The Spiritual Dimension of Israel's War in Gaza - Rabbi Manis Friedman:The Land of Israel Fellowship

The drama is getting serious because we've been at war now for 4 months. You know, we have one of our neighbors on the farm has been at war now for over 100 days and he's been home twice. And Israel is just you can't get around it because everyone is thinking about the war, everyone is talking about the war, everyone is immersed in this new reality of Israel under attack and we're just waiting. Is it going to open up in the north? Is it going to be an attack from Iran? And what I think is important to realize is that everything that happens in Israel is a spiritual reality. It's just reflected in this physical world. And so what we have the pleasure of doing today is bringing onto the fellowship um one of the most influential Jewish thinkers in the world today. Um Rabbi Manis Friedman. He is a world-renowned author, a counselor, lecturer, and philosopher. I am such a fan. I have listened to hours and hours of his teachings and he teaches on almost every relevant subject that is out there in the world that's plaguing society today. If it's spirituality or mysticism or sexuality or parenting or marriage and now dealing with Israel at war. Rabbi Friedman, he's already written five books with this new book that's just about to come out, which is really going to be the anchor of this conversation, how to win a war the Jewish way. And um he's known for being YouTube's most popular rabbi. That's how I met him. 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. You just have to click unmute on the bottom left part of your screen, and then we'll finally be able to hear you. So, if you click on unmute, we'll be able to talk. Excellent. How are you today? Thank you. Uh thank God. How are you? Excellent. Excellent. Well, um welcome to our fellowship. This is sort of a ragtag 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 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, lo and behold, the war came up, and here I am once again with an M-16 in my hand guarding our farm. So, you just never know. I guess you're never really um released from Tzva HaShalom. 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 Ari Abramowitz. 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. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. And I'm just going to kick off with a quote at the very beginning of the book. And I think I actually in the middle of the book, but this is one of my favorite quotes cuz 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 Sharon came to give a speech. He spoke like a wise grandfather speaking to his grandchildren. Quote, 'I arrive 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 Sinai." Now, the substantive remainder of his speech may be debated, but this was a moment from which all should take inspiration. Sharon 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 you used to like as the grandfather of the world, I feel like that's even more mechubad, 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 tzitzit, putting on tefillin, listening to Jewish music, trying to find a deeper root 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 Hamas 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 just want to mention that Sharon 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, um the other beautiful thing about his speech is he didn't qualify everything. He said, "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 center this conversation around. Like identity, and even more than identity, which maybe Ariel Sharon wasn't able to fully express, but I want to talk here about emunah. I want to talk about faith in this war. Cuz I feel like your your your your book on wars, 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 emunah 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 us 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 Hakadosh Baruchu. 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 Ari Abramowitz? Where does that leave just the 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 mean? 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 Sinai. We gave the world a Bible. We gave the world the 10 Commandments. We taught the world that there is a God who runs the world, and there's a Mashiach 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 Mishkan bringing God down so that he dwells in us means we don't need faith and we don't need emunah. 