Of Splendor& Glory - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

you know growing up in uh in Texas and learning about the just the stories and the legends of not only you know my family's involvement in what we each did from America to contribute to the wars of Israel and the establishment of the state but the you know just the Miracles and the sacrifices in my mind the IDF was holy it was holy I when I was joining the IDF I felt like I was becoming like a high priest of Israel and my father remember he came to my um teas my uh celebration you know where I got my Beret and he never did I see my father weep just freely weep as seeing me in that uniform right the idea of uniform had a had a sanctity that paralleled the garments of the high priest of the temple and while while I know that many you know particularly in the ultra Orthodox world would bristle at such an analogy in my mind it was true and it still is true I mean so many of the words are even the same for example the aod the vest of the high priest I was actually looking for graphics depicting uh which you know the these different garments of the high priest which I could legally share but I couldn't find anything that I could legally share it was all like copywritten but um but it looked very much like a Priestly version of this this a right this is my Army aot it's it's called an aod right it's called an aod it has in it my magazines it has the first aid kit it has all of the different things that I need to fight and to go into battle that's the a it's called the aod right and and so you know I was the the the when when I'm wearing this aod and I see the other soldiers I feel the exact same thing right it was worn over the shoulders the aot in the temple was worn over the shoulders of the high priest in the temple just like this is and that symbolized the way he carried the burden of Israel on his shoulders right and when I see the our soldiers wearing that same thing they're carrying the burden of Israel they're protecting the entire nation [Music]