Why Jerusalem - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

which brings us back to this moment to yom yerushalayim a while back i was interviewed by uh dear friends of mine about the holiness of jerusalem and so i thought it would be meaningful to share that video with you so you can actually hear my words echoing off the walls of the holy city of jerusalem so here it is welcome to yet another episode in the joshua and caleb reports stories from the heartland of israel luke hilton here with caleb waller we are just outside the old city of jerusalem at jaffa gate we are waiting for arya brambots to arrive but just a quick word you've probably noticed that we have this series progressing in jerusalem and that is so exciting to me because we get to see all the history but today we are bringing it up to the present day of why the jewish people are here in jerusalem ari brahmins is a phenomenal man a man of great character and a man who truly loves this city and the things we're going to touch on today have to do with the why why jerusalem has been the center point for the jewish people for thousands of years and why still today the struggle is fighting for this city [Music] all right i'm ecstatic to walk through the streets of jerusalem where every single stone has a story and the history is so evident everywhere we walk but i think to me as a christian walking here it doesn't have near the depths that it does to a jewish person so to me what's what's the meaning of jerusalem to you what's the meaning of jerusalem to me the better question is what is my what is my meaning yeah without jerusalem asking what the meaning of jerusalem is to the jewish people is like asking what the meaning of breathing is for the human body that's the jerusalem is the pulsating heart of the nation of israel it's who we are it's it's never left our consciousness even for a moment we should just start before we even go through to say it's impossible to put jerusalem into words without being it's like the difference between reading a sheet of musical notes and experiencing a philharmonic orchestra you need to jerusalem is an experience and jerusalem has never left the consciousness of the jewish people for 2 000 years at every moment when we build a new house my partner jeremy builds a house and the first thing he does when he moves into this completed home is scrapes away a portion of the wall so there's a bare empty paintless portion of the wall that jews do around the world because why should our house be built when god's house lies in ruins the first thing we do after we eat any meal al-naha wrote bevel yeah the rivers of babylon we sat and we remembered zion right that's uh that's the blessings after the meals that's what it's all about a jewish wedding yerushalayimini the first thing we do right before we celebrate is break the glass because the temple is destroyed and then the the groom says if i forget the jerusalem may my right arm lose its cunning what does that mean think about that my right arm loses it's cunning it means without jerusalem we don't have our strength we're not able to accomplish anything jerusalem is not just a city it's it's an idea it's it's a mission it's the mission of the jewish people and i know it sounds like abstractly philosophical and spiritual but sometimes the most spiritual abstractly philosophical things are really the simplest truth and that's the simplest truth of what's happening here in jerusalem in the world that this is a spiritual war that we're in and that truth of god will could go to the entire world you know i'll tell you when i think about being here and these stones of jerusalem when i actually allow it to internalize into my heart i picture my grandfather my great grandfather my great-great-grandfather for thousands of years if i was able to tell them i'm living here i'm walking through jerusalem they would they would faint they would not believe it's even possible and and i'm meriting to live it to experience it to walk through it and that that's the miracle of what israel is [Music] so there's a reason that god took the jewish people out of egypt on a circuitous route and not directly to israel that it took 40 years because it's one thing to take the jew out of the exile it's another thing to take the exile out of the jew so when we came into the land of israel when we conquered the the temple mount we clearly still had exiled eyes because we passed right over the temple mount to the western wall and we gave the keys to the temple mount to the jordanian walk because we weren't ready yet we weren't there but we're approaching the yovel the jubilee year from the liberation of jerusalem of the temple mount this is a turning point where the real true liberation that's happening isn't geographic it's right in here the only thing standing between the jewish people and building the temple is right in here the first verse in the torah is bereshit god created the heavens and the earth why does it start with that our greatest commentator says because in the end of days the nations are going to come against us and say the land of israel doesn't belong to you and your answer should be god of israel created the entire world and he gave us the land of israel that is our right to be here israel should stand up to the nations of the world and say jerusalem is our capital jerusalem is the beating heart of our nation that's where we serve the god of israel who is much more powerful than all of you put together when you look at the forces of darkness and evil and repression that are turning against the jewish people now even more than ever what are they turning against judea samaria jerusalem so we know these are the front lines this is what they want to take from us this is what we need to fortify this is what we need to stand firm and unwavering about even if the entire world is against us that's what we need to do and that consciousness that will force us to stand against the world and put because we're going to be afraid there's fear in the world but we can decide does that fear fear of man fear of the nations or fear of god so ari overlooking the hotel right here what should the place of the nations and christians be to the western wall