The Real War Against Hamas - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

seeing this struggle in the womb of Rebecca in our Torah portion it shines this entirely new light um it shines this whole new light on the struggle that we see playing out not only in the Christian world but really in the entire world in the entire world as a matter of fact as I read through the Torah portion on Shabbat along with the insights of the sages of Israel I emerged with an Insight not only into what's playing out in the world but perhaps even more importantly for myself uh it was an insight into my own heart into my own Journey since uh and this has really been happening in me since the world changed on that faithful day in October on October 7th and and you know many of you who have been here for years from the beginning I'd be interested to hear whether you've seen what I'm about to talk about here within me because this Insight came to a head this past week after I had two back-to-back interviews on the farm cuz J you know Jeremy and I have patrols and guard Duty um for at least four hours a day um you know and we're right there in the middle and so I can't leave the farm very often right there in the middle of the day like that and so I say if you want to interview me you're welcome to come out to the farm and a lot of people are scared to even drive out there but on this day two people did and the first interview is by my friend named Joel Gasper goel Jasper goel Jasper goel means uh you know Redeemer Jasper anyways he interviewed me for his podcast called return again which focuses on the story of Jews who have returned to the Holy Land Shaya loves it um maybe you guys would enjoy it also anyways the second interview is by a Christian friend who came out to the farm to interview me for his podcast about the war and how it's playing out in the land of Israel anyways after both of these interviews um I returned to my family that night and I sat there and I was just reflecting on the words that I myself said on these podcasts that were just echoing through my head and I was feeling really uncomfortable about it even a bit sad I felt like someone who listened to those podcasts or even past sessions the past sessions of this Fellowship since the war would walk away with with I think a skewed perception of who I am justifi justifiably legitimately based on my very own words because when I zoomed out the things I heard myself saying and the anger and the vital with which I was saying it it just felt unrecognizable like it wasn't even me have you guys sensed that in me over the past few weeks I feel like sometimes I'm channeling my father because he sort of lived in that in that head space but anyways since the war broke out I've been declaring again and again how badly I want to go to war how badly I want the opportunity to kill as many Kamas terrorists as I could how badly I wanted to kill each and every last one of them and that if they fortified their military headquarters under schools and hospitals that Israel shouldn't think twice before destroying them as well and that if there were any innocent Gins that were there that were killed while wiping out Kamas that their blood was on the hands of Hamas themselves and uh and well I stand by I stand by everything that I said in both of those interviews as as absolutely true but on the deepest level I was just feeling like it isn't it isn't really true on the deepest level like Jeremy sort of alluded to there interestingly enough it really isn't my desire to kill anyone my greatest desire really is love and peace and Harmony and friendship and those who know me well know that that's just true it's not to kill but I was saying these things in I think in the way that I was not only you know for the interview but even more so for myself you know I was saying it to strengthen myself I think to keep this gura to keep this very real strength and conviction alive within me to keep this Warrior Spirit Alive within me because you know it really isn't in my deepest nature and when you go out to war you have to want to be there you have to be ready to fight you have to want to fight because if they do and you don't it's not going to be a good thing anyway so I actually reached this level of self-awareness of why all of this was was happening when reading through the Torah portion uh particularly along with the teachings of RV cook and this was actually a teaching shared by Rabbi gold shider who shared the teaching of RV cook um from his powerful book called midbar anyways in it he teaches about the fundamental nature of both Esau and Jacob you see Esau's very name comes from the word assal he made like he came out of the womb big and hairy and like readymade he was full of power and domination and brute strength it was all like right there it had to to be fully made right there like that's the soup give me the soup I don't care what is I need it now right whereas Jacob's name Yakov comes from the word heal which is the lowest part of the body which symbolizes you know humility and and kindness anyway so let let's take a step back in past fellowships we've discussed how Isaac may not have been fooled by asa's trickery Jeremy just talked about this a little bit he touched on it and he he says you know that he wasn't tricked by and that's sort of comforting because you'd like to believe that Isaac the wisdom and the prophecy that he wouldn't have been so easily fooled by the trickery and the trappings