Israel Inspired: Ari's IDF Reserve Duty & Jeremy's iPhone Detox

[Music] and now live from Jerusalem you're listening to Israel inspired radio here your hosts rabbis Aria bramblett's and Jeremy Gimpel [Music] tell them everybody and welcome to Israel inspired on the Land of Israel network at the Land of Israel calm this is Jeremy Gimpel broadcasting very close to the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula border of Israel why because aria Bram woods is dressed up in an IDF uniform with a hvar semi-automatic rifle defending the land of Israel and we're here on the front lines of the battle of good against evil in the world ari what does it feel like it's actually an automatic but we don't usually shoot it in automatic I just want you to know that for accuracy's sake what's not to say my automatic it's all we shoot and send my out of men that's when I was in the army but it also has the automatic option but we don't shoot the automatic option that's true but I just want to let you know the veracity of the weapon that I have it also has a laser that shoots out of it I mean this gun because you know until now we've always had old and 16 guns from literally the Vietnam War another Vietnam we have Vietnam wars the m16 that was invented and now reserve duty are getting these star wars like guns it's unbelievable it also feels good because it's an israeli-made weapon israeli-made yeah and it's it's ranked in the world is one of the most efficient weapons that there is it's good for urban combat it's good for any kind of combat it's as accurate as a short m16 but it has every other advantage that the m16 doesn't have just yesterday we were out the farm and I was looking up in these two patchy helicopters flew over my head and I was looking up at the sky and seeing like this obviously the greatest military technology that exists today are in these brand-new Apache helicopters and I was saying 70 years ago the Jews were being herded like sheep into gas chambers with no ability to protect themselves the weakest any people are I mean there's just like no hopeless weak helpless and now 70 years later there's have war machine guns Apache helicopters I remember you looked at me you said those helicopters those are Jews in those those are Jewish helicopters yeah exactly yeah it's exciting and you know I'll tell you being here in reserve duty is so strengthening for me I love it on so many different levels you know but it reminds me that every single moment that goes by where we're in civilian life in Israel there is an entire system of tens of thousands of soldiers that are patrolling the borders that are protecting the country and very complex missions and this is happening at every single moment all the time you know there were times like when we're in our actual duty right where it's like eight hours on on guard duty or eight hours patrolling or eight hours on ambushing and then and then we're off duty and it's like Oh someone else is doing that then but when we're actually in reserves in a civilian life it's a whole different thing the entire army is going all the time and I just coming here and being in the reserves is so strengthening for me because I just my love for these fellow soldiers that we serve with is so severe so overwhelming they just have so much pain so much favor that's what makes me realize we're going to win any war that we fight not because we're necessarily the the most brutal of armies that there is and we're not a brute but because there's such gentle loving kind compassionate people that engage in the discussions that we have are so deep and so over what we come from different angles and different perspectives totally different sides of the political spectrum but for some reason I think Jews are really good at it we're able to hold those very extreme differences and not have it affect our love for each other even in the smallest way yeah I when I come just down here just to visit everyone you know Shane was just born a few weeks ago teal is still getting over the c-section so you're really the one picking up the slack here for the Arion German partnership as you're defending the lines and I'm just visiting here but just seeing everyone people may have this image of like brothers in arms there's a certain camaraderie because of the military service that you serve together you protect each other your life is in the hands of others and their lives and you are in yours there's something deeper than that here it's like such a powerful friendship we've known these guys for so many years and it's like an Havarti Sharelle a love of Israel that I think can only be in the Land of Israel when everyone here is giving of their life giving of their time giving away from their family in order to give to something beyond their family and that's why I try to convince them there's a there's a good amount of guys that are really secular very leftist and I try to convince them that whether they know it or not or like it or not they're religious Jews they're religious Jews because they could get out of reserve duty if they wanted to but they don't and they leave their families and they leave their jobs and they sleep in the dirt and they get sleep-deprived as they're patrolling and putting their lives in danger that's what's called a religious Jew a religious Jew that's willing to sacrifice his life for the Jewish people that's a connection to the nation of Israel that even the greatest rabbi in Borough Park doesn't have you know I think about that sometimes you know if someone outside of Israel really really wants to dedicate their life to God and really