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 with 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 want to I want to kind of I bring it from this side now because what's the issue I think? You know, for 2,000 years, Jews weren't able to fight back. You know, there's a legendary story about Mordecai Anielewicz, who was one of the warrior leaders in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. And they say that as a young boy, when he would be harassed or attacked by Jew haters, he would fight back cuz 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?" And even today, you know, it's like the Jews, you there's some Jews in Texas, you know, that own some guns. But they're not really the fighting types. Even if there's like those are sort of the outlaw outlander, the the outliers, the Jews that are real the fighters. But when you look at what's happening inside Israel, I mean, there's a resurrection of like the biblical Jew, like Yehoshua and Gideon and King David and his men. And in Israel, it's like the Maccabees are coming back to life. And I'm wondering, maybe if we're dealing with the spiritual dimensions of war and what it means to you wield this power, maybe this is a part of the process of becoming the people of Israel that we were meant to be. That how could we really speak with such faith if we're kind of living in Brooklyn? How can we talk about God with such confidence? Maybe only when we're strong enough to defend ourselves and bring Jewish power to light, um maybe then we can say it. And if that's true, that this could really only be said in Israel by the people of Israel backed with tanks and guns and strength, then maybe this should be like a new call to young Jewish men to work out, to train, to join the IDF, to become warriors, not just in service of the state of Israel, but to become Jewish warriors in service of Hashem in their tikkun hamiddot and growing into becoming who they really are, like bringing out their true Jewish identity. What do you think of that? I hope that that's not where we're headed. More militant, more fighting, more violence, more No. I think the real battle is an ideological battle. The question is not who has bigger bombs. The question is who's right. What's the truth? And the truth is so absent. Nobody is interested in what is true. Nobody. It's not that there are lies. There have always been lies. The truth also existed. Today, the truth is not even respected. So, what if you're telling the truth? I can tell a better lie. And you're admired for it. So, really, the showdown that comes before Moshiach is not a military one. It's an ideological one. Once and for all, what's the truth? Why are we here? Why are Jews? Why a Torah? Why an Israel? Why? The fact that we can beat up our enemy doesn't prove anything to them. Cuz they still think they're right. So, when they beat us up, they are right. When we beat them up, we are wrong. So, you can't win like this. The real issue is does anyone still respect the truth? What is the truth? The truth is God gave the land of Israel to the people of Israel. That's it. We are the people of Israel. That's it. If we're not convinced of that, if we still feel like we have to argue, you know, that the the the the United Nations, the partition plan, we were there all along, we never stopped praying for Yerushalayim. We stop justifying yourself. You sound uncertain. You sound like there's room for debate. There's no room for debate. If anybody's interested in the truth. So Reb Mana uh this is Ari Abramowitz. I'm uh Jeremy's partner here. He's my commander in the army. I'm also a huge fan. I'm a little starstruck just talking to you. And I have to tell you that your face with a black background is perfect. You look like the a prophet of Israel. You really do. And you That'll do. Yeah, you often speak exactly that way, too. And so I'm actually my question has to do with the prophets of Israel. You know, Yechezkel in uh in Lamed Vav talks about the very existence of the nation of Israel in the diaspora is a is profanes God's name. That he will for his own name's sake he will bring us back to the land of Israel because that is a Kiddush Hashem to have the Jews in the land of Israel and it's a Chillul Hashem. It's a desecration of his name to have the Jews in the diaspora. And you're talking about the truth that nobody respects the truth, but do we? Maybe it's us, the nation of Israel, that needs to lead the way in actually being a living expression of that truth and saying that our place isn't there. This isn't even from a theological perspective for me. Maybe I'm just a crazy goat herder on a mountain top in Judea, but I've never seen the US being a greater adversary to Israel, a greater existential threat to Israel. I've never seen more tangible hatred of Jews in America. I've never seen the societal fabric in America being so tenuous holding the country together. It seems like Jews are are are in danger there just staying there. But for the danger aside, on a spiritual religious level, do you think that every Jew should be making aliyah? Is that something you believe in? Is that something you would advocate? Well, in some way, every Jew should be making aliyah where they live. Elevate the place you're in. Whether it's in Israel or outside of Israel, we need to elevate. And elevate means start living the way God expects you to live. Don't fight a war according to the Oslo agreement or according to the Geneva Convention. Fight a war the way the Abershter says to fight a war. What are you afraid of? Why won't you follow what the Torah says? Because we're still in galus. And we need to elevate ourselves above that. How will we survive without the United States support? How did we survive all these