The Unexpected Protectors of Judea - Sheep! - Jeremy Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

hey fellowship booker tov it's uh pretty early here in the morning i've been out here for a while now i've just been you know studying the torah preparing for this upcoming fellowship and as you can see behind me now that's really what i wanted to tell you the sun hasn't yet come over the mountains here the dead sea but it's just about to in just a little bit and you know with this whole fiasco with our vineyards what all of us realized we needed was a herd of sheep a herd of sheep can't be uprooted and a herd of sheep can't be destroyed and a herd of sheep is able to go out and graze all around the periphery and beyond of our farm ensuring that you know sometimes these elements are coordinated that will be intimidated in one area and then they'll try to be an encroachment on another area and so this is now securing our borders and securing the borders of the two villages that are next to our farm and so we now take the sheep up and go all around i mean kilometers of area now to ensure that these lands remain in the hands of the people that developed them that they remain um a jewish continuous block that it was supposed to be that this place can prosper that this place can flourish and it's just amazing because when we realized that strategically that's what we needed we needed a small herd of sheep almost immediately members in our fellowship particularly ones in israel said no problem and we were gifted these sheep for the time being and um it's been a blessing just being out here in the mountains in the morning learning torah with sheep kind of going there's something very soothing and calming about that much slower than all the whatsapp notifications in the emails that our brain is so used to now much more soft and calm and i think that you know the prophets of israel the leaders of israel abraham jacob moses david they all spend out time in the mountains with sheep and there's something about that that's like a calm courage because you never know what's lying over the mountain over there is it a terrorist is it a lion is it a bear but at the same time it's very peaceful and quiet and in this week's torah portion it says over and over again to the nation be strong and courageous and i think that is the calling for this upcoming year strength and courage all of us need that whether it's dealing with this global pandemic or financial problems or family problems are vineyards that might be destroyed by your own government like an autoimmune disease attacking itself that's what corona is in some ways it sparks your immune system and your immune system destroys its own body and it's as if israel right now is having an autoimmune disease that israel itself would want to destroy itself like it's so unbelievable but in the meantime we have a little flock here of just a little bit more than 30 sheep that are now grazing these mountains once again and so i just wanted to wish you all a shabbat shalom as the sun is coming up here over the mountains and introduce you to our new flock of sheep so hopefully i'll have more to say on sunday after i finish the torah portion here all right so that was me at you know before sunrise on friday and um you know it's i've i you know i wake up early anyway now and usually in my early mornings i i take time to do deep work either it's deep writing or deep reading where i just have quiet where i can really delve into something for at least two hours and i found what's the difference if i'm out with the sheep in the mountains or if i'm in my office downstairs like it's the same thing but there's something about being in those mountains with those sheep that blend so perfectly into the mountains the colors it's like these are eritsey stretel sheep that have grown there they've meant to be there and um anyway it's um you have to understand strategically now with this flock we can cover an area a hundred times bigger than our vineyard and make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands do we have that picture of the map of the four communities so you see where that blue globe is that's the arugula farm and the two communities our sheep now graze all around through those two communities now the other two communities on the left side of that map is maitsadin at the edge of pne kedem that's our newest outpost but there's a huge valley between us so they're not really connected um that you could really take a horse there or a ranger there and go all the way around but our flock of sheep are now patrolling those two communities and our small outpost where the other sheep are are on the other two communities and now we realize that the land is still unbelievable still on the chopping block and so we're doing what we need to do but um you know who could have imagined who could have imagined i was not about to start working as a shepherd i went to law school like i didn't know that i was going to be shepherding sheep but now most mornings i wake up in my deep work reading and writing i'm doing it outside in the mountains and you know this vineyard fiasco has thrust me into walking the land with sheep in the same mountains king david walked with his something special is happening here i don't know what it is yet but our fellowship is onto something absolutely beautiful and so there's an ancient israelite tradition to give an offering before yom kippur a type of sacrifice a giving toward the temple we now have a little bit more than 30 sheep some are lambs and some are fully grown five have already been offered to us by lisa and dan these sheep are quite literally a gift to the land of israel and when i think about it it's the closest thing that i can think of to offering a sheep up to the temple in jerusalem how much closer can we get than that so if you would like to help us purchase these sheep that are currently on our farm we'll send out a link and perhaps you can prayerfully consider making your yom kippur offering to help us purchase these sheep for the arugula farm and help us secure our land all around us i think it's an absolutely unique and a once-in-a-lifetime offering to give this gift before yom kippur on this shemitah year where the sheep are guarding the land while we can't plant it you