What Does "God Forgetting & Remembering Again" Really Mean? -J.Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

the more and more we sort of progress forward in the world um it seems as though the Torah is giving us kind of blueprints that we have to look back at and we have to look at those Blueprints and study them because it's Eternal blueprints for all times and so when we look at the story of Exodus and we see the story of the people of Israel that are in Egypt um there's a backdrop to that story and it sort of like Falls beneath the cracks but when Joseph brought his uh family down to Egypt that first generation they were royalty they were living like Friends of the king I don't know who to like compare it to but like Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump they were like among the royalty they were connected to power and wealth and money and honor and all of the family that was like um immersed in success and we also know that according to the majorage that as time went on eventually the people of Israel ended up in the 49 Gates of impurity if they would have entered into the 50th Cape they would not have been able to be redeemed and at the 49th gate they were so fully assimilated into Egyptian culture into Egyptian idolatry into Egyptian immorality they just lost their identity almost entirely according to the midrash they just kept their names their names remained kind of Jewish their clothing remained kind of Jewish it was kind of like bagels and locks Judaism but for the most part they were just fully assimilated into at that time seemed like the woke Society I mean the pyramids and the technologies that the Egyptians had was so attractive they were the most powerful Empire the most sophisticated society and Israel was like among them and when you look at what happens this story has many layers but when you read it you have to sort of recognize that there are multiple layers and when you read the verses if you read it on a childish level it they almost don't make sense look at the end of chapter two in the book of Exodus and let's read this these verses together you know I spent Shabbat in shirat David and Katz gave a little teaching on this and I'm going to take his teaching and expound upon it but it was one of the most beautiful shabbats that I've ever spent shirat David is the most beautiful show in the world and that Community is if you're thinking of making Aliyah and you want to move to Israel you should really look into moving to Efrat and joining that show because it was the most inspiring Shabbat that I've ever attended it was so unbelievable but look at what it says here in uh Exodus in the second chapter can we get that up on the screen please now it happened in the process that time the king of Egypt died so the king that was friends with Israel he had passed away then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage and they cried out and their Cry came up because of their bondage their Cry came up to God because of their bondage so God heard their groaning and God remembered his Covenant with Abraham with Isaac and with Jacob and God saw the children of Israel and God knew in Hebrew there's actually three different words that are used here the first one is they groaned you groaned like if you're like lifting heavywise you're like uh that's groaning that's that's like uh like a crafts they're like working hard and they're groaning but then there's a cry they're crying out it's a different level and then this is when their outcry went up to God that's an outcry for salvation and so what happens here the people of Israel were high society they were living the good life and then all of a sudden they were sort of like duped in and turned into slaves slaves for this Empire that they were once the saviors of and at that time though you know when life is good we everyone has a tendency to forget how good life is everyone has a tendency to forget to be grateful and at that time they're like just groaning they're just like they like had already forgotten God and now they're just kind of like upset in the work that they're doing and only later when they their outcry went up to God shavatam it's like they're they're calling now for salvation it's like all of a sudden now they're calling out to God but here's like what God forgot them and then he remembered them and it was like What He just forgot but that's obviously not true because in the very next chapter we already see that like well they're calling out to God and then the very next chapter in chapter three God Appears to Moses in the burning bush but God had already sent Moses to be born into the world and saved by the daughter of pharaoh before the people of Israel were groaning or correcting or crying out to God it's not like God forgot them on the contrary so what is all of that language there that like what all of a sudden they're calling out to God and then God remembers them why what does that mean so I want to answer it on two levels the first answer is the classic answer that the Torah speaks in the language of people so when it says that God saved Israel with an outstretched arm it's not that God actually had an outstretched arm and saved them but that's kind of the way that people speak so that's the way the Torah speaks in the language of people and so also here it's not that God for God and then God remembered but it was as if God forgotten God remember so we can sort of relate to that but on a deeper teaching something else happened to you then when it said that they called out when they cried out to God it doesn't it's just as if they cried out that God heard their cry so when they were crying out for the first time they themselves made a turn turn back to God there was many many years where the people of Israel had totally forgotten they didn't have the Torah do you know how easy it is to forget God if there's no Torah you're just a good person good luck good luck with standing University um indoctrination and Hollywood and Netflix were the only thing that's keeping you good is the idea of being a good person you can be manipulated and convinced in so many different ways and the people of Israel that's exactly what happened they had Abraham Isaac and Jacob but they didn't have a law they didn't have a covenant that they had to keep they just had an idea of being moral of being righteous of being good whatever that even meant and so they were lost into Egyptian culture so much so that even in the beginning they're just sort of groaning out of their hard work but when they finally cry out it's not that God remembers them but that crying out they remembered that God is in them and that remembrance isn't that God remembered but the deeper side of that story is that the god inside them was remembered and in that moment immediately Redemption started to unfold and so so many times in our life we're just kind of walking around life kind of doing our thing and then all of a sudden sideswiped on a Tuesday afternoon with a disaster and all of a sudden we're calling out to God and we're asking for prayer requests but what happened on that Tuesday afternoon before that why weren't we that it's like that is the blueprint that is the teaching never wake up and forget to thank God for all of your blessings every day don't ever groan always call out and so what happened here is that's not that God forgot and then he remembered the people of Israel forgot and the people of Israel remembered The Godly within them and as soon as they awoken their nishama they woke into the godliness within them immediately that triggered the godliness from above to then proceed toward full Redemption and so may we all remember that at every stage of our life that Hashem has already sent Moses he's already been born he's already been saved he's already grown up in Pharaoh's house and he took the Israelites way later to finally wake up but God is in charge of everything the weaknesses and the strengths just like what David said so that happens on our personal lives that happens on our International lives on our family lives and the lives of the loved ones around us and the Torah here is teaching us never forget try to constantly be singing that Praises of God that we should always hear our call crying out to God don't wait for something to trigger our crying out to God but that we should just be living in a constant dialogue with God we should be constantly singing Our Song and that all of us should be blessed to read those words and realize that those words of the Torah are a spiritual template of how to live life and that we should all be blessed to live life singing to God