The Race to the South Pole & to the New Year - Jeremy Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

hey fellowship it is just so good to be back on the farm to be back in the land of israel i feel like i'm just receiving more and more light more and more strength we're getting back into a routine here and you know i'm preparing for the new year and i've been thinking over and over again just our last session about setting our goals and then really thinking about our life in the categories that we want to make for ourselves this upcoming year and i was thinking you know what is the next step and just a beautiful spice cart falls into my life and her name is diele gimpel and she tells me this amazing story in 1911 and 1912 the great race to the south pole happened two teams one from britain and one from norway went out to be the first humans to conquer the south pole and be the first people to reach the bottom of the planet and one team made it the norwegians they were first and one team on the whole track the british sadly perished on the way but we have their journals and we have all of their writings because they were found and in perfect timing this torah portion we're reading when you go out to war against your enemy now obviously that's not only talking about external enemies like the taliban in afghanistan that's also talking about our internal enemies the challenges and the obstacles that we have in our own life and here we have this amazing story that just fell on my lap that i wanted to share with you why did one team succeed in one team fail they had two totally different strategies of how to win the war how to go out and achieve what their mission was so the british team they went out and they brought horses and when the weather was good they trekked far and when the weather was bad they hunkered down and they moved and they went and they good and they got up and down just no consistency when it was good they went when it was bad they stopped the norwegian team they went out with dogs and they went out with a totally different strategy their strategy was every day they're gonna move 15 kilometers now what's amazing is that i've been researching this story and tahila is the one that really brought this idea to light because most of the stories that i've read off don't even talk about this strategy but to me the strategy is the greatest lesson of this story every day the norwegians went 15 kilometers when the weather was good 15 kilometers ah 15 kilometers that's not so much for a day they could have gone much more but they said no 15 kilometers we're going to set up camp we're going to rest we're going to rejuvenate next day 15 kilometers when the weather's good the 15 kilometers when the weather is bad 15 kilometers just consistently moving forward slowly at a good pace and by the time they reach the south pole and they came all the way back they said it really wasn't even that hard for them where the british team they went on a crash diet and they went as fast as they could when the weather was good when the weather was bad they hunkered down and they didn't move at all there was no consistency there was no routine and on the way back they perished and what a lesson for us right now because all of us are in this process of really trying to start the new year with a powerful trajectory to really set our sights on zion and when we do that we get at sion we get a grade how close are we to our ultimate good that we could really be in the world how could our marriage be how could our children be how could our lives be how can our health be and you know once you set a mark then you have a grade of where you're standing with that mark so the natural tendency is to go on a crash diet to learn 15 pages a day of gemara to go and set impossible goals that you know maybe you could achieve for a month but then you're going to fall out and the mission will not be accomplished but here we have the amazing wisdom of the torah it is the first lamb bring it in the morning and the second lamp bring it in the evening you don't need to bring a thousand rams like king david bringing the ark of the covenant to jerusalem no that's for a major celebration but every day consistency one lamb in the morning one lamb in the evening it's not too big it's not too much but it's one step forward one step closer how do we set up that mark of where we're trying to achieve how do we go out to war because it's a war it's a battle we have to really like get strong to make sure that we're disciplined if we want to get up early in the morning we got to put on that alarm clock and like wake ourselves up if we want to start exercising put those earphones in and go out on a walk or go out on a jog it's a little bit of a war because our spirit has to overcome that has to win the battle over our body and how do we do that 15 kilometers a day slowly consistently every day a little bit more every day a little bit more when it's easy and you feel inspired 15 kilometers when it's not easy and you're not inspired 15 kilometers when the sun is shining 15 kilometers when it's raining a little bit 15 kilometers that's the way the norwegians made it all the way to the south pole and they made it all the way back and they said in their journals that they didn't even feel like it was such a big challenge the journal though of the british team the crash diets and the extreme running and going and stopping and no consistency this was impossible they perished on the way so sad but that is a lesson for us the temple service is a physical manifestation of an internal teaching an internal process and it's dramatizing on the outside what's supposed to be happening on the inside and how do we develop a rich inner world how do we get it strong how do we build the temple structure on the outside in order for god's presence to dwell on the inside one lamb in the morning one lamb in the evening slowly but consistently just taking a few steps forward in the right direction on the path as we're keeping the halacha as we're walking in the light towards our zion that's the way to do it don't get overwhelmed don't try to crash diet don't try to read three books a week no just slowly choose a book read a little bit every day slowly but surely become stronger and stronger and that is the way how do we go out to war against our enemies one lamb at a time and so you should all be blessed i'm really looking forward to next week because next week we're going to open up a whole new map a new way of seeing ourselves a new way of working on our inner worlds and that'll be a wonderful process right before the new year so thank you all very much and i thank you for all of the blessings and welcome you back to the land it um it's funny because when i'm outside of israel i miss israel and now that i'm back in israel i miss seeing all of you that i saw outside of israel so it's like i guess i'm just going to be in a constant state of yearning of arugut of la a rogue i'm constantly yearning to be close to those that i love so i love the land i want it back in the land i love the fellowship outside of the land i want to be close to them one day we're going to bring it all together the fellowship and the land all together in the mountains of judea that's that's my zion that's the dream so slowly but surely we'll be working on that as well all right shalom i hope you enjoyed that highlight from the land of israel fellowship for more information about the fellowship and how to get access to all the archives of all of the teachings of the fellowship just go to the land of israel.com fellowship or click on the link below thanks