What Does Prophecy During the War Look Like?- Jeremy Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

So, I want to tell you about a Shabbaton that I just had here in the farm in Israel. And it happened this Shabbat. And you know, I have a small guest house that's here. And there are already enough people in Israel that have heard about the Arugote farm that most of the Shabbats, my guest house is taken. But this last Shabbat, it was reserved by one of the most remarkable families in Israel, the Raz family. Noam Raz of blessed memory, the father of the home, was killed exactly two years ago in a special operation in Samaria. and he was a part of a elite unit, a professional soldier, one of the most elite units in the country called the Amam. The best of the best of the commandos in Israel. When they finish their military service and they want to continue in the top tier of the army, they all try to get into the imam and only a select few actually get in. And he was in and he stayed until his mid-40s. And he was more than just a warrior. He was really a hero of Israel. And the more I read about him and the more I hear about him, the more I saw his marvelous family, his wonderful wife, the more just astounded I was at how pure he was. And I'll tell you a story that his wife said just in passing. It was his birthday, a few days before he was killed. And she asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday. He was off from his military service. He packed a little bag with a portable gas stove with, you know, you can make some coffee with it. He threw in a Bible to his bag and then took his wife off on a hike just around Samaria. And he was just so good. Just goodness covered in goodness. He was pure, integral. He was what it really means to be holy. And so remarkable that they came to the farm on the Torah portion called Kadoshim, being holy. And they gave me a book about him and just it was just so inspiring. There was one sentence that really stuck out to me and he said, "If you have an empty glass, you still have a glass." And that's kind of a playoff. you know, if the glass is half empty, if the glass is half full, he's like, if you have an empty glass, there's still a glass. There's even what to think positively when the glass is totally empty. And aside from him doing daily physical training to stay in the most elite unit in Israel, he learned dafomi. He learned a couple of chapters of the Bible every single day. And when he was off duty, he planted over a thousand olive trees that he tended to by himself, his own orchard in Samaria. He made his own olive oil. He was the picture of just an ideal biblical Jew. He was like, I don't know what else to say. He was a warrior, a poet, a scholar, a man of the land, a man of the spirit. It's hard to imagine that Jews like this really exist. And yet some of them have been taken away from us so painfully. But the truth is we would never have known that they're Jews like this that really exist softspoken. They're not on Instagram. They're not on Facebook posting their life. They're just living their life connected to God, connected to this land. And Friday was his site. Friday was the year anniversary of his passing. And his family went to the military cemetery in Jerusalem, Harzel. and then came directly to the farm. And when Tahila saw his widowed wife, his five boys, and his little girl, she said they looked devastated from their trip at the cemetery. They were just so down. And she welcomed them and tried to love on them, and she showed them around and showed them our guest house. And then a few minutes later, while she was talking with the wife, she noticed that the boys were laughing and splashing around in the pool next to the guest house. She looked over them and they all looked so happy just playing in the pool before Shabbat. She came to me with a little bit of tears in her eyes. And she said that she was just so happy that we dedicated our life to building this place in the Arug Goat Farm, a place that can literally transform people's sadness into joy. And people come to see the beauty of the Arugote farm and sense the spirit that's here. And they love seeing the desert become beautiful. And it was then that I really recognized a prophecy in the book of Jeremiah in chapter 31:2. And here's what it says. Thus says the Lord, the people who survived the sword found grace and beauty in the desert. And Israel will go and renew and rest. So, a people who survived the sword, that's like a way of saying the survivors of the war, meaning the people that are going to come back to Israel are going to go through a war and then there's going to be survivors. And what are these survivors of the sword, the survivors of the war going to do? They're going to come to the desert and they're going to find they're going to find grace and beauty in the desert and they're just going to renew and relax and rejuvenate. And what can I say? I would never describe the nation of Israel in the land of Israel as a nation of survivors, the survivors of the war, survivors of the of the sword. But right now, after October 7th and after this war that never ends, this is a country that should be called the survivors of the war. And what will happen? Exactly what happened right now with these survivors who lost their father. But the survivors came to the desert found grace and beauty here. And they just enjoyed themselves as they were renewing their soul and chilling out by the pool laughing and having a good time in the land itself was healing for them. And it's beautiful to see because even in the midst of this war, we can't see prophecy come to pass. We can see the destiny of Israel unfold. We're entering into a new era where old ideas, how we used to see things are going to be transformed forever. And I keep on thinking about Noam Raz, this amazing man. And as we're learning the Torah portion all around the world, about kadoshim, about holy. So God says, "You should be holy because I'm holy." And I think the most of the people read the word holy and they think well that must mean you have to be separated because God is separated. You have to be special because God is special. But this Shabbat it hit me when we say kadashem when we say that holy holy holy the whole world is filled with God's glory. It means something different. It doesn't mean that we're just separate. It means holiness is wholeness. W h o l e. It means complete. When you are living a life that's a loving father, a loving husband, a paramedic and a sniper, a scholar and a warrior, a man of the spirit and a man of the land. You are holy because holiness is godliness and godliness is one. And the more whole you are, the more at one you are, the more complete you are, the holier you are. And entering into this new era, we're going to start changing the way the world lives. [Music]