of Esau's mouth um but but rather he understood the violent warlike nature of Esau and his hope in wanting to bless him was that Esau would be able to harness those Warrior qualities to protect the meek and peaceloving Jacob uh you know because he saw that there would be vicious haters that would inevitably Rise Against Jacob and he thought Esau could be his protector their two brothers it was Isaac's desire to desire to empower Esau to harness these qualities for the protection of his brother Jacob Isaac wanted them to work together as brothers each using their natural predispositions to further the goal of the nation of Israel he he felt that both of the qualities were needed within the nation of Israel that was his hope which is understandable right what father doesn't want his sons to work together and to love each other but Rook teaches that this was not meant to be and the reason this dynamic duo of Esau and Jacob was not meant to be was because Esau's force and aggression was coming from the wrong place altogether right Esau loved the violence as an end in and of itself and the love of War and the love of killing and death does not have a place within the nation of Israel right the love of of violence and Carnage does not have a place in the collective hearts of the Jewish people and that is why both blessings the blessing intended for Esa as well as that meant for Jacob both needed to go to Jacob because when a Jew does go to war when a Jew Jew does pick up arms to fight and kill it can never be from a place of joy and Glee you know perhaps from a a foundation of happiness that we able to to destroy evil from the world and sanctify God's name but never join Glee from the act of the murder and the killing the violence itself it's just it's just not us and the verse that rev cook quoted that revealed this truth when I read it it brought a sense of peace to my soul and it brought me to a deep understanding of what's happening within my own heart right now so Ru cook explained that when Jacob entered the tent to receive Asa A's blessing as as you know right he put the the skin of an animal over his arm to imitate the appearance of Esau as his mother Rifka Rebecca had instructed him let's look inside Genesis chapter 27 verses 22-23 so Jacob Drew close to Isaac his father who felt him and said the voice is the voice of Jacob but the hands are the hands of Esau but he did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like the hands of Esau's brother so he blessed him right R cook teach is that Jacob was merely wearing these warlike qualities of Esau on an external and a superficial level right that for Jacob these qualities of war and violence and fighting are really only skin deep they were never meant to be internalized into Jacob's Essence and loved and reveled in right even if Jacob is forced to step outside of his comfort zone and to fight and to kill it would never be from that place of love for those things it would always remain must always remain external to his fundamental Essence so if you want to see an example of Jews functioning and behaving in our comfort zone right watch the idea of soldiers giving out water to the civilians in [Music] Gaza but that's that's where our comfort zone is that's where it doesn't take a lot of you know uh encouragement or pushing to get Jews to do that because that's just what we do which by the way maybe one of the reasons why Jews I think excel at War so much other than the fact that we excel at War because Hashem fights with us and through us and that is the number one reason the primary reason and really the only reason but uh but there's also you know corollary reasons I think that strengthen that and I think it's because exactly because we don't love it because we don't Revel in it and at the deepest level our hearts we don't we don't want it at all because we don't we don't Delight in it the way our enemies do and this quality allows us to approach the war with a certain sober and dispassionate sort of posture it allows us to to think and strategize and fight with forethought and consideration as opposed to Hamas who we now know right preemptively launched their war against Israel without the agreed upon coordination with Iran and theah simply because they couldn't restrain themselves because they so badly wanted to slaughter and Massacre and torture and rape the unarmed revelers at the Nova concert and so it was there that that's why they're just they love it just so much that they see colors and and they do stupid things but anyways the more I reflected you know on this teaching the more I understood what I myself was going through I felt like I understood why I was you know T all this war talk this anger talk this I wanted I want to talk I realized that I I needed to keep the motivation and the desire for for war alive within me because if I didn't if I didn't keep reflecting on the purity of the evil that had been Unleashed upon us I feared that I may lose the Zeal for the war and you know I don't think it's healthy for people to watch these videos that the Hamas filmed with their GoPros at the beginning I didn't know what was happening none of us did and I watched a few of them and it was horrific and it has scarred me but I often watch those previews just in my head I go back to those previews just in my head and I watch them again and I watch them again because I can't lose it we can't lose it because as King Solomon said there's a time for war and there's a