When the Prophets Become Personal | Prophets of Israel Daily

[music] All right, shalom everybody. Welcome, welcome to the land of Israel [music] Network. Welcome to the questions answer series from the prophets of Israel daily. So my name is Jeremy Gimpel. I am here of course with my kavuta, my study partner. People ask me what does that mean? So I've said study partner. Kavuta is an Hebrew Aramaic word which means study partner. Kabura means a study fellowship. That's a kabura and a means friend. So my friend, my study partner, Rabbi Ary Bramwitz, he's here with us as well. Um, it has been quite a journey and I want to give all of the credit to Ari. It's the honest truth. He deserves all of the credit because it was his idea. He's like, you know what we need to do? Everyone's been learning the Torah portion. Everyone gets the Torah portion. Jews learn the Torah portion. Now, righteous among the nations are plugged in to the Torah portion as well. They're also reading into the same cycle. But I really feel like his own personal calling, he was saying, "I really feel like I really need to delve in to the prophets of Israel. I think we need to be doing uh prophets of Israel daily. Anak Yomi." And I'm like, "Daily? Do we daily? That's a lot. A chapter a day? What about weekly?" And [clears throat] he's like, "No, we need to do it daily. It's going to be people's routine. They're going to start waking up in the morning. They're just going to listen to it. It's 15 minutes a day. if they miss one, they'll be able to catch up and it's going to catch. It's going to be wonderful. And so I was like, "Okay, I'll try." And so even on the road now, I've had to wake up in different states in different time zones, coordinate with Ari. And we've actually pulled it off. Now we're in a little hiatus to give me at least one week where I don't have to do that from the road and now I'm in Florida and uh it's been amazing. But I'm coming back to Israel soon and soon we will begin the book of Kings. But that's why we wanted to host this Prophets of Israel daily questions and answers. It's just offering a people an opportunity because there are people all over the world that are tuning in on Spotify, on YouTube, on Google, so many people from so many different backgrounds and with my own eyes, I've seen literal rabbis in the land of Israel, pastors in Texas, and we're all learning. It's the same words that are coming out of our mouths and we're all connecting. You know what I realize is the Tanakh is the one thing that really can bring the whole world together and it's the one thing that's really overlooked. You know, some people know a story out of context, a verse that's been extrapolated upon on some sermon, but systematically going through the prophets chapter by chapter, day by day, it people just haven't really taken the time to really do that. And if they have done it, they need a refresher because there's so much that's in the Bible and it's always speaking to our generation in our time in our day. And so I see it's been a blessing to so many people that I've met here on the road. And I want to thank Ari for launching the initiative and dragging me along with you. So Ari, with that um introduction, I just want to allow you to share maybe some of your heart about what you want to say and then we'll take it and open up uh have like a little bit of a fellowship connection. Oh, I want to say that also what's unique about the prophets of Israel daily is that it is open to everyone. It's around the world. It's absolutely for free. It's accessible on all these different platforms because it is powered by the land of Israel fellowship. It's powered by um global family that is charging us with a mission of bringing the Torah to the nations. And it's what allows us to keep it free to allow so many people around the world to enjoy it and benefit from it. So, I really just want to thank aside from our sponsors, really the Land of Israel Fellowship and the Land of Israel Network that really is the engine that has brought you this series. And so, with that, I'm going to pass it off to Ari. Ari, you should take it away. >> Thank you, Jeremy. That is very humble of you. Uh, but I must just set the record straight. It was not my idea. It came through me, but Hashem put it on my heart very strongly. I I just felt it. I can't I don't even remember exactly the thinking what it was. I remember thinking though very much about me. This is something that I need that I need such a thing and if I do it with the fellowship with the world then there's a good chance a commitment like that I'm actually going to follow through. [clears throat] It was sort of similar to the Judeine diet in that way. But anyways um yes. So Jeremy this is it's been uh it's been great and I don't want to take too much time talking because I want to leave as much time um for questions and answers and connecting as possible. But as promised, I do want to share um from my heart about sort of what led me to this the birth and the origin and the genesis of this session. So as we close the book of Samuel and we say goodbye to Saul and David, everything we've walked through together, um and we're about to step into the book of Kings, stepping into David's final days and the rise of his son Solomon. Um I just wanted to share this uh this personal thing, you know, because like all of us, my life is not always easy. I have my own challenges and my own confusion and my own pain. