The Shepherdess Challenge to Triumph at the Arugot Farm-Jeremy Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

So, um what I wanted to talk about today, I wanted to give a little bit of an update of the amazing, wonderful things that are happening on the farm. Now, of course, everything that we do always seems to be interrelated with the Torah portion. It's almost like the Torah portion is constantly speaking to us, guiding us. So, it's very connected. So, I'm going to start off with what I've been wrestling with since last Torah portion and what I'm wrestling with this Torah portion. And and I'll just see like these are the life lessons that I've come up with because this is what's happening. Why does Israel have to start off as slaves? Why did that have to happen? I mean, I'm you know, I have a little bit of like a beef to take with God here on that one. And I have that beef with a lot of different issues because why does it got to be so hard here? Why did we have to start off as slaves? Why did we have to live through that struggle? I mean, it's kind of like the same question of like, why did you have to make the snake in the garden? I mean, you made this amazing Gan Eden, this amazing Garden of Eden, this amazing paradise. Why do you got to put the snake in there? Like, he's going to ruin it. Like, why does there need to be this struggle? Why does there need to be this challenge? Why is that happening? Why do we have to struggle through all of it? That's the um that's the fundamental question. And I mean, you see it throughout the whole Torah. I mean, at the very end of the Torah, Moshes giving a whole speech through prophecy. And he's saying, I want you to know, Israel, you're going to get into the land, it's not going to be pretty. You're not going to follow God's ways and you're going to be exiled. And then one day, you're going to return to the land. It's like, ugh, why? Why do we have to go through all of the hardships to make that happen? You already brought us into the land. Can't we just live happily ever after? Like, that's how other story books end. Why for us it's like, you're entering into the land and it's not exactly going to be happily ever after. There's going to be an exile and struggle and pain and growth and all of these issues that are going to go through and then one day you're going to make it back to the land of Israel. And it's like, okay. And just in our own lives, we find ourselves in Mitzrayim all the time, in Mitzrayim all the time. We find ourselves in constrictions. We find ourselves imprisoned. We find ourselves in all of these struggles. And then the Torah portion says, I want you to know, outside of this slavery, once you get past this refining fire, Israel will be born. The Torah will emerge and be given to the world and change the trajectory of human history. Somehow the Torah was brought forth through that experience. It like prepared the nation to be able to accept the Torah. And sometimes in life, I just feel like, what? I'm just How did I get myself into this? So, here's the latest thing that had happened. Well, you heard about our fiasco with the vineyard. So, we had to get a flock of sheep to protect our land. I went on a speaking tour to meet all of the beautiful people that I possibly could in the fellowship because I had a feeling like, who knows, maybe they'll lock down the skies again. If I have an opportunity to get out and then just to like hug the people, touch the people. I want to make as many connections as I can with them. And I was so lucky enough to meet so many of you. And I came back and all of a sudden, the truth is, I just there was girls working on the farm. That's what happened. Her name Her first one, her name was Nehama. And there were all these other girls because Yossi's daughter was getting married and there were all these girls helping around for the wedding. You guys saw that wedding. We aired that on the fellowship. And I I We all of a sudden just had these girls here and then many like some of the girls stayed. And as I got to know them a little bit more, I saw that almost all of them didn't come from simple backgrounds. And in fact, just recently, Tehila, with her legal mind, was able to structure two of the girls staying on the farm. And she's actually now defined it as a part of their national service. So, the state of Israel has now found the Arugot Farm important enough that it's an alternative to an army service. You can also do what's called national service. So, it's not a military uniform, but you can serve in a hospital, you can serve in an old age home, you can serve in a school. And the country has defined the Arugot Farm as a strategic asset for the country so far. And they brought us now two positions that we're able to have two of these girls now that sort of were high school dropouts, that come from a little bit of broken homes, that weren't sort of in a proper structure uh to have an actual job now that's recognized by the state of Israel. And in fact, their slots are defined as a teken of a bat sherut l'noar b'sikun, which means a national service that's defined for youth at risk. And so, it's amazing. They get all these benefits now and they'll get benefits when they get married for serving the country. And Tehila is just a queen for figuring out all the bureaucracy to figure that out for these girls. And she sure helped them. And but on the same time, now I love these girls. Ari loves these girls. You can't not love these girls. They are the most beautiful souls. They are so wonderful. They're like, you know, they don't want to have smartphones. They want to be close to the land. They want to be close to nature. They want to learn Torah. We study about once a day together. And they're just the most marvelous, beautiful souls that just kind of got dealt a rough a rough deck, you know, they had a rough hand in life. And they found their way to our farm. And as far as I'm concerned, this farm is their home for as long as they need. But I did find myself in a little bit of a prison. And it's a prison that I'm grateful for because I love these girls. But on the other hand, I'm like, well, I got to I got to feed these girls now. I have to take care of them. Well, how I can That's as if like the farm wasn't big enough and the project heavy enough. Now I got like a whole little team of girls I got to take care of. What am I going to do now? And so, over the last few months, you know, we have a small flock of sheep and we have a small herd of goats. And the girls have become experts at making milk, cheeses, and yogurt from our goats. And our goats are so special. I don't like goat yogurt or goat milk cuz it tastes kind of goaty. I like cow milk. But these goats are so special, you can't even tell that they're goat milk. They just taste like regular milk. And our girls started making all these delicious cheeses and yogurts. And so, you know, I was like, it got to the point where I'm like, okay, I