years without anyone's support? And who says they're not going to support you? They've been supporting you for their own self-interest anyway. They're not doing it out of the goodness of their heart. They're doing it out of self-interest. It is in their self-interest to support Israel, and they will continue to. We have to be models of godliness, and there's no better way to model godliness than to fight a war according to God's instructions. The Geneva Conference is such an embarrassment. It's such a foolish system. Don't harm civilians. Don't fight on Sundays. Don't bomb cemeteries or hospitals. Well, are you fighting a war or you playing games? It's it's immoral. Most of the principles by which we are fighting this war are not moral, they're immoral. Why can't we do it God's way? Jeremy, with your permission, I just want to just take this one step further. Rav Monash, forgive me if I'm overstepping here. But yeah, I hear what you're saying is such overwhelming clear wisdom. And you're saying we should live the way that God wants us to live, but does he not make it clear that as a nation, he wants us to live in the land of Israel only when we take that leap of faith, of actual faith and say we're going to ourselves liberate ourselves from the psychological subjugation of of the exile to come to the land of Israel. Then we will live as a nation, not on individual microscopic atomized levels, but on a national level. We will be able to be an expression that will bring Hashem into the world and build the Beit Hamikdash when we come here as a people and as a nation. Then he'll take from us a heart of stone and put within us a heart of flesh. Then it will happen. Am I missing something that it it feels to me like you're saying fight the war in our own spiritual way wherever we are in the world. Is there not a movement that's happening where Hashem is trying to wake us up? This is the writing on the wall. Like there's such hatred throughout the world that I see that I I just wish the Jews of America would see the writing on the wall. Pack a backpack and get over here. And when I look at you, Rav Monash, who I consider a personal rebbe of mine, and you're saying that's not the call. That's not the call. We should everybody stay where we are and fight it on our own spiritual level. Am I missing something there? Well, you're you're talking about taking on the world rather than just being our isolated into ourselves. How about this suggestion? Let's rename the army. It's not a good name. Israel Defense Forces. We are not here to defend ourselves. We're here to conquer the world. Change the world. Bring God down to Earth. Everywhere. The Holy Land is a model. It's a sample of how the whole world should be. You can't have the whole world ungodly and one little holy land. There'll never be an end to the problems if that's the case. The only real solution is the world becomes godly. The whole world. Those people marching in defense of Hamas or in defense of the Palestinians, they need to be uh educated. They need to be enlightened. They need to know what the truth is so that they become godly. We don't want to make Israel another ghetto. Okay. So, I want to chime in here now. Rabbi said that this war really revolves around truth. That's all that matters here. Let's bring the truth to the world. Now, if we're talking in realms of truth, then I feel like what's needed here is just a clear call to call out the evil. Evil. Meaning when I saw the videos of October 7th and the testimonies, I was like, "Oh, we're at war with absolute evil here." I mean, it could there display how could anything be more evil than what we saw on October 7th. Just the absolute pleasure and ecstatic thrill and elation that we saw as they were worshipping their God in the most heinous acts of violence. I've never encountered that in my lifetime, and I really can't imagine um a greater force of just that is countering everything good in the world. And so, I guess that this war in some ways then is, you know, what is going to be the message that comes out of Jerusalem? Is it going to be a Temple Mount with evil and the worship of war and death, or is the message coming out of Yerushalayim going to be freedom and holiness? I mean, who's going to be victorious here? It's good versus evil, and I feel like that's not really being said. They're not really being called out for what they are, and that's what's at stake here. The world either consciously or subconsciously sort of knows that, and I think that's why they're just glued to the screen cuz they see that this is an epic showdown of good versus evil. And what you wrote in your book I thought was quite um insightful. You wrote like this, this is a direct quote. The tendency of good people to avoid conflict, whether through passivity, ignorance, or neglect, can allow evil to prosper and thrive. The gardener whose garden is overrun with weeds never intended to let them grow, he just wasn't paying attention. And in some ways it's like Israel allowed this evil to grow under our noses and deluded themselves that it would be okay. They let some more time