Your Word is Your Power - Jeremy Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

your word can either make you or break you period and what that means is the more you trust yourself the more powerful you become what does that mean if you had a friend and every time you decided to hang out or go out to dinner or go out for a run or you decided to have a havruta and learn together that friend came two hours late or didn't show up at all you would just stop trusting that friend and you would stop inviting them out with you and that's the exact relationship that we have with ourselves so when you speak to yourself and you say I'm going to do this and then you don't follow through you actually destroy your own trust and you lose all of your power you've actually cursed yourself and that's what the core essential idea of the Mitzvah of nedder is teaching us nedder is a Biblical commitment you're saying I am making a commitment to God to do X to give X to act X whatever that X is you've made like a commitment to the high highest order and that's the ultimate Commitment if you break a nedder then you've sinned and that's why so many just say I believe there I'll do that there they like put in that last word but sometimes we actually forget really what is the Torah teaching us there with this concept of nedder what it's teaching us essentially is that if you break your word you're cursing yourself so saying bully net air is nice but you're really missing the idea here when you break your word to yourself deep down you grow into a person that doesn't trust yourself so what you need to do you need to speak to yourself you need to commit and then you need to follow through but you need to speak clearly what exactly are you committing to so then when you follow through you actually nail it and so what do I think is the best advice for young men growing men married men it doesn't really matter what is the thing you have to set out a goal make it clear speak it in your mind can write it down because you think in words anyway so you're speaking to yourself what is the goal if you're really like kind of building the foundation you're at Rock Bottom let's say or you want you're not a rock bottom but you want to build the foundation strong here is what you need to do you need to get into great physical shape you're a man every man should be strong every man should be ready to be called up to David's Army ready to fight the forces of evil because one day you might just have to and some people are going to say Muslim followers get into physical shade that sounds Hellenistic that sounds like the Greeks that's not holy that's not godly tell me to learn Torah I can understand that tell me to meditate to pray you're telling me my service of God in this world is to get in physical shape it sounds like the Greeks and my answer is no no that's a misconception of the Exile Jews my answer is yes the foundations are actually to fix your body being healthy and being strong is the foundation that everything else is built upon and it was a given that you were healthy and strong back in the day every farmer in every Shepherd are strong and healthy or else they couldn't pick up the sheep and pick up the Terrace and work out in the land they have to be healthy and strong only when we were exiled and we lost our land did the Jews turn away from our roots of Joshua and Samson and David and we still turned the Exile we almost idealized The Scholar that's sitting alone hunched over a book pale just learning and spiritual because we could have no strength in the Exile but now it's a new generation back in the land A New Path is demanded for every believer in the world as long as Israel is inside the land it's the new old path nothing I'm saying is new in the ancient spiritual path begins with honoring and strengthening your body now Ruff cook says teshuva begins with your body I take that really seriously I think that rev cook world the greatest book on teshuva ever written it's studied in yeshiva's around the world from every background and every ideology the lights of chuva is arguably the greatest book ever written on shuva and in his explanation he says the beginning of Chula the beginning of coming back to God the beginning of coming back to yourself starts with your body competing with 3 000 plus years of rabbis and Scholars to have written one of the greatest books on the most important topics is nothing less than historic and his magnum opus Aunt Fila he's telling us you want to realign your life you want to return to yourself you want to get out of the rut you want to rise up to shuvat hagoof the chuva begins with your body so what would I coach that dad is trying to coach his son into becoming a man a young man who's lost his way and lost his Direction right now get into Peak Physical shape every day one hour train run walk Swim Bike you're 16 to 19. you can get into the best shape of your life if you're older you can be in the best possible shape for your age group that's true if you're 40 if you're 50 if you're 80 it doesn't matter you should be as strong as you possibly can every day start with your body gets your mind to move your body and as your body gets stronger your mind gets stronger you start feeling better you'll start taking yourself more seriously and when you commit and you say I am going to make myself stronger every day and then you do that you start building an inner trust in yourself it's very quantifiable did you get stronger today did you work out today did you make yourself stronger today if you did excellent 30 minutes that's all you need 30 minutes just do it and when you start doing that everything else around you will start to change because when I say you'll start feeling better you know my father is a neurologist a doctor of the brain there are well documented studies about the long-term benefits of exercise it's indisputable you'll feel happier stronger more focused more hopeful when your mind controls your body your body starts to feel discomfort and pain and stress and sweat but that actually activates good feelings within you it's neurologically true it's spiritually true the soul when you're just kind of chilling out is enslaved to the body but once you take control of your body your soul starts to shine and you start to feel good you start to I mean mood follows action that's really important it's not the other way around it's like well one day when I get in the mood I'm going to go out and I go I'm gonna go on a run it's the exact opposite it's like go out on a run and then you'll start getting into the mood it's like mood follows the action and that is so key about everything in the Torah so this is one of the most beautiful writings ever written in all of Jewish history it's written in sefer hakinu one of the seminal writings of Jewish living and this is section number 17 and I'm gonna I translated it pretty much word for word here's what he says he says no that a person is activated according to his action that was the best way I he's activated what does that mean his heart in all his thoughts are always a response to his action that he's involved in whether it be good or evil even if the person is evil and all his heart's desire is to do evil all day if he's awakened and tries to consistently work in Torah and mitzvot even if it's not For Heaven's Sake he will lean toward the good and his intentions will turn toward the good towards Heaven's Sake with the power of His action he can destroy his evil inclination and the Heart follows the action and even if a person is righteous and good in his heart is straight and his desire is in the Torah in Mitzvahs but if a person will continually involve himself in evil actions for example a king forces him to do some evil acts every day against his natural will if he only visits himself with these evil acts day after day his heart will turn into complete wickedness for this is a known truth man is activated according to his actions our actions activate a power within us our actions either bolster the body or bolster the soul those are the two options that's why teshiva begins with the body and the best way to get in control of the body is to get into shape and I'm not talking about just going on casual walks I'm actually talking about working hard young men need to work hard to be happy period there is no such thing as a young man that's just chilling out and happy those do not go together when young men work hard something magical happens hard work Works more on you than you work on it it's like your character is built through the hard work that you do Ari fold of blessed memory said it so beautifully if life is easy your living it wrong if you're going to rise up then you're going to need to build a strong mind and a mental resilience is trained in practice it's the easiest ways to practice building just a stronger body this you build a strong body you need a strong mind and your mind is getting stronger it will lift you out of whatever rut you're in