What Does "Baruch Hashem" Really Mean - Jeremy Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

shalom fellowship i'm making this video here at the top of the mountain in our house of prayer just to kind of bring you guys into where we are and what it's like it's just beautiful here and i've been spending a lot more time here than usual i think in preparing for may 2nd and building up the courage to do what we're about to do and so today i really want to talk about holiness and how that is a gift to help us overcome and help us persevere and help us achieve great things in the world i think people misunderstand what the word holy means and what its purpose is and that's what i want to talk about let me just put this up here on the stand all right there we go and so what i want to talk today about is about what it is to be holy and this week's parsha is called parashat kidoshim um it's the parsha of holiness and i feel like the word holiness kind of creates some sort of image in our mind of elderly monks meditating on a mountain pious people and all that is nice but i think sometimes i might miss the core of what the word holy really means what does the word holy mean what does the word kadosh mean so most translations most interpretations say ah the word katoshi means separated it means we're going to designate it and it's not just separated but it's designated to a holy cause to a godly cause and so in that way kadosh means if there was like a god o meter that we could sort of somehow um scale or measure the amount of godliness in the world the same way you can measure the temperature it's like this hot now if how much godliness is in this thing or in this place or in this time so the more godliness the more holy okay but so amazing the word in hebrew kadosh also means to invite like before the nation of israel and the mixed multitudes of the nations stood in mount sinai they were called to kadosh they were called the kidashtam and rashi says the midrash says they were invited to come to mount sinai now what does that mean then it's like oh what we're trying to do if we want to become holy in some ways we're trying to invite god into our lives to into our being and the more godliness we can sort of hold the more holy we become but then what happens the godliness inside us that should make us stronger and i know that that seems almost obvious but i want to think of it in a totally new way now not as holiness as a monk meditating on a mountain but think of it this way the word baruch means blessed and that also comes from the word which means pool and so now imagine this when we say baruch hashem something happened what are we doing we're inviting god into that reality something good happened thank you god blessed be you god it's inviting god into that moment that's what baruch means when we're blessing god we're bringing him into the moment bringing it into our meal bringing him into our family bringing him in to whatever that blessing is about that's what the word blessing means it actually means to invite god into that reality so by blessing something you're making a little bit holy that's why we sanctify the sabbath with the blessing on the wine that blessing sanctifies the day all right so now if we invite god into our life by blessing him now imagine this the sages of israel say the most cryptic statement that i never understood they say men and women should bless god for the bad just as they bless god for the good i'm like what does that mean that doesn't make any sense well how could we possibly do that i mean yes we can sort of intellectually and with faith believe that everything that happens is for the good okay something bad happened to me i'm gonna believe there's a big picture here i'm so small i just don't see it all somehow all of this is going to turn out for the good treasures will be found somehow i'll pull something out of this situation it's going to help me grow i got it but to bless god when something bad happens i mean who does that oh thank you god i'm being shot at now thank you oh i lost my job hashem i lost my job i'm like who's gonna oh i'm sick now oh barak hashem who says that but you need to talk to you know believers and jews it's like that's it we're just like barak hashem barak hashem it's constantly on our lips what is that well so there's a mindset there that's being trained and drilled into us whether we know it or don't know it but imagine what would happen if we had the mindset of really being holy we really felt it when we said baruch hashem we invited god into our life in a real way and all of a sudden we had like a god-powered life one of my rabbi's rabbi david aaron wrote a book called the god-powered life that you have life with emunah that should energize you it should empower you it should give you strength but imagine this we really have that faith and then i'm in the army and i'm being shot at i'm like oh barak hashem now i know where that terrorist is i'm going to go eliminate him i lost my job i'm going to go get a better job now i'm i got injured as i was training hashem i can finally relax and let my body recover i got sick hashem i had so many documentaries that i really really wanted to watch but i didn't allow myself to watch now i'm sick and that i can finally watch all of those documentaries i wanted to watch it's like wow wait a minute that mindset of being holy empowers us to look at life and then invite god into every single situation and then to truly bless god just as we bless god for the good things to bless god to bring god in for the bad things and when the bad things strike and we have a challenge ahead of us it's like good bar hashem now i can be better now i can be stronger and in every situation the ideal believer is meant to bless god and when we do that slowly but surely as we invite god more into our lives we ourselves become more holy and so i really feel like that's the point of this place that's the point of this fellowship people that have started to come out here again now it's so exciting in israel corona is finally just it might as well have disappeared people are just walking around without masks anymore the everything is open now and people are coming now back out to the mountain and they come here and they're filled with light they're filled with holiness they just are filled with inspiration and they go out into the world with bringing that light back to their families bringing that light back to others and i know that from the feedback that we get people from this fellowship they're filled with a certain light that emanates from these mountains of judea and they bring it to their loved ones and their families that is the essence of holiness it's not just separated it's inviting dedicating and then in that empowering empowering us and empowering everyone around us so i bless us all that we stare every challenge in the eye and invite hashem there and then really know barak hashem this is for our good hashem this is for our good really and the more we invite god into our lives the stronger we'll be the holier we'll be and that holiness is our strength that's why the maccabees the greatest jewish heroes in jewish history were the high priests and the priests of the temple the holiest people in israel were our greatest courageous warriors because that holiness really creates courage and so i bless all of us to really feel that courage and that our faith should empower us and that we should all take another step another step toward inviting god in and making our lives just a little bit more holy all right my friends shalom shalom my name is jeremy gimpel a few months ago we started an online seminar teaching life-changing biblical wisdom revealed from the original hebrew and straight from the mountains of judea with global instability on the rise more and more people are turning to god realizing now they don't exactly know where to look for guidance the bible says the guidance will come from the land of israel what started as an online seminar has grown into a global fellowship with hundreds of members from over 30 countries we are participating in fulfilling prophecy as we learn the bible through the eyes of prophecy with a focus on what it's telling about us in our lives today what you will discover is that the wisdom transmitted thousands of years ago is speaking directly to us in our time right now instead of learning the bible as a religion it's the torah of israel the living guidance of god so please join us for our next online gathering and get access to the full library of teachings that the land of israel fellowship is offering join now and get an audio series on the prophecy encoded in the book of joshua absolutely for free just click on the link below or email fellowship at the land of israel dot com i don't know how you found this video or what compelled you to click on that link but i don't believe in coincidence and i would encourage you to take the next step on your journey toward the land of israel i hope to see you at the land of israel fellowship shalom you