The Two Most Important Words in Jewish History - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

so um that's how we follow the word hashem in the simplest purest way right without the need to understand the why and and that brings us back to one of the highest points in jewish history one of the the closest moments that we as a nation have to hashem and it's in this week's tour portion right towards the end think about it what what is that moment it's in chapter 24 verse 7. he took the book of the covenant and he read it in the earshot of the people and they said everything that hashem has said we will do and we will obey before having any idea what the commandments were or having any understanding of them we declared we will do them and we will obey them and uh and and why is that so beautiful because it is the ultimate demonstration of trust i remember um a teaching from the sages that uh i you know i remember clearly although i don't ha i don't think i've encountered it since i was a boy that before the giving of the torah to the nation of israel hashem offered it to everyone else have you heard this i just remember the visual in my head of different countries and different nations and the french and the italians and they all had their turn up where they went up to mount sinai this is how i visualized it and each nation had a problem with the different commandments right thou shalt not steal and they say come on not steal that's our thing right we we'd love to steal it's it's in our culture we're we're good at it and that's how we get by i can actually think of cultures i've encountered where that really is the case i i envisioned them but i don't want to go there or there shall not kill like they're like really not even a little murder here and there that doesn't seem right everybody right everybody has something that they refused to abide by but the nation of israel said na seven we will do and we will obey right there were no conditions there were no you know prenuptial agreements we will do and we will obey and in many ways that really is our national motto and when we as a nation declared those words well the way i sort of think about it that sort of when the relationship on a national level really began you know in some ways um i guess that moment could be seen as our national bar mitzvah right when we became adults because if there's no trust then there really is no real relationship a real relationship is impossible if there's no trust and when you look at the torah up until now through that prism right it's a gradual growth of a trusting relationship with hashem starting with abraham really perhaps noah maybe adam and eve we could go back um you know isaac to jacob and then the the tribes of israel all the way to the portions that that we just completed where we were in the desert which is what was the desert right it was really this sort of biosphere it was like an isolated sandy cocoon in which a nation and their god established the foundations of a trusting relationship right just think about the manna to me that's the perfect example right you could only collect for that day and if you collected any more it was a sin it would rot and it would be filled with worms so every day you just had to trust that your food would again just fall out of the sky you had no choice you know ever since um that uh that episode a few weeks ago where the government was going to uproot our vineyards you remember this whole parsha this whole drama and the decree was annulled or more accurately it was it was sort of like indefinitely delayed it was under 24 hours before it was supposed to happen we were all prepared ready to go there's six buses booked and then it was indefinitely delayed and a number of people have asked me since then you know does it feel terrible like having that sword hanging over your head knowing that they can any day now come and just destroy anything without and destroy everything without any warning and i tell them not not really because that really is just the truth of life right that's the truth of all of life that we're always hanging we always have a sword hanging right over our head every moment of every day and that's just the reality of the world we live in and this life we're living and our journey through this world with god the only difference is that in our situation we know we have a sword hanging over our head we know that we have a thousand swords hanging over our head it's been like this since we came out here really think about the state of israel we're surrounded by 23 arab states 57 arab and muslim states weapons missiles pointed at us at every moment at this merry moment that's the reality and uh and we can be happy and content and sort of a real happy and content and not necessarily in i guess because of that reality that's so clear to us that we live in we can live lives that are that are not riddled with with fear and anxiety because we've just been trained that in the land of israel in general and really at our farm this is our existence and while we're aware of the dangling swords we know that we have the ultimate shield protecting us from above and uh sheltering us from these swords right under the the the wings of the srinath the impenetrable wings that are protecting us of hashem this whole lifetime is just one great opportunity to build that trust in in hashem and by trusting him really to walk with him you know repeaterman quotes rav shimshon pinkus and i was sort of conflicted about this idea because there's parts of it that don't really fully connect with me but the deeper truth really spoke to my heart to raping us point out that that parents take care of the their infant children with the utmost care right constantly vigilantly guarding everything giving them what they need often before they even ask for it but that changes right ravinkos points out that that as children mature the parents tend not to be as vigilant and don't take care of every single detail and why does that change because when the children feel totally dependent on their parents the parents are totally devoted to their children but when children start believing that they can really handle things themselves parents feel less obligated to care for their every need with the same vigilance try to make sense sort of pinkish explains that this is the same regarding our relationship with hashem just understand this from this specific facet that he's explaining it says if we feel totally in need of hashem's help and recognize that we are constantly totally helpless without him then his orchestration over our lives and his vigilance over helping us and protecting us is more intense than if we than if we think that we can really manage this whole thing on our own because when we believe we can manage it on our own then maybe to some degree he interacts with us in that way as well so in the book of tehillim just building on this king david says in chapter 131 verse 2 i swear that i imagine myself like a suckling child who was fed by his mother this highlight was taken from the land of israel fellowship every week hundreds of families from literally around the world come together on our live zoom sessions to strengthen each other to inspire each other and to learn torah from the land of israel in which we connect the dots between the bible the hebrew language and the confusing events of our times go to wwe backslash fellowship or click on the link below to join thank you