wants to give themselves over to that they want to be most serin nefesh just give of themselves to God what do they have to do they just have to become more OCD about the commandments they have to be more and more home rose more and more details more and more stringent cease but here in Israel there's a way to give of yourself that is so different it's giving of all of yourself while serving in the Army it's of giving of your whole life and your family when you decide to settle in Judea and Samaria you're able to serve God serve your country serve your people in a way that is not excluding the Torah but it's bringing the Torah in a more holistic full environment telling what was one of the most interesting conversations you had here with some of the guys that you feel like people should know about the conversations that are going on and you know what do you talk about with these left-wing people that sort of are more tel-aviv than they are Jerusalem well there are a number of them that are like that but when you really dig to the core they're all really wanting the best for the nation of Israel they're the best for their people they just I think are have been brainwashed to a certain degree with a lot of the secularism and and you know they say oh honey they're the very spiritual people of a looks real adult they're not connected to the religion you know they have this all this baggage about the religion but when you actually you know dig deep they're very very connected to the nation as a whole which is what we really are we're not a religion Judaism is not an ism words Judaism is really I think a construct of exiled Jews and that the way of seeing it is Judaism Christianity we're not in an ism we're the nation of Israel we're Israelites and that is a kollel you know that is inclusive of everybody and I'll tell you that when we're I'm sitting in the room talking to them and I'm reading through P R K about ethics of our fathers and I read some verse in the middle of it and this guy that totally you know seems on the surface not to be connected finishes every single verse knows it and knows the commentaries about it and then the other secular quote unquote secular guy pulls out the book that he's reading which is my amla as you know which is uh you know Azula you just met him and he's reading my AMA Lopez deep commentaries on the Torah portion learning it together and these these secular guys that will testify that they are absolutely secular are more learned in Torah and in Jewish history and antenna than a lot of the yeshiva students that have been studying for fifteen years in America hmm you know while you've been away off on duty I've had some amazing guests that have come out to the farm and I just want to share one story this one guy came and he heard about the German group that was living on the farm for a week and we heard about the own and they obviously went back to Germany singing the praises of that place because just being there is a blessing and they got a chance to work the fields they had a chance to tend to the sheep they had a chance to help build our beta fella they just had a chance to really feel foundational building and this young guy from Germany came and he walked into the farm and I'd never seen him before and I mean I don't know what to say my initial reaction was he looks like a Nazi that's a he looked like young in good shape clean-cut crew-cut a terrific liked hair blue eyes just blood just like he looked like a a caricature of an Aryan young soldier that I would have seen in the Nazi army just 70 years ago and he comes over and we have a long deep conversation and I mean at the end there were there were times where you know he was brought to tears because he was so touched by just us allowing this conversation to go on and he said that ultimately I want you to know something Jeremy you know there's a lot of Christians that come to Israel but anyone that still has a missionary agenda he says and a lot of them are here then they say that they're here to bless Israel and they're here to love Israel but really they're doing that with a hidden agenda that ultimately they want to convert you and those Christians I want you to know they really hate you I said really and I was like I always judge them with the benefit of the doubt and I was trying to share the other trying to show the love if I don't believe in Jesus I'm gonna go to hell they have the cured at my hell they're gonna give me they're not gonna give me the cure I'm gonna go to hell I always try to judge them and he says I want you to know that they hate you and I was like really and I'm now listening to this German guy who's 70 years ago Germans were my biggest enemy and I mean this guy's giving me an insight into people that hate me I always want to understand what is it about the nations of the world that they have this bone to pick with the Jews and he says it's listen it's very simple if a Jew is convinced to convert to Christianity well then his children they can obviously marry Christians and their grandchildren well they're obviously will marry Christians and within two generations they would have destroyed the Jewish people and that ultimately is their goal and they says I'm in Germany now and I'm a leader of the young organization filled with people from their teens to their early 20s and we are raising up a new generation of people that will respect not only the Jewish people but have a passion to restore the divine order in the world and those are the words he used the divine order I was like the divine order what does that mean he says well you're the chosen people