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I am deeply grateful for my life and for all the blessings that Hashem has given me. Right now at the farm, we don't have any water as you are seeing in the farm WhatsApp group, Jeremy. So, there's panic happening. No baths, no drinking water, but still, I'm overwhelmingly grateful. Unbelievable blessings. I I'm just saying that we've all got our stuff. We've all got our stuff. I have my stuff, you have your stuff. And we all carry things that other people may not see. We have struggles we're trying to understand, burdens we're trying to carry, you know, and part of our lives that, you know, we're still waiting to be healed. And I feel like I just need to share with all of you that the prophets of Israel daily, this journey we're on, has been nothing short of lifegiving for me. Israel entering the land, the stories of Joshua, the first judges, and especially the intertwined lives of Saul and David. It has powerfully influenced the journey I'm walking right now in my own life, like today, like in real time. I was speaking a while back with a good friend from junior high school. We hadn't spoken in years. So, once we got past the whole catching up, I asked him about his heart, how he's really doing. We got to talking about prayer and Torah study, and I asked him, "So, what Torah study are you learning?" And he said, and I'll never forget this. He said that he doesn't really study much Torah at all. Now, that wasn't the part that got me. I go through periods like that myself. It was the reason that he gave which really left such an impression. I learned most of it back in high school, he told me. So, he pretty much knows what it has to say. That's what he said. And my friends, my heart broke for him because the Torah isn't Little House on the Prairie or Charlotte's Web. It's not a book you read once as a child and file away under nice stories and just move on. It's the wisdom of the living God of Israel. And it meets you exactly where you're standing. It met me at 46 in ways it never could have at 15 because I wasn't carrying at 15 what I'm carrying now. The text didn't change. I did. And when I came back to it, it felt like it was waiting for me with with a medicine measured precisely for with what I'm struggling with right now. Now, before I jump in, I want to tell you that the examples I'm going to share with you here, they almost feel like almost like random. I don't know. It just came out that way. These are just what came to mind first. And by the way, maybe that's the point. The Torah doesn't only transform us through the greatest revelations. Sometimes it saves us through a small verse, a little detail, a quiet choice. You know, one moment in David's life that suddenly became like a lamp for our own, right? Neruggle as we read in in Psalms, like a a lamp for our feet, right? So, the first lesson that hit me with with like a real force and really the entire book uh the entire N teaches it, it's that David had his own code. And when you have your own code, it raises your expectations of yourself and it lowers your expectations of everybody else. His whole life demonstrates this. But for some reason, the story I've kept coming back to was from the first book of Samuel chapter 23, the story of Kayla, right? So the Philistines were raiding the city and David, a fugitive, he was hunted, running for his life. He asks Hashem whether to go and save them. And he goes, he risks everything and he delivers Ka from death and slavery. You guys remember this? And so then Saul hears that David is inside the city and marches out to trap him there. And David asks Hashem the million shekele question. Verse 12 an will the citizens of of hand me and my men over to Sha? And Hashem answers, they will hand you over. Right? The very people he just saved. So, David and his men fled into the wilderness. And here's what stayed with me about this. I know it just seems like a little tiny sort of detail in the whole story, but the most extraordinary thing about David in this chapter isn't what he says. It's what he doesn't say. He doesn't rage against the people of Ka. He doesn't cry out, "After everything I did for them, I risked my life. I saved their city and this is how they repay me." Right? There's no bitterness, no accusations, no speech about betrayal. He simply moves on to the next mountain, to the next mission. Because David understood something deep about leadership. And