Uncovering the Hidden Light of Creation - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

There are times when I look around, I don't know if you guys, if this resonates with you, but I look around and what I see everywhere is pain. It's hard to it's hard to describe, but I can almost feel it on people's faces. I don't always know their stories or what they're going through, but I sense the weight they're carrying. And I wouldn't trade that away. It's become really an important part of my journey. It's almost as if whenever I start getting too caught up in myself, too focused on my own struggles and my own distractions, Hashem opens my eyes to the pain of others. He reminds me how much every soul is carrying, each in their own way. And somehow that awareness doesn't pull me down. I feel like it softens me. It awakens a deeper, more genuine sense of empathy and uh compassion that feels less like an emotion and sometimes even more like a calling. Anyways, over these past few months, I don't even know few months, month, I would say the past month or so, I found myself looking at the world and at life through a very particular lens, the prism of light and darkness. I think it's probably come out in a lot of the fellowships ideas that I've been sharing and and I was actually hesitating a little bit to share with you what I'm about to share because I wasn't really sure I could explain it or do it justice. But after what I experienced over the last week, over this last Shabbat, and really over the past few days, I felt like I had to share with you, even if I can't fully put it into words, because that's what this that's what we do here. That's what this fellowship is about. Opening our hearts to each other, not just our thoughts, but our hearts. Sometimes it's not all thrashed out. And right now, that's what's alive in my heart. So, it would feel authentic, inauthentic, not to share it with you. Anyways, um it's hard to describe because when I speak of light and darkness, I don't mean the physical kind, not the light our eyes perceive or the absence of it. I'm talking about something deeper, a different kind of light altogether. I'm talking about the light in this week's Torah portion when God said on day one, "Let there be light." The Torah was not talking about the light of the sun, the moon, or the stars. Those weren't created until day four. This was something altogether different. This was what the sages call the orhaganuz which means the hidden light. It was a light of consciousness, a divine illumination through which Adam could see from one end of the world to the other. It was a light of clarity, connection, and truth. the light through which the soul sees reality as it truly is before it became veiled behind the filters and the shadows and the confusion and the multiplicity and the illusions of this world. And then the Torah tells us Hashem hid that light away, right? And God saw that the light was good and God separated the light from the darkness. Our sages teach that he hid it uh he hid it away for the righteous in the future for the time when the world will be ready to receive it again. Um but traces of that light, echoes of it still shine in the world. They shine in the eyes of a person doing an act of an act of kindness and a moment of pure prayer. And um I feel it in my children's laughter, in tears of compassion, in the courage to hold on to faith in the midst of darkness. And when I talk about seeing light and darkness, that is what I mean. I'm talking about catching glimpses of that original divine light, the Orhaganus that still flickers beneath the surface of everything. And maybe that's our deepest mission. Not to create light out of nowhere, but to uncover the light that was there from the very beginning. The light that never truly went away, but only became hidden. Sometimes even in the deepest darkness, in the pain, in the confusion, in the heartbreak, we can still feel its glow. It's not visible to the eyes, but it can be sensed. It can be experienced. It can be experienced by the soul. And when you see that light, even for a moment, you realize that the darkness was never absolute. That Hashem's presence was there all along, hidden within it. And maybe that's what it means to be children of of that first light, to carry within us the capacity to reveal it again. to find sparks of it in in one another's eyes and acts of kindness and faith that refuses to surrender to despair to to lives that that draw that light the organ back into the world. That's the light I'm talking about. And I truly believe that is the very light Isaiah was speaking of when he said in chapter 42, "I the Lord have called you in righteousness. I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and make you a covenant for the people and a light for the nations. He doesn't mean a lamp. He doesn't mean physical light. There's a deeper light clearly. Or again, when Hashem entrusts Israel with this sacred mission in chapter 49, it is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the nations that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth. It's a light of salvation. You know in chapter 60, nations will walk by your light, the kings by the brightness of your rising. That's the light the prophets weren't talking it clearly. They're not talking about physical illumination. You can't measure it by lumens or wavelengths. a light of the soul, a light of a divine consciousness, of moral clarity and spiritual awakening. It's the radiance of God's presence shining through human hearts. And the great paradox, the irony is that this transcendent divine light has never been clearer to me than in these recent months, precisely because of the contrast with the darkness that surrounds us. The deeper the shadows grow, the more congealed that darkness, the more this hidden light feels like it's coming into focus, not only here in Israel, but really throughout the entire world. And I I want to share with you, I know Jeremy shared with you. I'm happy it's not the same one. There's so many to choose from. I want to share a living example, a living, breathing embodiment of this light. It's the testimony of Omar Shmtov, who was taken hostage at the Nova Music Festival. He's from Herzelia and he was a DJ there on Simra and I emphasize that because his story is one of many reminders of something I say often. It's what Jeremy said earlier. It's a mistake. It's a tragedy to dismiss non-observant