and so what does that mean to you that I'm the chosen people what am i chosen for and he says you are chosen to be a light to the nation's and we the nation's have to know our place isn't to bring you the light in the truth in the way you need to teach us about the ways of God the ways of the Torah what it is to be living in this land living under God's providence the divine order is that you're meant to be the spiritual leaders and we're meant to join you you need to take a leadership role and I was just thinking to myself as I was looking at these Apache helicopters and thinking of you in the army and now these Germans that are as a whole youth movement now that are learning the divine order of the world I just felt I don't know I guess I always knew it in my heart but we are the generation that will see the beta mica - built that's what it feels like - I mean but to really know that I mean it's gonna happen in our lifetime is so exciting and revolutionary like there are such fundamental shifts that are happening in the world today and to see them all come to pass it's like one day in the cave the no just in our simmer because I have other conversations in that cave I was just in the cave right before leaving and there were Germans you know it's interesting how many Germans come out - to the farm to our headquarters and you know there's some Germans in there and one of them was saying that he believes that he's in Ephraimites he's descended from the tribe of a fryin this type of thinking doesn't really speak to me we've spoken about it before you know we don't know what try it's about who you are now what you believe in what you do who is Abraham descended from that he was Abraham people get way too lost in speculation about who they're from but this other German said well let me tell you I don't think I'm from a crime I think I'm from a Mallick and I said come and come again he said yeah I'm alike the nation who is sworn to wipe you off the face of the earth the nation of of Haman and I said you're descended for them he said yes which is more inspiring to you that I'm from a frien or that I'm from Amalek because I'm from Germany and that's where I'm descended from and you're descended from the Jews that we killed and I'm descended from the Nazis that killed you and now I'm here in Judea and I'm loving the Jewish people what is more inspiring to you and it's true he's right for for i'ma like someone of myself professing descendant from the tribe of Amalek to say here I am and I love you it's really unbelievable Redemption I'm sharing these stories with our soldiers here in the Army you know the story that we shared last week of these Germans that were artisans and they came and then I said to the men you know go to the right and women go to the left just like the Nazis did and you know in the Holocaust and they're looking like what is going on over there so many of them everybody wants to come out every city entire unit will you do the holy will I've already said we're gonna have an evening where the entire unit comes out and sees it because it's just part of the what I really think is the circumcision of the heart to bring these tel-aviv Israelis to Judea to connect them to the Judaism within them that's really what the dream to them you could buy an apartment on the 15th floor of an apartment and Roma of even have mortgage to pay for the rest of your life in your children's life over this nonsense or you can move to a beautiful apartment here in the hills of Judea and breathe the air and live this life I think everybody leaves asking that question why do I want to live in Tel Aviv yeah I know I'll never forget when we're walking through the farm and you know we have a few Arab local workers that come and help us on the farm and I've become actually quite close to them now and I remember we had these eleven Germans living on the farm and I'm looking up at our baits Fila at our like little house of prayer that's being built and there's Muslims and descendants of Nazis that are building it and I'm just looking at it and staring and wonder thinking like who in their right mind would have ever thought that Muslims and descendants of Nazis would be building our bait - fela and I went up the commad just a few days later because he had don't also been impressed with the reality that there's Germans that don't even see so I went up to comment and I said Hamid you know tell me why do you think there's a war between our people and I'm a Jew you're an Arab why are we at war with each other and he said I don't know why were a war with each other but let me tell you is I mean Allah it's from Allah that the Jews are here and I said really why do you think that and he said Amen you deem a Nevada they may not love him and of deem he says without Jews there's no work and without Arabs there's no workers Allah put us here together to work together to build this land and I was like true just seemed true to me and if we're able to like recognize that we're here in a common purpose and if we can actually direct them to the God of Israel and you know what I sell to them a lot I always say a Shem should bless you and I said a shame Oh have ol time and Hashem loves you say it to the Arabs all the time because I don't think that they fully grasp the Allah idea the Allah idea is a little bit to mullah like it's a little bit to sacrifice fast for 30 days beat yourself but the God of Abraham was a God of love and compassion and peace God loves you and letting them hear that from the Jews I think is the cure to a lot of the misconceptions that they're kind of absorbed in and I'm seeing now