I think about life. You can't build your life around expectations of other people. People get frightened. People get weak. People sometimes fail the very ones who saved them. It isn't even a scandal. It's the human condition. David didn't need Kayla to live by his code because David had his own code. He didn't save them because they deserved it or because then they would owe him something. He saved them because Hashem told him to go because Israel was in danger and because David knew who he was. He knew it was the right thing to do. That is his greatness. To do good without demanding gratitude. To stay loyal without assuming loyalty in return. Right? To hold yourself to the highest standard while having compassion for the weakness of others. And you know, there was a situation over the past few months, the details don't really matter, where I felt let down, where somebody didn't respond the way that I hoped that they would, the way that I believed I would have responded if it had been the other way around. And I remember standing out outside my house. It was right above the wheat fields and I was just running the whole thing through my head for probably the 40th time building my case. And David walking out of Kayla came came up in me and I had to ask myself, you know, are are did you do the right thing? Are you doing the right thing because it's right or because somewhere inside you're keeping score? Are you putting people on pedestals they never asked to stand on and then feeling betrayed when they fall off? Because because my friends, if you're keeping score, you'll always be disappointed or most of the time. But when your deepest expectations are of yourself, your own integrity, your own faithfulness, and your own walk with God, then nobody can take your peace from you. So that was just it seems like a random thing from this chapter and but it's just what has struck me on my journey, what I'm going through right now. Okay, so that was number one. The second one is harder. It comes from the most painful chapter in David's life, Davidid and Bacha. Now Tom the prophet comes to David after the sin and he doesn't accuse him. He tells him a story. A rich man with enormous flocks um takes a poor man's one little lamb, the little lamb that he raised in his own home that was like a daughter to him and slaughters it for a guest and David explodes as Hashem lives. The man who did this deserves to die, right? Verdict handed down instantly. Full force, no mercy. And then Natan looks at him and says two words that brought a king to his knees. Chapter 12:7. Atahish, you are that man. My friends, I have thought about this moment more than almost anything else we've learned this year. Because buried inside this this story, those two words is a terrifying truth. When you pass judgment on someone else, you're very often passing judgment on yourself. David didn't know he was ruling on his own case, but he was. The severity that he unleashed on that rich man was the severity his own soul knew it deserved. Right? The flaws that enrage us in other people are so often the ones that we haven't made peace with in ourselves. And the judgment can come so fast, so certain that we never stop and ask why this failure in this person ignites us like that. Why this crossed our path right now, this situation that we're judging, why it was orchestrated for that to be in our lives. Hashem has a way of holding our verdicts up to our faces like a mirror. So, so be careful how quickly you condemn because the case you're ruling on may very well have your own name on it. There were moments like this over the past number of months when I was ready to harshly judge a person who I felt wronged me and Natan's two words would rise up in me. Atahish, you were that man. And I'd stop and ask, what am I seeing in him that I'm to see in myself? But here's the part that redeems the whole thing. The story doesn't end with the accusation. David, a king with every power to silence a prophet, as we see kings do throughout the whole thing, answers with two words of his own. Verse 13, I have sinned against Hashem. No defense, no spin, no blame. That is why David is David. Not because he never fell, but because when the mirror was held up, he had the courage to look into it. The judgment we pass on others tends to condemn us. The judgment we honestly pass on ourselves, that is chuva. We're about to enter the month of El, a time of real cha, that is return. And that is what redeems us. So, we must endeavor to I think we must endeavor to judge others favorably and judge ourselves in truth, right? With compassion and with understanding for ourselves, but also with truth. >> [snorts] >> That was the second lesson. And the last lesson that has held me through some of these harder nights, you know, [snorts] even even David needs Saul, right? That's what it is. David needed Saul. Every David needs a Saul. Every one of us needs our Saul. I'm really hoping that I'm