When Defending the Hilltop Youth Turns to an Attack on My Own - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel

I want to delve a little a little bit deeper, you know, into the creative power of words because a lesson that struck me in a particularly deep and painful way as I was reflecting on it this Shabbat and this teaching is from the orim and it's a it's a teaching that you know I believe I I think I revisit this almost every single year when we reach this portion because it's so dear to my heart which makes it somewhat ironic and humbling that I personally failed in living up to this very teaching just this past week in a way that I'll share with you in just a moment. The orim explains that Mosha's primary mistake in was in in three crucial words. Who knows where I'm going with this? In inbar 20:10 and Moshe and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock and he said to them here now you rebels shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock? According to the rahim, Hashem's grievance was that Moshe called the Jewish people hamoreim mim rebels. In that moment, he conflated their behavior with their very essence. Something I've learned even more so as a father. Never to do never say bad girl. Say you are a better girl than that. You're a wonderful girl that's acting in such a way. That's just like 101, right? So the the orheim teaches that if Moshe had said something instead like and he didn't say this but I'm saying this like listen now oh nation you are acting rebelliously before Hashem it would have been acceptable even potentially empowering you know making a distinction between them and their behavior critiquing behavior is one thing but labeling the people themselves as rebels is quite another by calling the nation rebels Moshe delivered words that were an affront not only to the people but also to Hashem who loves his children and he sees the depths of our hearts. He sees our goodness. He sees the beauty of the essence of his people. A vision clearer and pure in the than even the eyes of Mosher Rabenu. As holy and lofty and radiant as his eyes were, he was still flesh and blood. He he couldn't consistently always maintain that absolute perfection of clarity. And he fell at that moment. So, let me just open a personal parenthesis here for a moment. I'm not sure how many of you have been following the situation, but recently there's been a a painful and unpleasant controversy in Israel involving a group of young Jews known as the Hilltop Youth. Have you been following this? Raise your hand if you've been following the stories in the Israeli media. Okay, a lot of you have been most of most of you have been following this. Anyways, they've been accused of vandalism, violence against the IDF, and the destruction of critical security equipment. And you know, just reading all the articles and all the condemnations of them, I'm still struggling like, okay, we were about to wipe out a redemption, and now we're back to the internal squabbbling and fingerpointing and baseless hatred. It just I found it so it just got me down, you know? It got me down. Um, you like I said, you know, they've just they were accused of these things, destroying millions of shekels of security equipment. Now, I don't want to dive into I don't want to dive into the details of all that right now. That's not the point I'm trying to make here, though, I'd be more than happy to explore it with anyone at another time. The reason I bring it up and I want to stay focused here is because of my personal experiences and relationships with hundreds of these hilltop youth that have come through our farm and I got to see them and see the beauty and the light coming from their souls. I strongly felt there was some sort of media hit job that was going on like this was being orchestrated like okay all of a sudden we're talking about uh Abraham Accords the two-state solution they need to create a rift between Judea and Samaria and the country and how do they do that while the army is sort of beyond reproach and to create have these kids that are fighting the army I don't know I don't know what it is but it seemed like everyone was piling on using these relatively defenseless kids who are and I say defenseless because they're discon connected from the internet, from smartphones, from Facebook, from Twitter. They're just using them as convenient punching bags to hate on. And sort of that that papa bear in me got a little too emotional, I think, in retrospect. And I ended up writing what I thought at the time was a beautiful, positive, and inspired article in their defense. Did any of you read it? I I was I think I really was one of the lone voices on the matter and it spread pretty quickly and it went pretty viral. Many people loved it. you know, they they widely uh they were they were you know who reached out to me? Jonathan Pard, a real hero of Israel, prisoner of Zion. He even told me that he was super proud of me. Many reached out and said how grateful they were that I was able to articulate such an important message of positivity while everyone was piling up. And there were also those that pushed back respectfully and thoughtfully, which I always appreciate. But what I didn't expect was, yes, it was a select few, more, maybe a little bit more than a few, but not that much. The level of hatred and anger and sheer rage that my article uh unleashed within them. You know, people very close to me responded with deeply painful personal attacks that really like left me reeling. By the way, if you want to read it, um it's in the JNS website, jns.org. They're a great news uh provider. It's called In Defense of Hilltop Youth. In Defense of the Hilltop Youth. Anyways, there are some people who seem to thrive on stirring up controversy and provoking strong reactions. Not me. I'm not. Maybe at one point in time I was into that a little bit. I don't think so, but definitely not now. I do not enjoy sewing division or conflict. And knowing that such rage was caused by my words and directed at me personally was really unsettling. So, I took it as an opportunity to look inward. And when I prayerfully revisited my article, I think I was able to identify the very individual sentences that may have triggered such a deep anger and backlash and reaction that really on some level I deserved. And I'm grateful it happened because it helped open my eyes to shortcomings in my character. I think at least at that moment in time. So again, without getting into the merit of the sentiments I was making, here are the words. I didn't know where exactly where to start, so I'll just start where where I'm starting. Right? And yet, rather than thanking them, meaning rather than thanking the Hilltop youth or at the very least giving them the benefit of the doubt, they're maligned and castigated politicians, journalists, and even fellow Jews are all too eager, sometimes almost gleeful, to slander these young people, to the to paint them as the problem, to throw them under the bus. Sometimes it seems to pro prove their own moral virtue. It's a grotesque theater. Look at us. They seem to say, "We condemn our own. We're the good Jews. We're not like them. How convenient. How cowardly." Okay, so I was I was feeling emotional. And if you see it within the context of the whole article, it's like just a few sentences here. I'm just picking out the worst thing that I've done and laying it right out there. But did you see that? Do you see what I did there? I cast a shadow of doubt on the fundamental motivations and even the character of those criticizing these youths. I implied that they were gleeful, that they were virtue signal, that they were cowardly. I was like so filled with righteous indignation over what I felt was the unfair vilification of these young, sweet, beautiful, idealistic kids that I felt I fell into the very trap that I was condemning. Right? I vilified those who I perceived as premeditatedly and maliciously vilifying these kids. Right? You see that there? In retrospect, I could have said something like this instead. I could have said politicians, journalists, and even fellow Jews sometimes speak out strongly against them. Not out of malice, but most likely because they deeply care about Jewish values and ethical conduct and the image of our people. Many genuinely feared that certain actions might stray from the Torah's path or harm the broader community. I I think I I if I had done that whether these people were really that was their motivation or not by saying that it gives them something to hold on to. You know, it's it's like offering them a pathway to align themselves with a more positive and loving narrative to hold on to. They can say, "Yes, that's me." Instead of what I said, which may have actually been what their motivation was, maybe yes, maybe no. But instead, I was a hypocrite calling on others to be charitable and give the benefit of the doubt to these hilltop youth in a way that I myself was not to them. And it was this teaching from the orim about the true nature of Mosher Rabenu's error that brought this realization crashing down on [Music]