Time For Peace and this is a time for war and this is a time to battle against the forces of darkness and evil in the world because if we don't then those forces will Thrive and they will multiply and they will strengthen it's like leaving the cells of a maligant tumor just leaving a few of them there and we all know that if that happens then the Indescribable [ __ ] of October 7th are only the beginning anyways because I know myself and and and the truth is that the real me the me of least resistance is not only named Ari AB bramz but also Dr schmendrick floen right the name of my medical clown Persona because I love going to the hospitals dressed as a clown and making kids laugh all the kids all the kids it doesn't matter who because by Nature I love them all whether like I've told you this before whether it's Moshe or Mohammad or Joseph or Jihad I love all of the children I love all people it's just simply the way Hashem made me I can't take credit for it I don't deserve accolades for it it's just the way I was designed from the womb and I imagine most of you in this Fellowship you're you're exactly the same way so you know even when I drive on the roads in Judea and I see Arabs walking along the side of the road in the sun it's my natural impulse to want to pick them up and give them a ride and I have to hold myself back and I find that I resent them that I can't give them a ride that I can't give them a ride because if I do they may use that opportunity to stab me in the back as sick and pathological as that is and so you know after learning this teaching from ru cook and really letting it sit within me like digesting it I really was able to look back on those interviews with all my fiery talk of war and understand it in a different context and be at peace of it even even to be proud of it because everything I said was true but that's the dimension and the level of energy and focus that I really need to be on right now despite knowing my deep deeper deeper desires and motivations because you know it it's true I'm I I really am ready to fight and to die or preferably even to fight and to kill uh you know I knew that this desire was no different than you know the animal hair on yakov's arm right he needed to put on that hair on that faithful faithful day on that faithful moment he needed to put that hair on it was it was necessary for the time that he was in and at that moment he needed to Dawn the hands of Esau but never would the hands of Esau penetrate into his very essence that would never happen it could never happen it just simply isn't who Jacob was it isn't who Jacob is and and that and that's okay it wasn't supposed to be you know part of his Essence because if it if it did if it was he wouldn't be Jacob he wouldn't be the Jacob that would eventually usher in the light and the peace and the harmony into the world that we will soon see brought brought into the world at the end of days which my friends is any day now between us I mean Jeremy I actually Jeremy and I've have spoken about this we both feel like this coming pesak is a big day even though I promise I'm not going down that route again you've been here from the beginning with me you know that but you know any day any day could really be it you know because at the at his very essence Jacob is a spiritual man and he dwelled in tents and what was he doing in those tents he wasn't scrolling through Facebook he was praying and he was studying and he was seeking to bring the truth and the spirituality of the Torah and of Hashem into the World by infusing it into his very essence and that's why if you look past the war coverage on CNN and Fox News if you look at what's really happening on the ground in the Holy Land you see that Jacob is indeed alive and well and so I I want to you know we we'll we'll wind this up in a second but I want to let you in for a moment into the internal life of Jacob into the real war that is being fought in the heart heart of Israel at this very moment um and the examples I'm going to give it was actually really hard to give them because there were thousands of them everywhere I look all day there are thousands of I could have done three fellowships just on this very point but I thought I would start with this because I didn't have a lot of time this the first one that popped up this morning so here's a message that's being circulated through the Jewish world over the past few days and this just you know like like I said a small example of the spiritual dynamics of the the real war that's being fought if you could show that that slide it says here that their group called meaning brothers in prayer was created with one goal to unite the Jewish people as we strengthen our soldiers with their strongest defense prayer anyways it goes on to say that it's it's well known that the most dangerous and fierce battles in Gaza take place between the hours of 2 to 6 a.m. a time when Israelis are asleep and the message goes on to say that IDF soldiers have shared that the time that they feel a weakening of their strength uh with is with the lessening of the prayers that are during that time so in short these guys this sort of initiative they were allocating 10-minute time slots to be filled by Jews from around the world during the time when soldiers need it most and of course it filled up like that a hundred times over um even though it's like just in in certain groups it's just everyone jumps on this immediately you know there there just so many