The War of Words - Ari Abramowitz | Land of Israel Fellowship

It feels like every day empires are shaking and you know regimes that once like just seemed immovable like solid features of our world are feeling fragile. You know I take you heard about Venezuela. You know like many of you I've been I've been hearing some crazy stories about how the way that may have all played out. Sonic booms and special sonic sound weapons. I don't know if you guys have heard that. I don't know the details and it doesn't really matter, you know, but what what happened there is just another tectonic shift in the global earthquake that seems that we seem to be feeling the tremors of right now. Iran, like Jeremy said, it's tearing itself apart from within or it's reviving itself from within. Um, you know, new alignments and and and allies are forming. And I'll be honest with you, I don't pretend to know exactly why each of these things is happening the way it is. I don't know if anybody does. I have my thoughts. I have my instincts, but I don't know. But there's one thing I believe with all my heart that through all of this, with all of this, Hashem is orchestrating redemption. And redemption is not just something that happens to the world, right? It's something that happens within people, within each and every one of us. Redemption is about waking up and remembering who we are. About learning to see reality, you know, as Makarbach used to say, through Messiah eyes, right? Through Messiah eyes. It's it's about changing the way we think. So anyways, very little shapes the way we think more than the words we use. The Torah teaches that reality itself is shaped through speech, right? And identity is anchored in names, right? chapter one, I think it's verse three, and when the Torah says, "And God said, let there be light and there was light," right? And when God says, "Let there be the firmament," it it is uh God says his speech, it is revealing that speech is not a description of reality. It's a tool of creation, right? The world is spoken into being in in uh in Proverbs chapter 18, death and life are in the power of the tongue. This is not like just metaphoric. There's really a literal element to this. Words train the mind. They set the boundaries of thought and they determine what a person believes is possible, what is permissible, what is inevitable, right? A person does not just, you know, think and then speak. The act of speaking locks thought into reality. That's why the left is always trying to force terms and verbs and words and pronouns. They understand that, you know, that's why the Torah repeatedly commands, "This book of the Torah shall not depart from your mouth." Because what what stays in the mouth eventually governs the heart. And what governs the heart determines action. And that brings me to what I really want to focus on here in in our in our time together. I want to talk about the power of words and the weight they carry and how words shape reality itself. Um, specifically names, the names we accept or the names we surrender because this week's Torah portion and not only the Torah portion, but the entire book, right, is called Schmut names. And that alone has been the discussion at Shabbat tables around the world for generations because the Torah could have named the book after miracles or plagues or freedom, right? or or redemption. But it doesn't. It opens with names. These are the names of the children of Israel who came from Egypt is which is striking because we already know these names from Genesis, right? Nothing here is new. And yet, Hashem repeats them anyways. As if to tell us from the very first breath of exile, Israel is a people of names, of memory, of lineage, right? We're a people of we're a people of identity. And that right there is part of the secret of Jewish eternity. The sages teach us that no matter how low Israel sank in Egypt, we are redeemed because we did not change our names, our language, or our dress because but but but specifically names because names tell us who we are. And just as importantly, they tell us who we are not. And when you read the Exodus story carefully, something ironic emerges. Pharaoh, the most powerful man in the world, the ruler of empires, economies, armies, the dude in the world, never receives a name. Jeremy, ever think of that? Not once. And that's not an accident. Because in Tanakh, names are never just labels. They express identity and continuity. To be named is to be bound into a story that doesn't end with you. And that story pretty much ended with him. Right? Namelessness is eraser. It is the illusion. The power alone grants eternity. And Pharaoh isn't remembered as an ashama, right? He's not remembered as a soul because he never lived as one. He represents a system. He represents a force. Survival of the fittest. He represents raw power and arrogance and identity is rooted in power that the if you if you root identity in power it's alone it doesn't survive it doesn't survive time my name is Ari and I live here on the edge of the Judeian frontier and just as the prophets the final prophecy is manifesting as the righteous of the nations are coming together with humble hearts here in the land of Israel fellowship and now I'm inviting you to join us along with hundreds of Jewish