pass. The delusion now in Israel's home the conceptia, it's like they are just they were just in their own concept of the way they could deal with evil. It's like, well, maybe we can negotiate with them, maybe we can buy them off, let's give them some money, give them some quiet. Maybe quiet and money and the evil will just disappear, and then all of a sudden it all the evil like reared its head and attacked the the weakest and the most indefensible in Israel. Like young men and women at a music peace festival. And you're like one like, wow, what are we to do now? So, when you talk about the name of Tsahal, Tsva Haganah Le'Israel, the Israel Defense Forces, being a bad name, I totally agree with that. We should be called Tsva Hahatkala Le'Israel, the Israel Offensive Forces. We should see if evil within our midst, and then we should be proactive and wipe it out before it takes root, before the weeds start to spread. But then, and I'm trying to be honest now, and I love that idea, but think about October 6th. Netanyahu didn't really have the mandate to go into Gaza and do what we're doing now. It's like the people of Israel, they wouldn't have enlisted 300,000 as we did right now. The world would not nearly have been as permissive of this war in Gaza as they are now. And even now, they're sort of putting the restraints on us. So, in some ways, it's almost like it was inevitable this war. Once Israel pulled out of Gaza in that, you know, foolish decision to surrender that land, then this war is almost a direct consequence, a direct punishment, a direct outcome of that short-sighted, fear-driven, small-minded, faithless decision. And here we are. What you said in your book is, whatever we do, it's not peace unless it guarantees that there will be no threat of hostility for at least 40 years. And I think that that's a good definition of peace. Not like peace now, but like peace now and forever. Like, let's try to think a little bit long-term here. And I'm just wondering, here you are looking from the sidelines, analyzing the situation, what should Israel do moving forward? Like, what's the next step now for us to actually bring peace for 40 years? Let me ask you a question. What's more evil? It's a painful question. What is more evil? What Hamas did, and it wasn't only Hamas, it was also the UN workers there, what they did on October 7th or what the president of the Ivy League schools are saying here in America. Who's more evil? It's a scary thing. Evil does not you know, is not limited to Hamas or Gaza. The evil in the world today is the result of absolute ignorance, confusion, lack of direction, purposelessness. I see thousands, hundreds of thousands of people marching in the streets all over the world. But they have nothing better to do? Pro-Palestinian. They don't even know what a Palestinian is. They don't know where Palestine is. They don't know where Israel is. But they're marching to defend the people of Palestine. Why? Because they're evil? No, because they're crazy. Because they are so desperate for a purpose or a cause that they'll they'll they'll they'll support whatever comes first out of desperation. And I want to stay, you know, go there and say, "Go home and make supper. What is wrong with you? You haven't You don't have a life to live? Why are you marching here for people you don't know, for a cause you don't understand? What are you doing?" They need a purpose. They need the purpose. We need to teach the world why they exist in the first place because they're growing crazy from the lack of knowledge, from the lack of understanding. I was debating this I want to I want to I just want to stop here just for a second to make sure we get clear. Because I've been thinking a lot about evil in my just free time, I guess. Just in my own thoughts and in my own wonder. And I've been thinking like, you know, well, what the Hamas did was evil. What the people at Harvard did was evil. What's worse? Hard to say, really. But there is an ultimate evil. Meaning they're evil actions. Let's say disobeying the king. The king has orders and you've broken the king's rules. That's evil. You've done something wrong. But the ultimate evil would be to dethrone the king. A direct attack on the king seems to be the actual essence of evil. Like the raison d'être of evil is actually to attack God. And I'm wondering these people that are marching in the streets, the trans queer for Palestine people, or the believers in Allah that are, you know, supporters against, you know, the supporters of jihad. I'm not sure that they're um delusional or crazy. I think that they really believe in what they're doing because in some ways they are a they are excited about attacking God. Meaning an attack on the Jewish people in the land of Israel is in some ways an attack on the God of Israel. And if I think about that in that way, then we can really like sort of see evil as manifestations of evil in killing, in torturing, in kidnapping. But ultimately, they're attacking the sovereignty of God in the world. The existence The The The ultimate achievement of evil would be to like say God doesn't