The Holiest of Holies (Parsha Terumah)- Tehila Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

hi everyone so I'm sure that if you're watching this you also saw the videos of the bbus family being returned in coffins and the shocking horrifying display of music and dancing around the coffins of these murdered babies like just when you thought that our enemies couldn't reach a deeper depth of depravity and you know when I was watching uh these videos what struck me was my visceral feeling that every part of me was shouting get your disgusting defiled un worthy gross hands off of the holiest of holies I I just couldn't escape this feeling I was flooded by this feeling like how are they actually not dropping dead just from approaching the holy innocent babies who died for being Jews which is just by default to die on the sanctification of God's name and the imagery that immediately came to my mind was from the first book of Samuel and schm alif when the Holy Ark of the Covenant was taken into captivity by the Philistines and the high priest AI is so shocked that he falls over and dies from hearing that news and it struck me so much that that was the image that came to me because in this week's um Torah portion this upcoming week's Torah portion the week that we're going to be burying these bodies of these pure Souls it's actually the first time that we are introduced to the Ark of the Covenant and what's crazy is that the Hebrew word for coffin and the word for Ark are the same word Aron and in fact the first time that word is used in the Bible it's in reference to the coffin of Joseph only the second time that that word is used it's in the Commandment in our portion to build the Ark of the Covenant that would be inside the holy of holies holding the tablets and the broken tablets you know when I saw our disgusting enemies holding these Aron note all these these coffins I thought of the Ark in the hands of the Philistines which actually made sense because the words are identical and I often feel that everything that happens to us in Israel is in some way or another living and reliving the Bible and I thought back to that story can you imagine seeing the Ark of the Covenant actually be carried away by these impure Philistines you know and the Philistines actually lived on the southern Coastal area that includes what we now call the Gaza Strip and the adjacent areas around there and and I couldn't escape this image because in the ark we're told in this week's Torah portion that the ark was adorned with two cherubs the sages teach us that they had the faces of little babies and the actual verse says in chapter 25 in in Exodus in schmoe in verse 20 the cherubs must have their wings spread a loft so their wings Shield the cover and they must face one another the faces of the cherubs being inclined towards the cover that's how it says it in English but in Hebrew if you look at it it says is these are two baby brothers in the literal Hebrew Hebrew facing each other two little baby brothers facing each other made of pure gold and if you can imagine the ark being taken you see what it would have looked like it would have looked like two golden cherubic baby brothers facing one another and the Torah goes on to teach us that when the ark would travel it would be covered with a cloth like the iconic picture etched in every one of our memories of these two cherubic boys huddled facing together in the arms of their terrified mother wrapped in this cloth I mean it's just etched in my mind from the night of October 7th when we started to understand what was going on I'm never going to forget that so we no longer have an arc of a covenant but they took our holy of holies our little cherubic babies of golden hair and what is remarkable is that when the Philistines took our Ark so much destruction Came Upon them in their Gaza Strip that after just a few months they not only returned the ark voluntarily but brought gifts to atone for taking the ark the disgusting terrorists have brought infinitely more destruction on themselves in the very same places that God brought down destruction and Punishment in the time of Samuel but not only do they not repent they're actually recalcitrant cheerfully playing music and dancing around like this is some sort of accomplishment and it never ceases to shock and amaze me that not one person in Gaza has ever stopped to voluntarily return any hostage I mean the amount of people we know that many of the hostages were living with entire families meaning families and tribes know exactly where the hostages were and where they are huge monetary rewards have been offered for information no one thought to help no matter how bad terrorism ever got in Israel there were always countless peace initiatives and peace organizations and we can say okay they're naive but even victims of Terror continually tried to believe in peace the elderly gentleman odad lifshits whose body was returned in the same round a few days ago he would drive sick Gins to Israeli hospitals how is there not one gzen peace activist in the singular one okay not a peace activist but one person that even if they don't mind the terrorism and they don't mind the killing but maybe not the babies they could say to themselves maybe babies that's one step too far I could just pass a note to