How to Transform Your Life Through Revelation - Jeremy Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

this last week I had one of the most powerful experiences in my life that I remember in many many months maybe in many years and it was so powerfully interconnected with the Torah that I was learning in the tour that tehila and I were learning and it was something that teal and I experienced together and I just really want to share the Torah I want to share the experience because in some ways it was life-changing for me and so I just want to let's let's let's let's like go right into it with the Torah so the first verse of the Torah is Exodus chapter 21 verse 1. and these are the ordinances mishpateem that you shall set before them and what I want to point out first is that the first Hebrew letter is peculiar the first word of that verse is weird it's out of place and these are the ordinances I mean the Torah is the greatest literature to ever be composed you don't really start a sentence off with the word and you definitely don't start like a chapter a Parsha it's starting with the word and like what is that and so the first thing you need to know is that what happened in last week's Torah portion which was the Revelation at Sinai the giving of the Ten Commandments the arguably the greatest event in human history that has just shifted the course of Western civilization and maybe the entire world as we know it this Parsha is and these are the ordinances this is a directly connected to the Revelation it's Sinai this Parsha is stage two of stage one they are absolutely interconnected and what is that teaching us a lot of spiritual Traditions they're about you know getting to a certain High getting enlightened getting in inspired meditating hoping and waiting for a peak experience and this Parsha is teaching us receiving Revelation getting enlightened getting inspired that's not enough having an inspired moment is not the point you need to bring that high into the daily details of the mishpateem of your life of the ordinances of like the little rules and regulations bring that high experience all the way down into the daily details of life and so when you take that high experience of revelation of the truth that you experience because sometimes life will give you a truth and then you bring it then down into the day-to-day details of your life that's when you become the author of your life so let me explain after the first verse of mishpatim it's the first Parsha in the Torah that there's no Story I mean it's just a list of rules and laws and ordinances just a lot of details there's no hero there's no story there's no person it's like every other Parsha up until now Abraham Moses Noah Adam Isaac someone where no this is the first time that there is no hero and the reason is that after the Revelation it's Sinai Israel becomes the story the nation of Israel becomes the hero that movement from Revelation to the exact details of living brought down is when Israel becomes the hero and the story that's how we become the Masters and the authors of our life now what does that mean for us practically I want to bring this down into practical practice for living and so the first of the two Commandments in the Torah um because we're now connecting the Revelation to the details so let's look at this Revelation now most people when they just hear about the Ten Commandments they just hear well God delivered Ten Commandments to Israel but if you pay close attention there is a difference between the first two Commandments and the rest of the commandments so let's just look for a moment at the first two Commandments can we get them up on the screen first two Commandments here's what it says I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt excellent the second commandment you shall not have any other gods before me okay that's first two Commandments they're spoken from God to Israel we can see that now look at the third commandment look at what it says here you shall not can we get the third commandment up on the screen please please you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain do you guys see the difference I mean it's screaming in the shot it's like what is going on here the third commandment God was speaking I am the Lord your God have no other gods before me and all of a sudden now it moves to third person it's like do not take God's name in vain why doesn't it say do not take my name in vain my name is Holy what happened there why is all of a sudden the Ten Commandments shifts to third person and so someone that doesn't have the midrash someone that doesn't have the Jewish oral tradition I honestly don't know how they explain that but the midrash tells us that something happened the first two Commandments it's Sinai were so powerful that the nation of Israel they died the Revelation caused their soul to leave their bodies and they experienced death they were like encountering the ultimate was too much for their bodies that actually says that you shall not see my face and live man cannot just experience the ultimate truth the Oneness of God because then you just are absorbed into the Oneness and their souls left their bodies a part of the Revelation at Sinai was an encounter with death and you want to get a deep insight into your life have an encounter with death the Insight will come and so let me tell you what happened this week Tuesday afternoon Wednesday afternoon I dropped Akiva my son off at um the central gushitsion intersection and it's a it's like not a safe place but it's not a dangerous place if you get on a bus but just a few years ago three kids three minutes away from there were kidnapped it started a war in Israel and I dropped my son off Akiva at 9am at the bus stop and he knows he's not allowed to get into any hitchhiker's car he's supposed to wait for the bus but you know he's 16. I don't know what he's doing and so I trust him but you know I did what I did I dropped him off at the bus stop