that there's Muslim funny I say that to them - I never didn't connect with it why it's just the right thing to say and so to see that there's like outreach from this little headquarters that's reaching out to the Muslim world that's reaching out to Germans that's reaching out to people from Holland you know when we first got there I'd never been there before and I just had like a elec like aa moment where I just felt like a Shem was calling me to like this is what you need to be doing with your life Jeremy this is what you need to dedicate the rest of your life towards you need to establish this place build it bring people from around the world their strengths in Judea be a light to the world this is your mission go and go do and you're just last week's Torah portion we had the story of a cannot you talk of The Binding of Isaac in this week's Torah portion we actually have the ramifications of what the binding of issac did Abraham thought that he was going to sacrifice his son but the Midrash explains that really he sacrificed his wife that when Sarah heard of the news that Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac she died and so Abraham now had to live with the reality that although he went to sacrifice Isaac and Isaac was spared a sacrifice was given that day just wasn't the sacrifice that Abraham was prepared for and not only that I think about as Abraham was walking up to the akkada and he had full conviction that he was ready to go and then we'd rush and make it so clear that men every doubt known to man came creeped into his heart is this really what God wants of you I mean your whole life you've been preaching another message maybe you didn't hear right maybe you think right maybe this is not the voice of God maybe it is the voice of God there's you know this stuff is a long way every type of three days of doubts and the Sun coming in the 8th Sahara coming in the evil inclination trying to convince and not to fulfill what God's Will was for him in his life but I've run when he had that immediate immediate moment of inspiration he held on to it and said that's it I'm going I know the truth I'm going now and sometimes all of us have those moments in our lives where we just have a lack lejana moment we have a moment of inspiration a moment of encounter a moment of like yes I'm holding onto this moment and I'm going forward but imagine if Abraham wouldn't have had his antenna open right before he sliced with the knife he picked up the knife and on his way to slaughtering it suck his ears were still open to listening to another message to have a continuous dialogue meaning some people you'll they'll make alia and like I know a Kurdish burro who does not want me in America it's giving me no rest I'm moving to Israel and then they move to Israel but what's the preceding voice what is the mission now and I think these parshas come to teach us that iveron may think that you're coming to sacrifice one thing and the other you're actually going to sacrifice something else and you think that your whole mission is to sacrifice Isaac but at the end all of us are meant to live in a continuous openness for new guidance and new inspiration because you might think that you're on a right path but really there may be a sign a marker a moment where you're supposed to make a left turn or a right turn and you're fully convinced that you're supposed to be going straight because you're so convinced from three months ago and these Torah portions I think are a constant reminder before there any Commandments before there's any Hollow huh these people lived with a certain rule they lived with a certain spirit the spirit of Judaism was formulated for us in safer Bereshit their relationship with God their relationship with family their relationship with each other all of this is without Holika still Ilana comes later but they're slow yeah if G if the law came first we could start worshipping the law what a drama it's like in Yaakov did is they established the spirit of what Thomas trial lives by and the base foundational reality is that all of us have a connection to God all of us can hear guidance from God either from our hearts from our intuition from occurrences that happen in our life Avram goes down into Egypt and all of a sudden there's a famine he didn't get a command to go down to Egypt but the Midrash explains us that yes indeed Hashem did command him what does the majors telling us there why didn't it tell us that in the Torah itself well the aim of my name is maja writes that Avram had to look at the circumstances around him and decipher what the right thing to do is so so to all of us in our lives have to look at our circumstances around us and really ask ourselves what does Hashem ask of us in our life and I look at you right now and you're full gear and your uniform and yours in your neck and the best thing that you know about this time in your life is that you could be doing nothing better with your time like Matteson eyes mitzvah time right now me Louise is the best yeah you know it's it's actually something that a lot of soldiers go through when they have three years in their service and then they finish the army and they go through a little crisis like what I need to start making my own decisions I need to figure out what I'm gonna do what God wants me to do it's a much more difficult thing when I'm here in the army every moment is an order from the higher ranking commanders I know I'm doing exactly what I should be doing here and that's one of the many reasons that I enjoy it and and also you know there's a part of me that just enjoys the complete childish