The Shape of Israel Isn't an Accident - Rabbi Ori Strum

I imagine that you're watching this right now because you saw the title and you're curious as to the mysterious shape of Israel, the land of Israel, Eretz Yisrael, [music] the Holy Land. What is it? What's going on? But before I delve into that, I just want to thank the sponsors for this video. I'm kidding. There were There actually were no sponsors. But if you'd like to sponsor a future video episode or something like that, please reach out to me and uh we could make it happen. So, Eretz Yisrael, the Holy Land, the land of the Jewish people, the land that God promises, the land that's flowing with milk and honey, that land, it's it's unique. It's tiny. It seems like everybody wants at it. It seems like the whole world is focused on that, right? Main headlines on the news are about this tiny [music] tiny country. It's the size of Rhode Island or something [music] like that. I don't know if it's a little bigger or smaller. I don't have the exact coordinates, but maybe next time I should have prepared that in advance. What's going on? What what And >> [music] >> the it's a it's a unique I mean, every country is uniquely shaped, right? Um and Eretz Yisrael though, the the Holy Land, it it it's interesting. It's like almost like a line, right? Has a little fat in the middle and it goes down and it What is the shape? Just a couple months ago, I chanced [music] upon a safer, a book written by the the Netziv HaMeck Davor. And [music] in there, he actually says something remarkable. And I want to share that with you because it's very relevant for the time that we're in for that we're in right now, the time period of Sefirat Omer, the journey from Pesach to Shavuot. How so? Let's put this all together. So, says the HaMeck Davor, the Netziv, the shape of Eretz Yisrael is the tzurah of a dog. [music] It's the shape of a fish. And it's not just any fish. It's an upside [music] down fish because it the shape of Eretz Yisrael, he explains, is based on the yerusha, on the inheritance of the shvatim, where he describes the tribe of Yehuda in the diamond in the south. That's like the point on the bottom and then slowly it emerges up and right the Jerusalem the capital Yerushalayim is more on the [music] in the center by the wider wider part and then it gets thinner again. So if you could imagine a fish upside down, that's exactly how it should roll. It's like this and goes up like that, right? It's a fascinating [music] imagery because chazal the Jewish people are indeed compared to the fish. One of the great blessings [music] that Yaakov Avinu bestowed upon us was the Yidgolu Ra'ev Bikerev Ha'aretz that you're going to be like fish. But literally [music] Bikerev Ha'aretz in the midst of the land meaning the land the shape of the land explains how it got [music] there. He's going on that the fact that the pasuk says the Torah tells us Bikerev Ha'aretz [music] that the land is going to be shaped like the tzura like the shape of a fish. And there's this tremendous >> [music] >> imagery here because surrounded that it's the center of the world. We know that the Torah tells us that right every circle has a center and the center of the world is Eretz Yisrael. It's the holy land. It's Israel [music] and that center is a fish. How interesting and there's an important lesson here because Eretz Yisrael is surrounded by so many people who hate it by so many countries who want its annihilation and destruction, right? And [music] in a world that is confronting against this holy land the the land of Israel stands with its [music] imagery as an upside down fish. What's the imagery of an upside down fish? It's exactly [music] how it sounds. An upside down fish represents a fish that swims k'neged ha'zarim against the current. This is the simanim of a kosher fish. The simanei tahara to be a for in order for a fish to be kosher it needs to require has two requirements. Has to have fins [music] and scales. What does that do? And the the Meforshim the commentaries [music] explain that what the fins and do allow is it allows the fish to swim k'neged ha'zerem. It allows the fish to go against [music] the current. There's so many species of fish that just get swallowed up wherever the current of of the of the sea is taking it, that's where they're going to go. But the Jewish people are compared to the kosher fish, the fish Eretz Yisrael is a fish that's upside down. It's cuz we're meant to be with fins and scales to go against the current. Where there could be a world a boatload of sheker and falsehood coming against us, but we're meant to swim against that. And we're meant [music] to combat that in a way. How do we combat that? We combat that with our moral compass. We combat that with learning Torah. We combat that by doing more mitzvahs. We combat that by giving more tzedakah. We combat that by having shown bias. By combat that with all the stuff that we do. We We combat that with the [music] Torah that we have. And it's fascinating that this journey of Sefirat Omer is in the realm of a fish as well. [music] You know, Klal Yisrael after they left Mitzrayim, the Exodus, right? It What What happened? Seven days later, which by the way seven is numerical value dalet gimmel, which [music] is dag, fish. Fish days later, dag days later, the Jewish people were at a were at a crossroad, [music] right? What What How are we going to How are we going to emerge? There's the Egyptians coming behind us. [music] There's a raging sea in front of us. The Midrash explains that there are wild animals on both sides and they happen to [music] be hungry at the time. The Jewish people were stuck. But what happened? The sea split and water [music] surrounded them on all sides and they emerged through the water. What's that imagery [music] of us, the Jewish people, going through the sea, the Kriyat Yam Suf? It's an imagery of us becoming [music] fish. We We Mitzrayim and now we needed to become fish. The Yidden grew out of the cave of arts, and now