The Jewish Way to Win a War with Rabbi Manis Freidman & Jeremy Gimpel

how to win a war the Jewish way and he's known for being YouTube's most popular Rabbi I met him on YouTube I'm one of his more than 400,000 followers and um I am just thrilled and honored to have him here today to discuss the pressing issue for all of us so Rabbi Manis thank you for joining us today welcome to the land of Israel Fellowship how are you today thank you thank God how are you excellent excellent well um Welcome to our fellowship this is sort of a rag tag group of misfits from all over the world I think we represent about 50 countries every person here has a different opinion comes from a different place all of us love the Torah we're all sort of trying to figure it out so to have you come here today is a real uh pleasure I myself served in the givati Brigade I've served in the IDF now for more than 20 years just a year and a half ago I was um honorably discharged at the age of 44 with six children and then L and behold the war came up and here I am once again with an M16 in my hand guarding our farm so you just never know I guess you're never really um released from civas hasem you're always sort of a a soldier in the army of Israel one way or another so I want to introduce you also to my partner ARA brtz he's also the co-founder of the land of Israel Network and fellowship he's right here with us today um so thank you very much so I guess we'll get right to it Rabbi I I I we have a lot to discuss and I really want to do is I read your manuscript script I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I'm just going to kick off with a quote at the very beginning of the book and actually the middle of the book but this was one of my favorite quotes because it was a story that I didn't know and here's what it says at the un's 60th anniversary former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Chiron came to give a speech he spoke like a wise grandfather speaking to his grandchildren quote I arrived to you from Jerusalem Israel's Eternal capital for over 3,000 years he said I stand before you at the gate of Nations as a Jew a representative of an ancient people unabashedly expressing his Jewish Pride he went on to say the Jewish people have a long memory originating with our Father Abraham and continuing with the giving of the Torah on Mount Si now the substantive remainder of his speech may be debated but this was a moment from which all should take inspiration cheron restored the relationship between Jews and the Nations to its natural order where we are the grandfather of the world and so I love that Framing and I think that's exactly how the people of Israel should see themselves as maybe an older brother but used as the grandfather of the world I feel like that's even more Mead more honorable and in some ways I think that that's the transformation that's happening now in the hearts of Israel because you just see Israelis now you see secular soldiers just grabbing sited putting on Fillin listening to Jewish music trying to find a deeper route to find the source of strength to go out and fight this war and even the Israelis that are at home are being forced to question themselves like what is this about the Kamas and all these haters of Israel hate us so much for being Jewish and it's like it's forced them to turn inward because being Jewish like that's that's not even important to me but it's so important for them I mean they hate me for being Jewish and I don't even know what being Jewish means as an Israeli and I see that there's an Awakening that's happening in Israel now and I guess I wanted to ask you first and foremost do you see this same Awakening happening in the Jews outside of Israel or is this sort of just kind of like passing them by and they're kind of doing their own thing oh it's happening everywhere and uh just want to mention that shaon got a standing ovation for that speech he was critical of the UN he says we remember as Jews we remember what happened thousands of years ago we also remember what happened in this chamber 60 years for 60 years he was he was chastising them and he got a standing ovation so uh the other beautiful thing about his speech is he didn't qualify everything you know according to our Bible we had a grandfather called Abraham no there's no according to anything we had a grandfather Abraham that's the fact and I'm coming from the capital of Israel which is Jerusalem not according to our tradition not according to the rabbis not according to history just the fact it was beautiful rabbis should learn to speak like that yeah well that's that's really what I want to to Center this conversation around like identity and even more than identity which maybe Ariel Shon wasn't able to fully Express but I want to talk here about amuna I want to talk about faith in this war because I feel like your your your your book on war is you know it's it's filled with wisdom it's filled with Torah But ultimately there's sort of a pillar of faith that has to sort of be asserted in order to really apply the principles that you speak about and when I think about faith if I had to say it in one sentence to explain what emuna really should mean nowadays it's maybe just a way of existing in the world that when we look at what's happening in our lives when we look at what's happening in Israel realizing that everything that's happening to Israel is happening for Israel nothing here is a coincidence everything here is a part of a process everything that's happening here is to straighten us out to set us back on the path that we were destined to walk to help us become the people that Hashem chose chose us to be who he created us to be to make us stronger to make us more united to make us more connected with ourselves to make us more in tune with why we are in this land to begin with and ultimately hopefully to bring us back into a relationship with AES and so I want to quote this from your book this is what you wrote an even deeper way of understanding this lies in the fact that concealed within the enemy is a Divine spark whose purpose is not to intimidate or frighten us but to elevate us the hidden role of the so-called Palestinians in this conflict is to Lift Us high above our own sense of powerlessness stop feeding the enemy with our fear and courageously embody the triumphant power of God now when I read that I am like yes but I really want to understand what exactly does that mean for us to courageously embody the triumphant power of God like it sounds amazing but then I think like okay but where does that leave Jeremy gimpel where does that leave Arya bramwith where does that leave just a simple Jew that's either living in Israel or outside of Israel or just anyone that wants to kind of figure this thing out what does that really me yeah that's a good question to say it in simple English it's giving us the confidence to be Who We Are and we are God's voice to the world we are the chosen people we stood at Mount Si we gave the world the Bible we gave the world the Ten Commandments we taught the world that there is a God who runs the world and there's a messiah who will perfect the world we gave all that to the world what are we giving them now it's sad when the focus of the entire world is on Israel and all Israel has to say is we have a right to defend ourselves that's it that's your great message to the world this is the chosen people speaking every kid on a playground says I have a right to defend myself what do we need to have the courage to say see you're talking about the m bringing God down so that he dwells in US means we don't need faith and we don't need amuna God is real everyday life is Godly no leap of faith that's our job to bring God from something you believe in to something you live with every day it is absolutely true Jerusalem is the capital of Israel anyone who doesn't know that doesn't know anything and there's no more debate I'm not going to argue it I'm not going to debate it I'm not going to prove it if you don't know that Israel is the capital of Israel go back to school you have no business debating the issue if you don't know that the Jewish people are the chosen people then you know nothing and I'm not going to debate it anymore it's done that's called bringing God down to earth okay so I wanna i w to kind of bring it from this side now because what's the issue I think you know for 2000 years Jews weren't able to fight back you know there's a legendary story about morai anal levich who was one of the warrior leaders in the war saw ghetto Uprising and they say that as a young boy when he would be harassed or attacked by Jew haters he would fight back because he was a tough Jew and they would say you're not a Jew Jews don't fight back you're not a Jew and he was like no I am a Jew and I will fight back but that was like the anomaly that was like whoa that Jew is fighting back