and um I just want to show you a picture of my kids here really quick that we know we already and I we don't share pictures of our kids on social media only with the fellowship but you know I just want you to see you know this is Akiva he's just the he's the star he's the star of my family we love him there there's Eden stories about both of them that's my daughter she's just 13. and she's planning to either actually how you Vel came out to the mountain and they planted trees all over the mountain next to us and so Eden got out there and she was planting a tree with everyone just really beautiful and so those are my I mean they're just the treasures of my life they're the most important things in my life and all of a sudden I get a WhatsApp I'm in the middle of a meeting with Ari and I get a WhatsApp at two o'clock from akiva's Rabbi where is Akiva question mark question mark question mark question mark four question marks where's Akiva two o'clock in the afternoon and I'm like where's the Kiba I dropped him off at the bus stop at nine it's two o'clock in the afternoon five hours have passed and akiva's not in school immediately my mind goes to the worst case scenario I'm like oh my God that kid got into A Hitchhiker's car he's so deep into heaven now the Hamas is holding him the worst thoughts possible are now entering my mind and then immediately I'm like wax on wax off I try to flex my emuna muscles Hashem runs the world everything is okay there must be an explanation for this so I'm like Ari I have to leave now and I left the meeting in the middle of it and I went to go tell tahila Tila's not in the house I give her a call I'm like listen they don't know where Akiva is I think we need to call the police I'm in touch with the with the teacher he says just give us a second I want to check with his friends 2 30 comes none of his friends have seen Akiva it's now 2 30. none of his friends have even seen I thought you know maybe he went to bed maybe he went to uh to I don't know to go to sleep in his dorm maybe I don't know what but now none of his friends have seen him either what where is my son what is going on here now to make a long painful just the anxiety from two o'clock until 4 30 finally at 4 30. they found in small little room outside the synagogue it's kind of like a little place that he goes to study they found him studying and learning Torah by himself because he's such a holy awesome kid and then at 4 30 I'm like really they found him he like ditched secular classes to go learn more Torah classes or he did something that was like relatively good but he freaked everyone out and at 4 30 I called Dila as soon as I could to alleviate like the stress as soon as possible tequila just burst out crying on the phone because we were always just like calling the police a kidnap oh my goodness me International Scandal my son oh my Lord and then Tila many many many seconds was just sobbing and crying out of relief the emotions it was two and a half hours of just absolute an encounter with death that's what I want I mean talk about a wake-up call the whole thing was so traumatic and you know all the things we're concerned with all the things where me and Ari are meeting about and all the things that we're just dealing with our day-to-day lives some of those things are just not important when you have the big picture in mind and that encounter with death was such a deep revelation everything that happens to us in life happens for us in life and everyone listening to this I just want to bless you take a moment now and have an encounter here's the scenario I want you to think about you have two months left this is what I talked about in our Shabbat me with all of my kids Ari was there our guests for Shabbat were there and I said you have two months left and you're destined to leave this world what do you do now deep Insight comes when you encounter death how do you want to spend that time what do you want to say to the people you loved most Eden almost had a nervous breakdown my daughter that you saw her picture there because they went on a teal together a hike throughout Israel with all of the kids and somehow Akiva snuck rocks into Eden's bag and it was like my bag is so heavy my bag is so heavy and she did the whole two-hour hike only at the end to find out that Akiva filled her bag with rocks so I could not but laugh at that story because that's kind of funny thing for Akiva to do but she was so angry at him in her last words to him were like ah you have a place in hell for what you did to me and they left on a fight and Adam was like my last moments with the Kiva were a fight and I said such terrible things to him I can't believe it yes deep Revelation comes when we encounter death what would you say to the people you love most what would you want to do for them so now these are the ordinances go in love that Insight make time in your calendar right now to take your wife out to take your husband out for a special night take the time to put your children to bed the Revelation is revealed in the details put it in your calendar right now and do the things that you would do if you knew that you didn't have the time to do them pick up the phone and call the people you would have called call them this week put it in your schedule that is the path from Revelation to authoring your life into a work of art and so I want to end this Torah with a prayer and with a blessing for all of us you know as we journey through this world it's a very narrow bridge there are dangerous they're dangerous and tragedies that can sideswipe us any of us on any random Wednesday afternoon when we least expect it so may Hashem bless us this week May you bless everyone in this fellowship and bless their loved ones to live your life with your highest ideals and your priorities revealed to you live them in line with the mishpatim with the details of your life and bring them into real practice because that's the way we can author our life into a work of art