sometimes it started off with one guy one guy either got infected by a bat or by a lab or i don't know how it happened but it was one guy there was one dude in china that got infected that one thing infected the entire world every country has been touched by corona that is a spiritual lesson for us and one guy spread it all over the world that that means it can happen it can go viral that love that we talked about it can go viral and it can actually spread all across the world maybe we're just waiting for that one leader to come to inspire us all but until that leader comes it's incumbent upon us to have the people that are around us and bring the light to them and then who knows where that might take us and on that note i have a huge announcement to make may 2nd that save the date may 2nd that's an upcoming fellowship that is gonna we are making a massive announcement historic mark the date in your calendar come to the live session that is a session that you will not want to miss i'm telling you it's going to be it's going to change everything and everything we've learned and prayed about over the years it's all going to be it's action is coming and we're all going to go it's going to happen just save the date may 2nd write it in your calendar that's it sunday same bat time same bat channel it's gonna be right here shalom my name is jeremy gimpel a few months ago we started an online seminar teaching life-changing biblical wisdom revealed from the original hebrew and straight from the mountains of judea with global instability on the rise more and more people are turning to god realizing now they don't exactly know where to look for guidance the bible says the guidance will come from the land of israel what started as an online seminar has grown into a global fellowship with hundreds of members from over 30 countries we are participating in fulfilling prophecy as we learn the bible through the eyes of prophecy with a focus on what it's telling about us in our lives today what you will discover is that the wisdom transmitted thousands of years ago is speaking directly to us in our time right now instead of learning the bible as a religion it's the torah of israel the living guidance of god so please join us for our next online gathering and get access to the full library of teachings that the land of israel fellowship is offering join now and get an audio series on the prophecy encoded in the book of joshua absolutely for free just click on the link below or email fellowship at thelandofisrael.com i don't know how you found this video or what compelled you to click on that link but i don't believe in coincidence and i would encourage you to take the next step on your journey toward the land of israel i hope to see you at the land of israel fellowship shalom