we have [music] a spiritual journey of or we are swimming through the world against the current heading towards where the mountain. The mountain is where we receive the Torah. The Torah is compared to water. That's ultimately our goal to get back into that water, right? In a state of tuma and in Mitzrayim was in 49th level of tuma. We were a fish out of water. We were >> [music] >> grappling and grasping and many of the Jewish people, 4/5 in fact, perished. But, there were a select few that that remained quote unquote in the water. They remained attached connected [music] to that life source. And and that's the journey of Sefiras HaOmer is to connect to the Torah is to connect to that water because at the end of the day we need, just like a fish needs water to survive. It doesn't even want to go [music] onto the land. It has no desire to do so. We are meant to be like fish, right? By What was it the Torah describes the Jewish people going through the water that was like "Vayam bayabasha." It was a mixture of water and on dry land. And that's the Jewish people. We're meant to be like fish, but "Bik'e yam bar it's on the dry land." We're meant to be fish on this world. We are the manifestation, just like fish who live in their own isolated place and >> [music] >> survive by swimming against the current with their fins and the scales, right? That's how they fish survive [music] in the water. K'lal Yisrael is that men is the manifestation of fish here as a people. And Eretz Yisrael is shaped like a fish. This is our This is who we are. And I'll tell you something fascinating I saw in a safer. One of the I'm learning from Baranovitch, and he said that uh he proves that the days of Sefiras HaOmer are so in fact [music] connected with the idea of fish. How so? The Hebrew word for fish is "dag." But, the numerical Sorry, not numerical. The Aramaic word for fish is "nuna." A nuna is a fish. What is that word nuna? Nuna also means [music] "nun," which is 50. How many days are in Sefiras HaOmer? 50. The entire 50 days represents a nuna. 50 days 50 days represents the fact that we are fish becoming more fishy, becoming more fish like, becoming more connected to the water, more connected to the source, more connected to real life and vitality, more connected to swimming against the [music] the zarit, right? That's that's the days of sfeera, but I'll tell you something even more. Says that I saw this in that safer from the the Admor. The safer is called ohr ha simcha. And he says that the if you look at the days of sfeera is called sfeera is um sapher nun to count 50, right? Sapher [music] nun means to count 50. What is that when when you rearrange the letters of sapher nun? So, these are represents the fins and the scales. They are sinapi the kaskeses. Sinapi are the fins. Sinapi are the same [music] letters as sapher nun to count 50. Kaskeses, which are the scales, kaskeses has numerical value of 1200. Do you know how many hours are in the 50-day period? How many hours are in the [music] 50 days of sfeeras ha'omer? How many? If you do the math, it equals exactly 1200. There are 1200 hours. 1200 is the numerical kaskeses. There's kaskeses hours in the may sfeera. >> [music] >> Sinapi is nun sapher nun to count 50. Telling you, you can't make this stuff up. These days of sfeeras ha'omer is [music] all about becoming more fish like. And it's important reminder for us to stay connected to the water, to stay to really try try to think about what what's what's our real thirst. Because we have we you know, in a physical world we're thirsty for this and thirsty for that, for this desire and this but our soul truly desires one thing [music] and one thing only. Like something you could really be quenched. People, you know, after a long workout you try to quench yourself with a bottle of soda. You're going to be [music] you're going to not feel so good afterwards, and you're going to still be thirsty. The only real way to quench yourself is with some type of either an energy drink, Powerade, Vitamin Water, or something like that. Now, some might argue [music] on that, but the main thing is water. Water really quenches. And the same thing in life. There's only We try to quench our thirst by all these different things that are out there. There's so much physical, and there's so much materialism that that's out there. We try to quench our thirst [music] for desire for connection with those things. When in reality, the only real thing that can do that for us, the only real thing is "May it so be in the whole [music] world, amen." Right? It's the water of Torah. It's the It's It's that water that can really [music] nourish us. It's that water that connects that represents the real connection, the connection with the English letter, the connection with the Kodesh Baruchu. And we should all have the zechut >> [music] >> to embrace our fish-like status, to realize that we are that blessing of fruitful and multiply in the land." >> [music] >> That we as a people are fish. Our land is like a fish. And without [music] any doubts, without any other types of focus, we are zeroed in and on a mission. We're staying in the water. We're staying [music] in this water, and whatever it takes, we're going to swim against the current, even if that current is strong, and it [music] does get stronger and stronger as the closer we get to the end of time. And it gets stronger and stronger, but we have to remain stronger and become more connected to the Torah, more connected to each other. The "Be fruitful and multiply in the land" also represents closeness to the people, right? To be close to the people, right? This was a time period of "Love your neighbor as yourself." And many many people perished. [music] But it's a time period to work on becoming more close to one another, to becoming more close to the Kodesh Baruchu, more close to ourselves, more close to the things that are real. And may we all have the [music] zechut to become the fish that we're meant to be. We should all have the best.