one of the Israelis you know every enemy that has ever appeared in Jewish history there's always been some good person that emerged from them someone who despite the moral corruption and decrepitness of their society stepped forward and said no from the very beginning the Egyptians had the daughter of pharaoh saved the baby saved Baby Moses against her father's decree the midianites bitter enemies but there was Jethro the Canaanites are horrible enemies but they made a rahav the moabites they gave us a Ruth the ammonites even David said that the king of Ammon was kind to him thees they made an urya who fought in David's Army the Philistines made an aish who saved David should I go on I could go on all day the arameans they had aan who recognized Hashem the Assyrians had an entire city of nve I could do this all day there is notably however only one nation that never seemed at least in any biblical story to have even one redeeming righteous person I don't need to tell you who they are obviously because they were the ones who went after a nation just reliefed from slavery who had never done anything to bother them just wandering in the wilderness recovering from their Holocaust in Egypt and decided to go after the weak stragglers in the back the elderly and the babies they didn't have one guy one guy who said you know what why don't we just attack the strong men why not just avoid attacking the old people and the babies in the back we can be better than this where are the God and schindlers you say Hamas Hamas they would they would threaten them they would hurt them is Hamas scarier than the Nazis because under the Nazis there were 28,000 recognized known righteous Gentiles so tell me more about how hard it is for there to be even just one you know Naomi shemmer famously once said that the Arabs like their murder hot moist and humid and if ever they have their way with us we will miss the Nazi gas Chambers the Nazis made gas Chambers not just because of efficiency they had to do it because too many soldiers were losing their minds because of the atrocities they were becoming alcoholics not able to function having nervous breakdown from killing people face to face our enemies don't have that problem we've now found out that our enemies who have no lack of guns and ammunition when given the opportunity prefer actively prefer to kill tiny babies with their bare hands when you look to Nazis as beacons of morality you know that you're facing something irredeemable the Torah tells us that the angels that angels can take form of human beings when they appear in this world cherubs appeared on our Earth and they were here for a short time and now they're gone and now they've been brought back to us for Eternal rest but you know the cherubs in our Torah portion are said to be that meeting point through the cherubs through the space between the cherubs is where we hear hashem's voice manifest in this physical world it is through that space that we can hear hashem's voice his presence is actually felt in the earth and it's our job to hear the message that Hashem is sending to us you know when the chabs appear for the first time in the Torah they are the Protectors of the Garden of Eden protecting the tree of life because Adam and Eve had sinned and they had sinned so deeply that there was no turning back they couldn't undo that they couldn't go back into the garden there are angels that symbolize Exile you just can't roll some things back there are sins that can't be turned back and when I try to listen to what does Hashem want from us what does Hashem you know want from me in my life is the right thing sometimes I think well do I I know maybe I'm imagining maybe it's my own will the cherubs in the temple they left no room for doubt when you when Hashem spoke through the cherubs in the temple you knew you were hearing communication from Hashem in this world does anyone actually have any doubt as to what we're called to do after seeing the cherubs of our times returning to us is it possible to wonder anymore maybe we should try another way find the moderates find the peace lovers could The Voice emanating from the cherubs of our time scream any louder that it's time for them to go every single last one that there's no Redemption and at the same time you know the cherubs they symbolize hashem's love for us his relationship with us his ongoing protection of us and in that very same day that our murdered hostages were returned to us we had one of the greatest Miracles possibly in the history of Israel most of the details haven't been released but we know that a multi a multi uh location uh mass casualty attack was miraculously foiled on Thursday night saving hundreds if not thousands of lives the attacks were not stopped by intelligence agencies or the police or the Army but in miraculous and unbelievable ways that leave no room but to recognize that this could only be from Hashem as a reminder to us that in our hardest times Hashem is still with us and showing us his rahamim his compassion and giving us the opportunity to listen to his voice and to do what we know is the right thing before it's too late so may Hashem continue to send his angels to protect us and save us and may he give us the ears and mostly the heart to hear and understand and to do the right thing bye everybody