immaturity which is able to come out of me when I'm here in the army just driving everybody nuts out of their mind we're being total silly goofballs these are like adult men you know like from 23 to 43 that's like the range and we're just such silly goofballs one moment and then the next moment we're actually going out on a patrol around an ambush and we're as serious as you could possibly be but in the next moment you're teaching them Torah and then the next moment yeah and that's sort of how I justify the silliness you know like I did had a hard-boiled egg and I spent a full day just offering that egg to everybody until their heads exploded with just and then I got a you remember this quash that was growing at our farm yeah so I brought that and that was like adopted by the whole unit everybody had to take care of it just total silly nonsense the entire time but but yeah so so being here in the army it it helps me also to recalibrate and to remember that I'm not just Ari I'm not just a private individual I'm a part of a much greater whole and I have a much greater responsibility to the nation and really to the entire world when we saw the Arabs at the farm yesterday one of them pulled over and said re heard you're in reserve duty and I said yeah I'm in reserve did anything you said he's guarding you remember that sure um you said my I said he's right now guarding the Sinai Peninsula where - where Isis has an active cell and I said - want to kill the Jews just as much as they want to kill you Ibrahim they want to kill both of us and Artie's protecting you and your family know that yeah so so anyways it's a it's it's tell me Jeremy how has it been for you while I'm in the Army usually were sort of in each other's faces yeah it's fun to like recap and recollect I'm going through a very interesting fun exciting process right now about a month and a half ago I bought a simple phone or what we would call a Tom phone because Tom in Hebrew is simple a Tom phone and at the beginning I said you know I read an article that said that a person does the motion of staring at his screen an average person 250 times a day checking a Facebook checking Twitter check in their whatsapp's checking their messages checking their check-in they're just checking all the time 250 times a day and I said what would happen if I checked in to my soul 250 times a day what if I had a little Torah with me and I checked into the Torah 250 times a day and I said that's it I'm getting rid of my smartphone and I said that's it I'm gonna slow things down I'm gonna calm things down I'm gonna be a little bit more disconnected a little bit more present in my life and what it did for the first couple of weeks was it made me even more nuts than it was with just a smartphone because I'm walking around the house being like where's my smartphone where's my simple phone where's my charger where's my other charger knives like two things do charge us to keep track of and it just made just more of a polygon and eventual is like anything ever to mean this simple phone is like torment yeah and I'm just like alright never mind that I have a baby now I just whatsapp's I just I'm puttin the simple phone away but I'm paying 30 shekels a month for that extra SIM card and Tila is like Jerry wanna you cancel the SIM card I'm like no I'm not cancelling the SIM card because I'm gonna get to the simple phone it's just a longer journey than I expected fine and so then I cut Asheboro who was so kind to me my smartphone broke and I'm like eh my smartphone doesn't work right now I gotta use my simple phone and then for two days I didn't have a smartphone and then I put my phone in the shop for another day and then I got my phone back and then it broke again and then God allowed me to be with mostly my simple phone for more than a week and now I got my smart phone back it still doesn't work as a phone anymore it just works as a tablet and my life has been transformed without my smartphone I feel the difference in my brain my life is moving a little bit slower I don't feel as anxious I don't feel as nervous when I'm talking to a guest in our farm I'm much more calm I can actually listen to them because I'm not looking at my phone I'm not worried about a message that I might miss because anyway at the end of the day I'll check my messages and yeah that's sure if someone whatsapp's me now it's gonna take me a little bit longer to get back to them but what it's done is the quality of my day the time that I have with my kids the time that I'm spending with my wife the time that I'm spending with my friends and the visitors and my students that come to the farm is revolutionized my life because I'm actually with them now and I'm not kind of with them kind of with my phone stepping away checking it's two hundred and fifty times that brings you out of this world yeah I think what you're saying here is a very thinly veiled recommendation to our listeners to consider doing the same thing because I know that I also got a simple phone I did not have the wherewithal the focus the will I guess to actually use it and then I came to the me and then they sent me to another base and then a base deep in the heart of nowhere where there's literally no reception but then I was still futzing around on the phone without reception and then they moved us to another based on Shabbat so we could only bring our bare necessities so I had for days without any phone at all and that's what I needed I needed those four days literally to detox and and it was wonderful and now I know that nothing is so important that it has to really be so immediate and if it is