exist. Let's prove that God doesn't exist. Cuz if God does exist, how are the chosen people being attacked? How could the chosen people of God in the land of Israel be so weak? Either your God is weak or your God doesn't exist. And in that way, I feel like this we have to really define then the war here is a spiritual war of good versus evil. The existence of God versus the kind of erasing of God, a kidusha Hashem where we invite God into the world or a chilul Hashem where God is removed from the world. And I think that's actually at the crux of the war. Right. So, I think the the Hamas are getting way too much publicity. We're way too focused on them. They are the tip of the iceberg. They show what the world is going through, but the whole world is going through it. Whether it's denying God or simply having no idea that there ever was a God. The the abject ignorance is scary. Evil people you beat up. What do you do with people who simply don't know right from wrong? Don't know up from down. Don't know what a woman is. You going to debate politics with them? They're so messed up. We are not the ones who are in trouble. The world is in trouble. And the only hope left for the world is the message that we can bring to them. And all we're saying is we have a right to defend ourselves. That's pathetic. It's also pathetic to say, "But we are a democracy in the Middle East." Who cares? Who was impressed by that ever in 70 years? Try something that works. This is not working. You want to get to the real heart of the issue, the way the truth really is. People have been massacring babies since the beginning of history. Pharaoh did it. The Babylonians did it, the Romans did it. It's nothing new. This barbarism is as old as as creation. What's different today is not how cruel people can be. Don't be so shocked. I mean, look, the rest of the world is not shocked. The rest of the world is not horrified. Yeah, so they killed babies. Yeah, so they what? No, the world is not moral enough to be in shock. What's happening is this. For many, many years, we have been fighting for our survival. We have been fighting the descendants of Esau. The Torah tells us that Esau is Ish Sadeh Yodea't Sayid. He's a hunter. He's a great hunter. A successful hunter. He lives by the sword. Al Harev Hatiyi For 2,000 years, we've been contending with Esau's descendants. Rome, Christianity. Christians never thought of annihilating Jews. Isn't it interesting? As much as they hate Jews, they tortured us, they threw us out of one land after another, they forced conversions, mobs, pogroms. Never wipe out the Jews. Never. Cuz that would go against their whole policy, which is to convert Jews. Their victory would be if all Jews would become Christian. So, they never went on a on a on a a elimination uh genocidal plan. Hitler was not a Christian. Or wasn't acting as a Christian. Here all of a sudden, we have people like Iran and and others nothing less than the elimination of the Jewish people. Who are these people and why? We are now fighting with the descendants of Ishmael. Ishmael is not a fighter. He does not live by the sword. He is not a conqueror. He's a deceiver. The Torah says that when Sarah asked Abraham to banish Ishmael and his mother, Abraham was reluctant to do it. God assured Abraham that it's the right thing to do. Kol asher ta'amar lecha Sarah shma beqola. Do what Sarah is saying because he will not inherit with Yitzchak. Only Yitzchak inherits Abraham. Now here's here's a fact of of history. Every other country in the world can be conquered and will then belong to the conqueror. There is no country in the world that belongs to the people who originally lived there. No country uh is an exception except for Israel. You cannot conquer Israel. The Babylonians tried, the Romans tried, the Turk Turkish Empire, none of No, it doesn't work. Because Israel is an inheritance. You either inherit or it will never be yours. So the big question in the world today is who inherits the land? Who is the heir to Avram? The Muslims say and really believe that they are the heirs. Because they never got involved with idol worship like Avram. They are circumcised like Avram. And they pray five times a day to the God of Abraham. They claim that they are the heirs. So now it makes perfect sense that every Jew is a threat. Cuz all the descendants of Yitzhak the Torah says are the true inheritors. If there's a single Jewish baby alive in the world, he inherits the whole land. One baby, a day old, and he inherits the whole entire land. That's how inheritance works. So yes, every baby is a threat to them. The very existence of the Jewish people, descendants of Yitzhak, is a threat to their inheritance. It makes sense that they will not accept the two-state solution. Cuz it's a chutzpah and an insult to say to them, "We will give you a land of your own. We will give you a state of your own." What are you talking about? This is our land. We inherited. So well, if you don't agree, we'll beat you up. We have a better army. We'll wipe you out. Yes, you could wipe us out. We are still the inheritors. We are