examples of it I actually just saw a picture that I've been looking for all day I spent so long looking for this so I just want to show you I don't know if you can see can you see that can you yeah I'll I'll send it to you anyways it's a picture of like a little boy reading the Psalms and praying and then just right over a soldier fighting showing the clear connection between those prayers and that Soldier fighting and um and you know there just so many examples of how the nation of Israel is is is intuitively uh standing together and understands inherently that our strength is in our love for each other and our strength is in our love for Hashem even secular Jews are understanding this on the deepest level that maybe they can't always articulate with words but it's definitely very clear through their actions and that that this war will only be one can only be one in the spiritual realm I actually just saw this picture this morning so I thought I would share with you because it's just from this morning Ben can you show that it's a picture of a rabbi in one of the combat units it's the same guy on both sides and his friends were pressuring him to adopt this sort of funny Trend in the army that I still don't fully understand of the mustaches I think it's a throwback to the Yom Kipper War but I'm not sure exactly anyways they wanted him to do it and he agreed on the condition that they would all put on Fillin every day until the end of the war right a demand the filteries you know that the the Bible tells tell us that we put on every day and they all readily agreed to it uh probably both because they were eager to see him take off this beard that he probably has never had off since he was able to grow a beard but also because all of them were probably doing it anyways because of the great spirit of return and repentance that is sweeping throughout the nation of Israel and the land of Israel and so that picture was of him before and after that and you know one of the greatest movements in the spiritual war is the initiative to extricate and remove remove Lon from our Collective National Consciousness right what is lonar Gossip slander it literally means the evil tongue every morning after prayer personally in my congregation my uh the right after prayer the teacher gets up one of the rabbis gets up and speaks and shares a different law of the complex and detailed guidelines of guarding our tongue and how we speak about each other and although at first glance this may seem sort of random or arbitrary or you know like why are we hyperfocusing on Gossip out of all things but the truth is it's not because how we speak about each other is a manifestation of how we see each other and how we see each other is reflected in how Hashem sees us and if we love each other unreasonably above nature then that is exactly the way Hashem will love us so here's actually a video of an Israeli tank are you ready for this you got to see this the sign did you see did you see the sign there at the very beginning I know Ben can you go back to the beginning of it so yeah there it is you see that it's the words and it has a red circle through it it says Lon har no forbidden here and under it says turn around evil tongue this is a gossip free zone in Gaza in Gaza that there's no gossip allowed in the middle of the deepest craziest fighting in the in the middle of Gaza no gossip Allowed no evil tongue what other Army do you know that puts up signs like that in the middle of their War zones an army that understands that this is a spiritual war and this was actually the uh the final video I'm going to share with you right now that was recorded by the holy Brave Warrior ysf Kim hovitz I'm sure many of you have heard of him father of five children he was very beloved by everybody he was like a famous guy as far as like Sadi ker concerned he was the principal of the boys high school in Jerusalem here the first 20 seconds we're playing the first 20 seconds it's a f minute video but I'll just play the first 20 seconds that was all he wanted that was his final request that was his heart's desire for the nation of Israel to love each other to see each other in a positive generous loving light and to speak nicely about each other he goes on to talk about there's no leftists there's no right wi there's no left wing and listen I don't know if you remember right before the war there was very very heated debates fights going on about the Supreme Court which I felt very passionately about and the tactics I saw the other side taking made it very difficult for me to feel that love for them and I'm sure that he stood exactly where I stood on this issue may maybe maybe you know what maybe not I don't know but one thing I can tell you is that wherever he stood on the issue it didn't prevent him from loving the diametrical opposite of those that stood against his position because he was able to transcend all of that and love every Jew and and that's that's ultimately what what this war is about on some level on one of one of the great fronts of this war internally within the Jewish people is for us to love each other and Hashem Loves Us in exactly that way and anyways all of this that I'm saying this is the real nature of Yakov of Jacob right love and light and compassion and spirituality spiritualizing everything in the world and and when your heart is connected to Israel when you're fighting with Israel in whatever front that you can then you're fighting the spiritual war with us