articulating this clearly because think about what David's life actually looked like. He was anointed as a boy, told he'd be king, and then hunted for years from Adulam to Engeti to the wilderness of Ze. He was slandered. He was exiled, sleeping in the dust while a spearthrowing king and his army was hunting him down. And you have to ask why. Hashem could have removed Saul in a day. Why the years of running? And I really think it's because the running wasn't the obstacle to David's kingship. The running was the making of it. It was the making of his kingship. We've talked about this theme again and again throughout the fellowship, but it just is so clear right here. Every night in those caves, David was being formed. He was being sculpted. When when when he held the corner of Saul's cloak in his hand with the power to end the whole nightmare right there, he chose restraint instead. He walked out of that cave a more refined David than he walked in. Right. The chase, my friends, is where the Psalms were born. The wilderness is where David learned that Hashem alone is his fortress. That vengeance was not his to take. And that a crown seized is worthless. But a crown received is eternal. Right? His struggle against Shaul is precisely what forged him into the cle into the vessel that could hold the orchel malut, the light of kingship. A vessel that hasn't been fired shatters the moment real light is poured into it. Saul was that furnace. And for me, that reframed everything. The opposition in your life may not be blocking your destiny. It may be forming you for it. the pressure, the unfairness, the person who seems sent specifically to make your path harder. And I'm thinking of someone in my mind, and I'm sure you have someone in yours. Before you curse it, ask, "Is this my Sha? Is this the furnace forging me into the vessel that can carry the light Hashem wants to pour through me?" Because when you see it through those eyes, you start looking for opportunities for the for the Achilles heel in your character where you need the exact growth perfectly tailored for the situation and the challenge you're facing right now. But [clears throat] I want to say something else about your soul. Something a little bit harder because I've gone back and forth about whether to say this at all. What what I want to say is that it might not be the greatest idea to fantasize about the day he's gone because look at what actually happens in the story. Saul falls on Mount Gilboa and David still spends seven more years in Hebron and he still has to contend with Saul's son Ishbed for another two and a half years right before before he's actually king of a united Israel. And when he finally gets there, when he's finally settled, when his kingdom is finally secure, when David is finally king over all of Israel, that is when David finds himself taking a stroll on the roof. That is when it all happens. Bacheva, Ura, Natan, and the decree that the sword would never depart from his house. It was that that fateful stumble, that faithful sin that led to Amnon and Tamar, a devastation I still don't have the words for. Amnown murdered Absalom to one son of his murder the other. And then Abshalom driving his own father out of Jerusalem. The the king climbing the Mount of Olives barefoot, headcovered, weeping as he went. And then Abshalom, his beloved son, is killed. You know, I I I really I know in my heart that there were nights on that mountain when the days of fleeing from Saul in the caves of Angetti looked like the good old days. So, what I'm trying to say is don't be so quick to wish your sha away. You don't know what's on the other side of him and you don't know what he is making you strong enough to survive. The furnace you're standing in right now may be the mercy preparing you for a fire that you haven't even met yet. And when I look at my own trials, the confusion, the pain, the challenges that I never asked for, I ask Hashem for one thing. Not that he removes the furnace, but that he gives me the strength to harness the fire to become the vessel worthy of whatever he intends to pour into me and through me. And that, my friends, is exactly where the book of King begins. David dies, Solomon takes the throne, the temple rises in Jerusalem, and the kingdom splits in two. We're going to see it as we go on. Everything we've been learning about vessels and furnaces, leadership and failure, courage and repentance, and the heart of a king is about to be tested on the scale of an entire nation. Um, so I'm really excited about this questions and answer session and to dive in. But before we begin, um, I I just the prophets of Israel, they were never [music] meant to remain locked inside an ancient book. They're meant to enter our lives and to challenge us and to strengthen us and to expose things in us and to help us understand the journey Hashem is asking each of us to walk as individuals and the nation of Israel as a whole for the entire world.