today and also is there a place for the nations in the restored temple so before i can answer what the western wall would be for the nations it's important first to understand what it is for the jewish people because the nations are simply an extension just like in judaism we have priests they're the children of aaron that are in some ways the intermediaries the the facilitators of our service to god in the temple the jewish people are an amikawanim we're a nation of priests so what the priests are to us we are to the entire world so the jewish people let me try to explain what the western wall is like it's like imagine a father that gets so angry with his son that he says leave leave i never want to see you again go and the son leaves but then he just waits a second and he goes back and puts his ear to the wall and he hears his father crying when we put our ear to the western wall we hear god cry that's why it's called the wailing wall because of all the tears because this place is the conduit for all prayers when jacob was here on mount moriah when he was here he said elohim this is the the house of god this is the gateway to heaven yerushalayim has where it ends in i'm and only your word ends in i am in hebrew and it has an equal and exact opposite why does your shallam have an equal and exact opposite there's you shalom shalom allah and your mata jerusalem the spiritual and jews and the physical the two worlds come together so when we put our hand on that wall we're actually able to encounter the world we can feel the tears of all of humanity because they've gone through this place right up to god what is we've been speaking this whole trip as we're walking the redemption is really about a consciousness an awareness and what is that awareness prophet isaiah says it have a cook says it he says until the knowledge of god covers the earth as water covers the sea it's like the story of two fish in a fish tank and one says the other i don't know do you believe in water because we're so immersed in godliness sometimes it's hard to see it right before us and that's what the temple mount represents that knowledge that god will push from our heads into our hearts it will permeate all of existence to the degree where we'll be able to take this gun right here and beat it into a plowshare there will be no need for hatred or violence there will be no need for jealousy or sadness or grief that's what this is all about that's what the temple mount is about it's universal it's about bringing god to the world the prophet zakaria zechariah said vanilla imrabim yamahu and the righteous of the nations will attach themselves to the house of israel on that day and in this day when the whole world is against us for all of those around the world who are standing with us who are literally being a comfort to us that we're not alone for those of you who are doing that you're attaching yourself to the house of israel and i want to invite all of you implore you please come to jerusalem come and experience it because we don't only consider you our friends we consider you our family and when we're praying for that temple to be rebuilt we're praying for you to be right there by ourselves i hope it was okay that i shared that with all of you um i really felt like i was able to express my heart there and i just want to apologize uh clearly time has gotten away from me and we're going a little bit longer than usual i hope that's okay but um but you know let's just bring it back together now we're ushering in right now the holy day of yom yerushalayim and we're connecting to each other from yerushalayim it's hard to imagine it really is to let it sink in how far we've come and how close we are to the final redemption and i think we all feel that what we're doing together here in this fellowship is a part of that journey towards the building of the temple and the ultimate redemption and i'll tell you it hit me this past shabbat after reading the torah portion in the synagogue right we went to the hafthora now it's hard to read the torah portion this one and not to feel down and to feel sad because unfortunately and painfully when we read through these painful and horrific admonitions at this point in time they sound less like threats and more like an accurate description of the last 2 000 years of exile there isn't even a single one of these dark nightmares that hasn't come true for the jewish people but as i was feeling down and thinking about all of this we arrived at the words of jeremiah and i felt comforted because of all of you you were what came to mind uh when i read the words of the prophet jeremiah you in this fellowship for the prophet jeremiah says in the very first verse of the haftarah hashem my strength my stronghold and my refuge in the day of travail to you nations will come from the ends of the earth and say our our ancestors inherited falsehood futility that has no purpose can a man make a god for himself they are not gods therefore behold i inform them upon this occasion i shall let them know of my hand and my strengths and they shall know my name is hashem that's from the haftarah from the book of year me ahu and i doubt there's one of us in this fellowship that doesn't identify with that to some degree that has not had to shatter some sort of falsehoods that we've inherited from our ancestors really at no fault of their own but we've had to shatter these falsehoods in our quest to connect with hashem in truth and that is what jerusalem is jerusalem is the city of truth and by seeking hashem with all of our hearts i want to bless us all that we may be a part even a small part i'll take it a part of the building of the third and final temple in the holy city of yerushalayim may it be rebuilt fully and completely soon in our days amane this highlight was taken from the land of israel fellowship every week hundreds of families from literally around the world come together on our live zoom sessions to strengthen each other to inspire each other and to learn torah from the land of israel in which we connect the dots between the bible the hebrew language and the confusing events of our times go to www.theland of israel.com backslash fellowship or click on the link below to join thank you