justified. What do we say to that? We say, but we're we're a democracy. So what kind of joke is this? We've made no progress whatsoever. Not with the Arabs and not with the rest of the world, cuz we're not answering the primary claim. They say the land is automatically theirs by inheritance. They don't have to conquer it. They don't have to buy it, and they will not accept it as a gift. It's theirs. We don't belong there. They really believe that. And what are we saying? We refuse to answer the question. We refuse to deal with the issue. We keep talking out of Well, I I love the framing of the world through the prism of Asav and Ishmael. I think that that's absolutely true. The Western world represented by Asav, the Arab world represented by Ishmael. That also explains why the Eastern countries, they're not really interested in this war. This stuff doesn't feature on Singaporean TV, but on European TV, American TV, it's headlines. Every Arab nation is just watching what's going to happen in this land because all of them have a shaikh. They're all connected to Abraham, and all of them have some sort of claim to the land. And ultimately, I I what you're I guess Gary until we say God gave us this land, we're not even speaking in the same language as them. But I want to point out something which I think is really interesting because because we're talking about manifest evil. It says that every generation Israel is going to be facing a certain evil. And it's Amalek dor l'dor every generation this evil is going to grab the throne of God. And what is Amalek? It is the birth child of Ishmael and Esau. They give birth to Amalek ultimately. And I'm looking at the world now and I'm looking at this manifest evil. I don't know what else they could have done to have declared themselves the manifest evil in the world. And you're like, how could we even know who Amalek is nowadays? I mean there's a tradition that we sort of lost the nation of Amalek. Now Amalek is just a spirit of Amalek. Like Hitler maybe manifested Amalek in the last generation. And in our generation, how will we know who Amalek is? Because Amalek appears in every generation. And it seems as though they would just declare themselves. And in comes Iran and Ahmadinejad stands in front of the United Nations and declares in front of the world that our raison d'être is to wipe Israel off the map. And if you look at this picture, this was just in the news two days ago in Israel. President Isaac Herzog shows this book written by the founder of the Hamas that is nothing less than a book that's calling for the annihilation of all the Jew ketz hayehudim the end of Jews. That was written by the founder of the Hamas who of course is just another tentacle of Iran. And I'm like looking at that I'm like, well, they've manifested pure evil. They've declared themselves as the force in the world that is set to annihilate the Jews. What is stopping us from waging war against this evil in that way? If we want to go biblical, we can also say God gave us this land and this land belongs to us. But let's really go biblical and call this evil what it is, Amalek. Civilians, no civilians, this Geneva Accord, that Geneva Accord, let's go after the root of all evil and actually wage war with them. Do we feel comfortable calling them Amalek? Is there room for that in this world today? Or we sort of have to still kind of keep Amalek in the ethereal? I'm not sure about who Amalek is, so let's focus on what we do know. We do know that not a single Arab today can trace himself genealogically biologically back to Ishmael. So, if anything the Muslims of today, to their credit are ideological descendants of Abraham. They are not biological descendants, none of them. Some of them can trace their ancestry back to Muhammad. But no one can claim to be a descendant of Ishmael. Too much intermarriage. We, on the other hand, are the biological descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So, who inherits? The student of a teacher or the children of a grandfather? And if it's an inheritance even if we want to give it all away, we can't. We can't give away an inheritance cuz it belongs to the unborn grandchildren and to those who already passed away. So, we have no authority to give away an inheritance. This is the conundrum. All we need to do is tell the world particularly the Muslim world you are great students of Abraham. Congratulations. Be proud of the fact that you never dipped into our way desire and you are circumcised and you pray to God the God of Abraham. That's great. You don't inherit. We inherit. So please go home. And what's going to happen if we say that? The Muslims will remove the the mosque so that we can build the beta migdash. That's peace. That's what's missing today. Not to emphasize how evil evil is. It's to finally tell the truth because the truth will always win. Now people say, well, you know, I believe it. You believe it, but if we get up in the United Nations and we say the land is ours, we inherit it. They're not going to believe it. In other words, you're saying that the truth has no power. It's true, but