The Tower of Babel & Twitter's Free Speech - Jeremy Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

today I want to go right into the Torah and I want to give enough time to tahila who has a beautiful teaching on the Torah Ari has a beautiful teaching on the Torah but what I wanted to do is we're starting a new cycle again today and I want to add the secret sauce that is sometimes almost forgotten in almost every Torah interpretation that I read whether it be ancient and modern there is a secret of how we have to read the Torah when we read it today and so there are two stories of the beginning of civilization the first is a disaster that ends in destruction in a flood the second civilization comes together again massive failure that ends in dispersion in the Tower of Babel after the Garden of Eden the first stories we have Noah and the flood and the Tower of Babel each of them are teaching us fundamental principles about Humanity the Western World totally focused on the individual the iPhone the iMac the eye this the I that the Western influence on the Bible also just made everything about our own personal relationship with God our own personal salvation but the Bible's first stories aren't about the individual they're about Society about humanity and how we have to be careful as societies develop keep our eyes open I mean getting people to behave on an individual level is one thing but sometimes once humans come together watch out I mean people will sometimes be compelled to do things in a mob that they would never do alone and when humans come together hierarchies are formed power structures are set in place and it has the power to bring a flood that will destroy the entire world that's why the original biblical vision isn't only about individual salvation but about building a society After the flood after the Tower of Babel Abraham arises and he's Chosen and his family is told they're going to become a nation and that family nation is going to be a blessing to the entire world and eventually they're going to build a kingdom in Jerusalem and that Kingdom that nation that Society that's built is going to illuminate all of humanity and so I want to look at the first two stories of the Bible the first stories of human civilization and read them now as prophecies what does that mean the word Bible in Hebrew doesn't mean Bible Bible comes from Latin and that word means book the word Torah in Hebrew means teaching it's a verb it is speaking to us right now it's not a book it's a living word that is guiding us that is teaching us right now and so one word is coming down to the entire world at one time one word is read in every synagogue around the world one word is open to every believer to tune into the direct specific message for the world at that time and so the proper way to learn the Torah is to have your eyes open and ask the question what is this word saying to me right now and what is this word saying to the world right now so the Tower of Babel Humanity comes together and they all work together to build this tower that can I guess see everything around them monitor them have control have power and what is it the one specific characteristic about that Tower they have one language and in the midrash it says you should know that if you spoke out of line because that's Abraham's first story in the midrash one of the first stories he's talking about Freedom he's talking about how every person should have the right to seek out God to find his own way in the world and Nimrod the king who's building this Tower of Babel wants to throw him into a fiery furnace for daring to step out of line to speak differently than other people and what are we taught here so old and so wise that watch out when Society comes together one of the first things they're going to try to do is they're going to try to control your speech they're going to make rules and regulations and if you speak in the not politically correct way you'll be thrown into a fiery furnace you will be banned from the social media networks and look at what happened right now at the exact week that we're reading about the disaster of this Tower of Babel coming together and the tyranny of one language what is the punishment God doesn't destroy them God doesn't bring a flood he simply confuses their tongues and creates many many different expressions and on the week of the Tower of Babel for the first time social media has been liberated from the censorship liberated from the shadow Banning Elon Musk purchases Twitter with the intent not to make money not to do anything other than to allow Free Speech now you can't say anything illegal but if you have an opinion that's not politically correct politically correct is not the law you can do whatever you want to do and you and say whatever you want to say free speech and if you're reading the Torah at that time where we are told quite literally that the evil of society coming together wanting to not allow humans to create for themselves to not allow humans to Express themselves and in that exact week the social media platform has been liberated I have been off of social media now for almost three years and I just now sent out my first authentic tweet because I believe that it is time to encourage the freedom of expression let people share ideas let the ideas go out and that's what the Bible says the truth will emerge from the land itself and so as people just continue to share their ideas the truth will emerge because the truth always comes out and so I couldn't help but see that that is a spice card being sent to us now that as the world is like all reading about one language and one tyranny controlling everyone through this Tower of Babel that's watching everyone and what they're posting and not allowing that freedom to beat brought into the world incomes Twitter and changes the whole game and so I want to be in more touch with our fellowship but I didn't really know how I don't want to be on Facebook and I didn't want to be on Instagram and all these other things and I wanted to invite every member of this Fellowship to join Twitter because I will be sharing things there I shared a thing from edin's Bat Mitzvah there I will just be uh just putting out messages from Israel I don't want to like build your whatsapps because everyone has my WhatsApp number but I did want to broadcast more share more ideas share more pictures from the arugot farm and I finally feel that there is one platform that I can finally feel free to share with and so I took that as a spice card that now free speech is once again at least trying to emerge once again on the internet