and Christian families from all around the world to experience the beauty and the holiness and the magnificence of our fellowship. So click below so you can taste the beauty and the holiness that is happening on this mountain. Like I said, what do I mean by power? The most powerful survives survival of the fittest. In the end, it collapses and replaces itself and it disappears. But identity rooted in covenant, in a breit, identity anchored in names and memory and divine purpose, that is what endures. And that is why Israel is named and that's why Pharaoh is not. Because think about it, Pharaoh doesn't target adult men. He targets babies. Because killing adults stops resistance, but killing infants severs continuity. Right? This isn't military strategy. This is eraser of a nation. Eraser through casting Israelite babies into the Nile. Right? The Egypt's gods. They're literally offering up the children of the Israelites to their god. No burial, no name, no memory. Right? But Pharaoh, Pharaoh is not trying to defeat Israel. He's trying to make sure they were never here. Which brings us to today because the war against Israel has never fundamentally changed. The battlefield is still names. The weapon is still language. And the goal is still eraser. And that is why I'm so careful, and some might even say stubborn about words. Please raise your hand at least in your heart if you've been out to our farm and breathed in the air of the wilderness of Ze if you've if ah good for you Jeremy you've been here raise your hand if you've been here and walked walked the mountains where David composed the psalms while hiding from King Saul see a lot of hands going up raise your hands if you've been out here the mountains of Judea I really hope the day comes when every single hand goes up because what happens here is hard to explain it's not an idea and it's not a teaching it's an experience experience. And for those of you who have been out here, at least if you've been out here one of my personal guests, well, you you may know something about me. What am I even talking about? If you remember this fellowship, you know this about me, which is that I'm really a stickler about words like almost comically, right? People arrive at the farm and they're warm and they're friendly and they're excited and they're inspired and they want to connect and they say to me, "So, where are you from?" And I answer very simply, "Jude." And most often they pause and they look confused and I mean they hear my English. So I clarify, I was born in Texas, but I'm not from Texas. I'm a Judeian because I'm from Judea. I was only born in Texas because of the destruction of the temple and the exile of the Jewish people around the world. And I say it that fast and I usually say it with a smile, but the truth is it's not a joke because where are you from is not small talk. It's a question of identity. And identity lives in language. It becomes even clearer with names. If someone introduces himself as Stephen, Jeremy, you've seen this a thousand times, especially if they're a Jew, I'll almost I'll ask instinctively, "What's your Hebrew name?" And they'll say something like Yoseph Mosha or whatever. And I'll respond authentically, not theatrically. Your name is Yoseph Mosheim and you go by Stephen. And then I ask very simply, do you mind if I just call you Yseph Mosha? And almost every time they say, "No, for sure you could call me that. That's great." I say, "You know, names in Judea, you get you use your Judea name." And they're not offended at all. At the beginning, it sort of takes getting used to. But as our time together goes on, I'm telling you, I can tell almost always they begin to love it because true names, real names, awaken something that has gone dormant. Something on a very deep level, the soul recognizes its true name. They reconnect a person to a story that didn't begin with them and won't end with them. A Hebrew name is not nostalgia, right? It's a claim. This isn't I'm not trying to be difficult and it's not about being ideological even. It's about refusing Pharaoh's project. That's why I don't say West Bank. That term was was invented to sever Judea and Samaria from Jewish memory. I don't say Palestine or Palestinians. And that is a Roman name imposed to erase Israel from its land. And it's a fictitious nation that never existed and was created in order to disconnect our people from our heritage. I don't say I'm from Judea as if it were a stop along the way. I was born I was born in Texas. But again, I'm Jude. I'm from from Judea. I'm from Judah the same way that Morai Morai the Jew, we always say this was from the tribe of Benjamin. So why was he called Mordeai? Morai the Judeian because he was exiled from Judea. Because words are not neutral. They carry history. They carry claims. And they either carry truth or they carry Pharaoh's story. And every generation is asked the same question Egypt asked. Will you remember your name or will you let someone else rename you? Redemption does not begin with miracles. It begins with memory. Right? Elishm is these are the names. As long as we know our names, as long as we speak them, protect them, and refuse to surrender them, Pharaoh has already lost. Because a people who remember who they are, well, we can't be erased.