useless. Really? Then you've given up the ship. If truth no longer matters to you, well, that's exactly what's going on in the world that they are so lost, so confused, so ignorant, and so desperate for some direction. Which is why the coming of Messiah is so realistic today. The world is desperate for leadership. Desperate. To the point of suicide. They can't stand their own existence because they don't know whether they're coming or going. So let's not talk about how evil evil is. We know. We know. We've been there. They're all like, "Oh, this is the worst thing that's happened to us since the Holocaust." Right. There's already been a Holocaust. And before that, there was the destruction of Jerusalem twice. Which may have been even more evil. So, emphasizing how evil Hamas is is not taking us in the right direction. Yes, they're evil. Wipe them out. Who cares? What is going to be with the world? What is the truth? What is the future? We're the only hope left. So, with that idea of us being the hope, I want to quote a part from your book right here. This is a direct quote. The purpose of our taking back the land that we so foolishly surrendered, therefore, is to make God's will and presence real. It's for that reason that God gave the land to the Jews, to Abraham and his children and children's children. And we must insist that his will is obeyed and his truth revealed. So, that's kind of like a second layer to aside from us saying we are the descendants of Abraham, it's our inheritance, it belongs to us. It's that God gave us this land and that his will ultimately is what needs to reign. And I just want to let you kind of explore that. What would that look like if you're standing at the United Nations and you say God gave us this land and then the nations say, "Well, we don't really believe in God. That's not a legitimate claim." What do you say then? See, that that's where we get stuck. We know we're right, but we don't think anybody is going to agree or accept it. We're going to say, "It is in the Torah." It's in the Torah. And they're going to say, "Well, your Torah." We have We have very much underestimated the power of the Torah. The world cannot argue against Torah. They can't. Christians can't, Muslims can't, no one else knows the Torah. Yep. If we don't believe in the truth, then we have nothing more to to fight for. The truth will prevail. It always does. If you say it, if you proclaim it. Now, Yona went to Ninveh and said, "Do teshuvah." And they did. So, why did they believe him? How did he prove to them that he was a prophet of God sent by God speaking in God's name? What did he do to prove it? He didn't have to. He spoke the truth, and people reacted. That's what's going to happen if you get up in the UN and you say, "People, there is no two-state solution. There is no discussion. There is no negotiation. Israel belongs to the people of Israel. We can't help it. We can't do anything about it. We can't give it to you. We can't give it away. You can't buy it from us, and you can't take it from us." So, let's put an end to this. If you want to live in Israel, you live in Israel under our rules. It's a Jewish state, the state of the children of Israel. You want to live there, fine. You don't, go someplace else. They will They will, particularly the Arabs, because they're truly religious people. Misguided, but willing to die for their faith. So, it is absolutely predictable and reasonable that if we talk straight and we tell them what's true about God, that they will religiously remove the mosque, which doesn't need to be there anyway, according to their religion. They will remove the mosque and prepare the way for the third base of English. Rabbi Nachman, there's one last question I want to sort of throw your way here. Um, we have here in our fellowship, we have Jews from throughout Israel. We have even more so Jews from throughout the diaspora. And we have many non-Jews, and I sort of say the word non-Jews because it's difficult to really put them in a box because they themselves tell me that. They don't identify as a Jew, they don't identify as Christians. They don't exactly know where they identify. They're sort of in spiritual no-man's land, very spiritually courageous, intellectually honest people. Um, number one, what would you say to them? To that demographic of our fellowship as far as what they can do or should be doing during this times, and many of them are actually curious to know what role they play in this uh redemption that's unfolding right now. Um, who they are. Do you have you know, you're massive massive sensation on the internet. You know that many of your followers are exactly uh this demographic demographic of people. Do you have a message for them? They, fortunately, are way ahead of us. They're already convinced. Israel belongs to Israel. What is the question? They don't even see the issue. They don't know why this war is taking a hundred days. It should have been over in a month. They don't understand why we're afraid to assert ourselves when we are so right. They're puzzled. And I think that that's 80% of the human population. Only