The King is in the Field (Parsha Re'eh) - Tehila Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

hi everybody it is so nice to see all of your beautiful faces after this long summer can everybody hear me yay okay so first of all Jeremy sends his love he was so looking forward to being uh here after our uh trip through Europe um we were so lucky to get to meet uh some truly beloved uh Fellowship members along the trip and Jeremy had so much he wanted to share but he's just feeling horri so uh hopefully he'll be back soon on his feet and so uh your trusty servant is here in his uh Place uh to send his love and um I hope maybe we even have some uh some newcomers perhaps that we've collected along our incredible journey through Europe just meeting wonderful lovers of Israel and lovers of Hashem who just been absolutely uh blessed and it's wonderful to be back in the land when we got back it was incredible to see uh jemy get off the plane and I've seen him get down and kiss the land when we've come back uh this time he was hugging the land he missed Israel so much so much so that security came indeed true story AR I don't think I mentioned that to you that security had to come because they thought he had fainted from love for the land of Israel all the kissing of the land he might have picked up a virus somewhere along the way but that is how much he loved the land so um Ari you made a great opening for me Ari and I did not coordinate this but you mentioned uh that as we're going into El the fundamental um Parable that lights our way is this idea of the king being in the field I just want to kind of unpack that a little bit it sounds it's a this cidic idea that was first coined by the first laich REI the first kabad Rabbi um and he said that when we go into El the king is in the field and that sounds strange right what does that mean the king is in the field well he says usually the king is in the castle and when you need something you go to the king and you have to get dressed up and you bow down and you know you you knock on the door and you come and you you know you you you have to come to the king but in L the King goes down into the field and I've been really kind of like thinking about what did that mean and it struck me like what is happening in the field what is happening in the field the field is the place where we're not dressed up what do we look like when we're in the field we're in the field we're covered in the mud we're sweating we're in the sun we're toiling in what can seem like cific endless labor season in and season out is anything even changing is our work even meaningful does the king even know what we're doing he's up there in his castle is he even caring about us and the idea of the month of el is that we get this glimmer of how much the king cares about us because he comes out of the castle and he says I'm with you in the field you're not alone in your toil in your struggle in your sweating in the Sun and your feeling of just where am I am I all alone the king come down he says he says I'm with you and now what's interesting is that the the laab the the first La rebbi he says when the king comes down to the field you don't ask for anything anything isn't that interesting the month of el is not about praying for something it's about being with Hashem Hashem comes down to the field and you just feel him there with you and you're working and you're in your toil and he's there with you in your toil he doesn't mind getting his shoes dirty as it were you know so to speak in this Parable he doesn't mind being down there in your struggle with you and you're just kind I have this vision of like you're pushing the plow and you're just you're not even asking for it you're not saying Hashem could have just could the weather be a little bit better could my field grow a little faster you're just saying here we are together and then what happens in Tish comes rashash Shana we put on our fancy clothes and we Elevate ourselves to a level that we're allowed to go to the castle meaning Hashem is so humble that he comes to be with us l in the field and in the month of Tish we work on ourselves to become better and then we're all dressed up we go to the castle we go to you know whatever House of Prayer we're praying in and we work on ourselves to get to the level that we can come and say Hashem could you please give me forgiveness could you please bless my family to have a good year could you please give me all the things that you give me and that's really important too but ell has something about it that's just a different quality where we just are here with Hashem without asking for anything and while we were in uh Europe I heard an incredible story uh of a of a couple we met so many you know people who are doing so much in Europe for Israel and one of the wonderful people that we met along the way told us about a couple in his congregation I hope he won't be upset for me sharing the story but it was so magnificent I won't give any of their personal details but he said there was a couple uh that was childless and and after many years of childlessness and praying for children uh they came to Israel for the first time and they went to the cotel to the Western Wall not to pray for children I said not to pray for children he goes they didn't pray for children they went to the cotel and they said Hashem our whole lives we've been praying for children because we thought that by raising a family that was the way you wanted us to serve you but we see that that's not your will for us and we accept that we accept it and that's what they prayed at the cotel and you know what they asked for they said Hashem could you just show us how to serve you without children can you show us how to be vessels to do good in the world not through raising a family because if that's not what you want for us we don't want to do we don't want to serve you any less he said 9 months to that day they had a they were blessed with a child and have had thank God many children Inon and on that day every year they come back to Israel to serve and to volunteer with uh you know farmers and Terror victims and and to to try to do good and when I heard that story it really it kind of embarrassingly because we were like in a very nice meeting with these lovely people but it brought me to it brought me to tears because I thought that exactly encapsulates the idea I think of Prayer in general and certainly of Prayer in the month of el where the challenge is not just to believe that Hashem has a reason for what he's doing or to accept we have such a higher challenge than that the challenge is to actually say like thank you okay okay you know like good you must have a different plan for me it's not the plan that I thought but there's another plan and I'm okay like I'm not going to just say like okay fine I'm accepting it there's a there's a talmudic passage that says a person must bless God for the bad as He blesses God for the good and I found that to be so incredible like the bar that's set for us as Believers if the tal mod would have said you must bless God even when bad things happen you would say like okay fine the T set such a higher bar it says You must bless God for the bad just as you bless him for the good meaning with the same Gusto we have to muster it's almost an impossible bar but just living under that bar just living under that bar knowing that that's what's asked of us helps us get closer to that bar even if we can never achieve it and like you have to be able to say Hashem thank you for the bad as much as thank you for the good because I don't know why this is happening to me but I want to know how I can turn it into an engine for me to be better I remember there was one uh rashash a few years ago I'm sure I've shared this in the past but I remember I sat and I was just you know talking I was praying it was like a break during the synagogue service I was praying to Hashem and I said Hashem I'm afraid to say what I'm about to say but I'm mustering all of my courage to say it I said if I go wrong please correct me and then I was scared just from having said it because I know what Corrections look like and Corrections are really really hard I said did I just ask for corrections I said no I'm Hashem I'm putting it out there I'm willing to be corrected and I look back at that as a moment that I don't know where I got that courage because it didn't come from inside me it only comes from Hashem you know like and it was a moment of courage and and I think that that that that I I and I try to get back there because I don't think I'm really there right now like I don't feel that courage in me right now but I because the corrections that we're experiencing in Israel are so um so painful but I try to hold on to that moment you know we have these like moments of clarity and moments of faith I try to hold on to that moment and say please bring me back to that moment where I lean in and I say hasm I'm ready for whatever you send me I'm ready to be corrected no matter how hard it is because I know that will be an engine for me to get better and most of all I know you will be with me I know you will be in the field with me no matter how hard my toil is and how painful my toil is I know you're going to be with me because you come down to the field to be with us where we are and our prayer is just to have the strength to lovingly accept what Hashem gives us plant that in the ground and let it grow into ever greater strength goodness relationship with Hashem and and just to plant seeds inside of ourselves to become who Hashem knows that we could be and to eventually please God be willing to get be be worthy become people that can actually rise up and go to the pallet and really be on the level that we can leave the field because we we've planted what we've need to plant we planted what we needed to plant we've toiled what we've needed to toil and now we can go to the palace and be with Hashem on the most elevated plane so with that I'm giving it back to Ari and I wish you guys just the absolute most wonderful month of L where you will truly wherever you are whatever field you're in and in if it's in uh in Nebraska Oklahoma Germany or Indonesia wherever everyone are wherever your is that you will feel Hashem coming down to the field to be with you bye guys