The Infuriating Vineyard Debacle - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

and i i guess i want to take this opportunity now to talk a little bit about the vineyards and what that has the experience has been like for me because it's been so painful and so enraging it's like imagine going to the doctor for a checkup and the doctor says you look healthy but we're we're amputating your left arm and you ask what is is there something wrong with it am i sick and the doctor says no we're just doing it because we can and so that's that's what we're doing now that's what it feels like to see the decree that our beautiful flourishing vineyards will god forbid be ripped up and destroyed for no reason nothing nothing i i could go into all the legal details that you may want to understand but a few days ago the brilliant and courageous journalist carolyn glick i called her in the morning i told her what was happening she's like i'm in the middle of a lot of things and then she contacted me again said okay all right i'm coming out and she came out to the farm she's a big deal carolyn glick i have for my entire adult life she's been a journalist and i hold her almost at the level of a prophet i know that sounds crazy i say almost she's not a prophet but almost at that level just from the from the perspective of speaking truth to power in a fearless way and so she came out to the farm and uh and just you know she wrote this very comprehensive article in one of israel's leading newspapers called distre el hayong so i don't want to to use up all of our time talking about that stuff that's a you know picture of the article um so i'll send you a link to that article in tomorrow's email but here i want to focus more on the the spirit of the matter because years ago we planted this vineyard on the farm and there could be no more natural organic place to plant these vineyards as the valley in which we planted them it's it's two mountains over from us the a village a jewish village called the heights of of amus and why is it called the heights of almost because almost the prophets he in those mountains he declared over those very mountains vishaftisvutami and i will restore my people israel and they shall rebuild ruined cities and inhabit them they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine vanatu kramim vishatu jaenam they will till their gardens and eat their fruits and i will plant them upon their soil and they will never be uprooted again from the soil which i have given them says the lord god and those are the words of almost the prophet in that very place and when you come out to the farm you'll see that god has remained true to his word in one glance in one direction you just look southeast from my home and you see rebuild of desolated desolation rebuild of ruins the the 000 fruit trees the vineyards and now they want to rip that up and around the same time we are planting these vineyards an innocent sweet holy young man 18 year old ezra schwartz have you heard of ezra he was brutally murdered here's a picture of ezra if you can make it bigger to cover the screen anyways with the article that carolyn wrote won't tell you that he was on his way from guard post to guard post delivering food to idf soldiers that's what he did with his free time his love for israel was so passionate and so deep for the people of israel the soldiers of israel the land itself he was from boston but he his plans were to be in the land of israel and as the minivan he was in with his friends was stuck in a traffic uh in a traffic jam these terrorists cowardly ambushed it spraying it with machine gun fire and murdering him and injuring his friends it was horrible it was horrific the whole country was reeling from it and so we were just so touched by the light and the love that you could see emanating even from a picture of ezra's holy face from the stories of the giving nature of this exceptional young man that we contacted his family and told them that we were gonna plant our vineyards in his memory and despite their crippling pain and devastation at the loss of their son it's unimaginable they were really deeply touched and grateful and they understood the significance of why that was so perfect and and despite the obstacles and the challenges our vineyard that we planted in his memory it began to thrive and flourish but it was flourishing with these beautiful lush intoxicating grapes that were decorating the vines you see we had kids all from throughout the all of judea come and they were so excited to to harvest the grapes they volunteered they're just so excited there was so much joy in this vineyard it wasn't just a means to an end it wasn't a vineyard for grapes it was an end in and of itself it was a meeting place between us and the land where love flourished where we were able to manifest our love in only the way that you can in a vineyard in judea and uh and that's what they called it in the news they called it vineyards but really it it wasn't just vineyards you can't isolate them and look at them through a microscope because they're part of this miraculous garden of eden-like oasis which arose from thorns and thistles and stones and they're part of this organic hole that is the arugula farm these vineyards they they they bring i i was when i was writing as i was writing they brought no but they're still here we're still fighting for them they bring this dimension of lush and enchanting beauty to this diamond that hashem has fashioned in the hills of judea called the arugad farm you know i look at it it's just so obvious jeremy and i have do not have the capacity to bring something this beautiful in the world we both know it jeremy you know it we know that this was hashem's doing and and while the ezra was murdered and horribly taken from us before his time i i've really felt that he is alive through these vineyards he continues to live through the prophetic grapes blossoming in the land that he loved with all of his heart from the vineyards that bear his name and for no reason at all truly they want to uproot and to destroy you know there are people who are in this world to plant and to build and to bring light and i guess there are people who are here to uproot and to destroy and to bring darkness and to seek to uproot the vineyards that we're entering in the sabbatical year in the year of shemitah the sabbatical year in which it's a particular mitzvah to leave the land alone and let it lie follow a mitzvah from the torah and they want to uproot it and this year well it just brings up the words that abraham said to the pharaoh avi mella he said there's no fear of god in this place that's what it felt like i'm who are these people i've never in my life met people like this with such cruel vindictiveness you know what they're like they're like those um hall monitors in high school that are granted this like modicum of authority and they're just so eager to use every bit of it to make your life miserable yeah as you can tell i'm getting riled up even now and i'm getting angry and i've been trying to work on it and work it through but i'm i'm not just i'm not just starting i've been struggling with this feeling of deep anger and righteous indignation ever since i heard about this but it's not a coincidence like jeremy said that this is happening before rosh hashanah because on rosh hashanah we remember that there is only one judge we remember that while the civil administration may believe that they're the true judges and that the fate of our vineyards and our farm and our homes lie in their hands on rosh hashanah we remember that hashem is the true judge and our fate lies in his hands and in his hands alone seeking to petition the civil administration is just a waste of time because hashem is the ultimate decider and determiner right this is one of the verses from psalms that i've said many many times as threats come our way hashem that's not the verse that they he just posted it's okay god is mine i will not fear for what can man do to me it's not in the hands of the civil administration or any mortal to do us damage maybe the vineyards will god forbid be destroyed but it's only if it's god's will so we'll pray for this later but i just want to take this opportunity hashem abba please annul this terrible decree for your namesake for the sake of your prophets hashem bring a miracle and save our vineyards 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