the person could get your phone number and actually call you on your on your landline no cuz people come to us and saying what you guys are running on a multi international network constant broadcast social media marketing there's people that need to get paid there's things that need to be done you're building a farm you're doing this how could you not be connected to your smartphone and I was like 20 years ago the CEO of IBM didn't have a smartphone and he managed just fine and so there are ways to manage life without the smartphone connected to you all the time all the time so now what do I do I wake up in the morning and I check my smartphone and then in the evening I check my smartphone and if I feel like I really need to then I'll check it also in the afternoon but from 250 times of being brought out of this world I've cut it down to two or three times and it's changed my life and that's how our forefathers lived they didn't have the constant distractions of smart phones in this week's Torah portion right Eliezer goes to find a wife for Isaac and and he finds her this interesting I want to share in a second about that but when the he comes back with Rebecca on that Camel what was Isaac in the middle of doing it doesn't say he was you know he wasn't Dava knee he was less to us a day he was out in the field just talking to God pouring out his heart to God and we really need to be connecting if we're really having a revolution here and coming back to our roots in our source then that's something we need to be doing as well coming back to our roots and and I think part of our roots by the way is as I'm reading through the Torah portion now in reserve duty something that's standing out to me more and more and more is what I think really made Abraham stand out beyond all others and was huset kindness right it when Eleazar when Eliezer goes to find a wife for Isaac Abraham gives him this mission and Eliezer talks about the God of truce and of compassion sent him there to find this wife for Isaac but then when he's retelling the story to the Rebecca's family what does he say he just just forgot of truth why because her family was not weaned and didn't hold the concept of kindness and compassion to the degree anywhere near what Abraham did right Laban says LaVon says here come come in there's plenty of the place to be but he doesn't actually wash their feet he doesn't feed the camels he's just all show but not the actual kindness whereas Abraham one of the wealthiest man in the world when these guests come into his home he himself he doesn't delegate it he had so many servants he could have any one - he goes and he brings the food and he sits by their feet he serves them and it says he stands over them serving them he just wants to serve he is so excited and eager to serve and to give kindness and compassion and I think that that's really one of the things that we need to connect with as a nation as a nation as a whole that if we treated each other and the world with this kindness and compassion really each other more than the world because I think already you know my niece just went to Nepal for ten days - for her Bat Mitzvah project to help the children there to give them food and to help to teach them and to connect with them and to give them love and so we're really good as a nation with that with each other not always we're not always and that's one of the things I hear from a lot of the soldiers here they say that's why we're we have this constant worth Arabs because if we didn't we'd be killing each other we'd be killing each other because of the differences between us I don't know if I fully agree with that but there's something to that that it's really the Abrahamic kindness and compassion that we need to flex and nurture as a nation well the Torah that I've been studying the most this year has been from the Rebbe of PS that's not the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust and one of the Taurus one of the lines that he said that brought into the world was the greatest thing you can do in the world is a kindness for another person that's a very simple it doesn't matter if you're religious it doesn't matter if you're secular it doesn't matter if you're a Jew it doesn't matter if you're a Nandu it doesn't matter where you're holding or where you're from as soon as you've brought that Abrahamic compassion into the world and you've just done kindness for another person you have become more kind in doing that kindness and you've spread that love in the world and that's why the IDF is so important yes they are warriors and yes they are the baddest most sophisticated most respected army in the world today but in the heart of the heart of the IDF of the Israel Defense Forces this is really about being an um Kohanim viggo Kadosh a nation of priests a holy nation a nation that's to bring Abrahamic compassion to the world and hopefully this network our headquarters will broadcast that light to the world and for all of you that are listening the next time you're in Israel it's an open invitation you have to come out and see what we're doing in the hills of Judea you will not believe it because it is probably the greatest project in existence today I'm just gonna say for us all right guys Shalom [Music] martyrdom does not end something said Indira Gandhi it is only a beginning but for me each episode is a new beginning then I'm telling the story of the past set to build a present identity that's motivated to make the future of which we dream I'm Rob my Clara and this is the Jewish story listen to the Jewish story with Rob Mike Feuer on the land of Israel