Jews, especially here in the land of Israel, as secular or godless. They're anything but. The flame of holiness with them is real and it's alive. And sometimes it burns openly and brightly. Sometimes it rests quietly like an ember waiting to be fanned, but it is always there. And when I heard Omar's words, when I watched his face and I felt his sincerity, I I I saw that flame bursting into light. And um you know, it wasn't just that he was shining a light to the world. He was shining a light to me. He moved me to tears. He inspired me to change my life, my communication, my dialogue with Hashem. that is the most precious in my life has been strongly influenced by this tattooed secular godless Israeli and and you know and when I watched him in that moment I knew I was witnessing the light that Isaiah was speaking of that organ shining through his soul who had walked through darkness and come out radiant with faith and I want you to see it too because it's a glimpse of the mo most of the world never gets to see these things Tab and I actually spent Tabitha and I spent a lot of time earlier we were translating and subtitling it into English so that all of you so our fellowship family here could witness it with your own eyes. So here he is sitting in the suka surrounded by his friends and family sharing his heart. This is Omar Shamto and this is what looks like when it shines through a human being. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. and and It call. Fore [Music] speech. foreign [Laughter] I think [Music] the I mean, just take a moment. I see all the hearts popping up and exploding all over the place. How can they not, right? It's literally it's happening with emojis. It's happening inside of us. I mean, just how are you, Hashem? What can I do for you, Hashem? I mean, just let that sink in for a second. What we just witnessed wasn't only a story. It was a revelation of light from within the darkness. From within the hiddenness of the hiddenness. Um there's that's another video. Maybe we'll show you that next week. That's the Oragan news. The hidden light shining through a soul that refused to let the darkness define him. And as I said, we see that light at the very beginning in brait, the opening words of creation. But when your eyes are open to it, you know, I was seeing it. I I didn't want to take up Jeremy's entire fellowship, but I was seeing it all throughout the the portion of Noah also. I'll share more of that with you next week. You start to realize that this isn't just an early motif. It is perhaps the greatest theme of the entire Torah because on the deepest level, it's the purpose of creation itself, to reveal that hidden divine light within every corner of existence, particularly those corners in which it is the most hidden. this peshabat um we had here at the farm a very holy soul named Malahi he's a dear friend and he shared something with me that changed the way I see the entire story of of humanity he explained that when Adam and Eve were sent from the garden most people imagine it as an expulsion as though they were cast out banished from paradise rejected from God's presence however however my friend Mali taught me that is not what the Torah actually says in chapter 3 it is written written and Hashem sent man out from the Garden of Eden. It doesn't say he was expelled. It says he was sent. And the Hebrew word from the same root as it's the same word. It means uh an emissary, a mission, a divine sending forth, an emissary with a purpose. Adam wasn't cast away from God. He was commissioned by God. He was sent into the world into its confusion and its shadows and its pain to gather the sparks of light that had fallen to raise them back up and to reveals God, God's hidden presence within the very darkness that his own actions had created. And in that sense, Adam's mission became our mission. The mission of Israel. The mission of all who seek to bring God's light into the world. To find holiness where others only see chaos. to see divine orchestration where others see randomness and to lift the sparks. One act of faith, one act of love, one act of courage at a time. Even just perspective, even just seeing it, witnessing it, and internalizing it into your heart changes the fabric of reality. I'm telling you, it's true. And that, my friends, is our mission. We are not here just to escape the darkness. We we're here to transform it. to enter into the broken places of the world through love and faith and courage and kindness and to reveal the divine light that has been waiting there all along. Because every time we see God's presence where it seems the most hidden, every time we sense his orchestration in what appears to be chaos and randomness, every time we recognize his guiding hand behind what looks like just confusion and chaos and pain, we are uncovering the orhagan news, the hidden light of creation. And that is how we raise the sparks. That's how we fulfill the mission that began with Adam, that was renewed through Abraham, and that lives on in the people of Israel and in all who love Hashem. Every act of faith in the midst of this doubt, th those are moments that draw the hidden light back into the world. And perhaps that's why Hashem placed us in this generation, a generation that has seen such depths of pain, but also such imag unimaginable heroism and unity in faith. Because the darker the night, the brighter even a small flame can shine. And when those flames join together, the light of Israel and the light of all who love Hashem, the darkness itself becomes the darkness itself becomes the vessel through which his glory is revealed. So I bless us all, my friends, that we may be among those who see that light, who reveal it, and who live by it. May we learn to recognize Hashem's presence precisely where it feels the most concealed. May we train our eyes and our hearts to see his orchestration even in the storms and to find his goodness hidden in in the very places we least expect it. May we walk through the darkness without fear, knowing that the the divine presence walks beside us. And may the day soon come when that light no longer flickers in secret where we have to find it out and and elevated spark by spark, but it shines openly from Zion to the ends of the earth. When Hashem when Hashem will be your ever your everlasting light and your days of mourning will come to an end. Amen. May it be soon for Israel and for all of us, my friends. Shabu to [Music]