don't know how I'm going to feed these girls anymore. This is really overwhelming. I'm going to send out a WhatsApp to my friends in the area. And I said, "Hey, if you guys would like, we're starting to sell goat yogurt and the girls here will deliver it directly to your home once a week." Oh my gosh, I was over I was flooded with WhatsApps. People say, "I want those goat yogurts from the Arugot Farm. Are you kidding me? We get to support the farm and we get to support the girls. Done. Sign me up. I'm in." And all of a sudden, like, well, 20 families now around Gush Etzion in our area are starting to get delivered goat yogurts for us. Can we show the video of the girls here with the yogurts? I would I just took a few pictures just so you can see. There's Ishai Fleisher. His family ordered and posted it on his Facebook page. This is one of my friends posted his yogurt and his cheese. This guy had a night with his wine and cheese. They sent it to me. That's one of our girls. Her name is Talia. She's so cute. That was our first bottle of yogurt that she put out and that is our branding on our yogurt. Look at that, the Arugot Farm. And the subtitle of the Arugot Farm is tova ha'aretz me'od me'od. The land is very, very good. And that's what the Torah says about the land. Cuz when we first came to the Arugot Farm, people said, "Ah, where are you going? The desert? It's just thorns and there's no water. Who's Who's going to go there?" We're like, "No, no, no. The land is very, very good." And now when people come to the Arugot Farm, they can see that. They can feel that. And what has happened is, you know, there's one thing about giving charity. But the highest level of tzedakah is to facilitate someone else providing for themselves. That's how it's defined in the Torah. You can give money um without the person knowing, that's a higher level of tzedakah. But the highest level of giving charity is actually giving someone a job. And all of a sudden now, these girls that sort of didn't have a place in the world found a home. And somehow through just our activities on the farm and through just our fellowship network here, the girls now have jobs. And they're now sustaining themselves through their own work. And I'm like, wow, as if our farm couldn't get more beautiful, it got that much more beautiful. And it was only because of the sort of constraint that we were put in. We were put into a I was put in That's what I felt like. I was put into a little bit of a prison. I felt like, I got to figure this out. I I I'm I'm I'm sort of I'm tied up here. I have these girls I need to take care of. And out of that now, so much light and so much beauty has come to the world. And our farm has become that much more beautiful. And so, I don't have the answers of why the snake is in the garden. But I do know that the outcome is that if we're able to see past the challenge and somehow break through, even a more beautiful light somehow emerges. And even more goodness and more um mitzvot are brought into the world. And so, I was thinking and I don't exactly have it yet cuz I would love to send our fellowship yogurt. But I think it'll get spoiled by the time it arrives. Sometimes the post office here is like not exactly like the most online. I don't think we can send yogurt. I don't know what will have. I'll probably get arrested. But these girls are so creative. They're constantly creating things. And so, maybe soon we'll be able to like offer gifts and presents to our members. But um just kind of planting that seed that hopefully we'll be able to arrive at such a place that our own products and our own creations will come out to the world from the Arugot Farm. And so, for whatever prison that we're in, if it's an illness, if it's a struggle, if it's just Everyone has their own Mitzrayim that they have to deal with. That's just a part of the structure of reality. That's that snake is there. That challenge is always going to be there. But if we're able to somehow break through, we just know at the end that a greater light is on the horizon. So, we should be blessed with strength and courage to break through and to find our light. Hi, my name is Jeremy Gimpel. A lot of people want to know exactly what the Land of Israel Fellowship is and what members receive when they join. So, let me explain. The Land of Israel Fellowship is a global online community with hundreds of members from over 40 countries around the world. There are live sessions and gatherings that create a direct personal connection to the land of Israel and to lovers of Israel from around the world. There's no online gathering that I'm familiar with that is connected to the land of Israel that unites and brings together such a diverse group of people, backgrounds, and nationalities. It feels like prophecy. It feels like something we need in these times, like a window in to a better future on the horizon. There's a divine unity we experience every week in our fellowship broadcast. We heard these amazing teachings from an authentic Hebrew and Israel perspective and our jaws drop. Not only because they ring so true and are such a blessing, because they are so consistent with what we believe. These Sunday morning gatherings are nothing less than a house of prayer for all nations. Cindy Lou, the United States of America. The Land of Israel fellowship is an amazing resource for learning Torah, the Bible, and the prophets, unfiltered and uncensored directly from the land of Israel. We've been studying Torah for almost 20 years, but we feel we are stepping into it more than ever and seeing new depth and dimensions to scripture. We're encouraged more and more every week. Cal Nardel, USA. Members receive access to all the archives in the library of teachings on every portion of the Torah, the biblical feasts, Hebrew prayer, prophecy, sessions on the ancient wisdom of the prophets of Israel to help us navigate through these turbulent times. These sessions are so rich. I really listen to each and truly each session is the best one yet. Tehila is a tremendous asset and the teachings Arieh shares are so rich. I've read the Bible so many times and I've known the things you are teaching. The Hebrew understanding is what Christians have missed for centuries. Sister Georgian from Germany. The Land of Israel fellowship is truly unique because it's built upon personal relationships with the teachers of the fellowship, myself, Rabbi Arieh Bramwitz, and Tehila Gimpel. Every member has direct access to the staff 24/6 via email or direct WhatsApp to ask questions, to comment, to connect directly to all the teachers. And over the last years, we've connected to some of the most beautiful people on the planet. So, if you want to find out more and join the Land of Israel fellowship, you can click on the link below. And if you want to try it out for just a month, you can email [email protected] and we'll hook you up. I hope to see you. Shalom from the mountains of Judea.