Only if you're a president of a university can you be that crazy. How many presidents are there? They're a tiny minority. The normal people of the world, which is the vast majority, the silent majority, they don't understand what the question is. You know, people said, "If you move the capital, if the United States moves the capital to Washington to to Jerusalem, there's going to be a civil war, there's going to be an outrage, the world is going to go crazy." Nobody went crazy. There was no outrage. There was almost no reaction at all. Why? Because Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Why are we afraid of Yeah, you know, I I I had a conversation with Ambassador David Friedman just a couple of weeks ago, and he said the amount of phone calls that he and President Trump got telling "There is going to be blood in the streets. There's going to set us into World War III." And in the end they moved the embassy to Jerusalem, and absolutely nothing happened because that's what was supposed to happen. Um so I I I want to ask another question now that sort of is a different way of seeing things. Cuz all over the world, you see people marching in the streets saying, "You don't belong here. Jews don't belong From the river to the sea. You don't belong there." And you know, kind of through the Torah of the Baal Shem Tov, I'm looking at that, and I'm trying to think to myself, "Maybe there's something that I should take home from what they're saying. Maybe there is something true to what they're saying. Maybe we have to kind of look inside now as the Jews and saying, "Are we worthy of belonging in Eretz Yisrael now?" The enemy is coming against us now. That's not just a coincidence. That's some So, something is speaking to us. And I wanted to sort of hear your thoughts. Is there a way to sort of interpret that as a calling from above that we should actually take heed in what they're saying? Yes. But not to question whether we're deserving. On the con- on the contrary, they're telling us, "The land is yours from the river to the sea." Stop negotiating. Stop bargaining. Stop giving away pieces. From the river to the sea, it is your land. All right. All right. So, I have one last question here, Rabbi. I'm going to quote you here from your book once again, cuz it's almost like seemingly contradictory quotes. And I just want to make sure that I we understand this idea, cuz in some ways it's the most important idea of the whole book, cuz it's sort of where it leaves us. And here's what you write. Every Jewish person should know that there is an end goal. And that this goal is essential to God. There is no other option besides Geulah. The ultimate revelation of the oneness of this fragmented world, the elevation from our natural human state to a divine state of wholeness, of unity. Knowing that the grand finale is on its way gives us the inspiration we need to stand firm and join in the journey with our own acts of goodness and kindness. So, the first thing is you have to keep the redemption. This is going to end well. God has a plan. Don't lose focus of that. And then you write, "The truth is, Israel cannot achieve true sovereignty without the coming of Mashiach, The ultimate king of Israel, the divinely empowered Jewish leader who imbues Israel with strength and the entire world with justice and mercy. And I'm thinking of those two sort of contradictory statements there. On one hand, it's not exactly contradictory, but sort of like, where does that leave us practically? We hope for redemption, but we hope for Mashiach, but know that real peace can't be achieved without him, which is kind of hopeless in that way. So, where does that leave us? What are the steps forward for us as we wait for the coming of Mashiach that can kind of like untangle us from this conundrum that we're in? God forbid, we are not waiting for Mashiach. We are preparing the world for Mashiach actively purposefully. Sovereignty will not come without Mashiach. But even without sovereignty, you have to be moral. Even if we don't have a sovereign state, we still have to obey the Torah. We still have to make the world godly. So, yes, sovereignty won't happen without Mashiach. And that's why we having a hard time calling the shots. A sovereign state makes its own laws. If we were a sovereign state, why don't we pass a law that anyone who throws a stone, any child who throws a stone at an Israeli soldier, their parents are executed. It's the law of the land. It's our land. It's our law. Oh, God forbid. No, no, no, the world would never tolerate that. Okay, so you're not a sovereign state. Does that mean you should let yourself be killed when you have the best army in the world? So, sovereignty aside, we're the Jewish people. And we live by Jewish values and by Torah values and by God's values. We protect civilians, the Jewish way. A civilian is someone who hands you his gun and says, "I surrender." That's a civilian. Otherwise, how do you know he's a civilian? So, yeah, we don't kill people who surrender. That's moral. To ask an Israeli soldier entering a booby-trapped house to decide who is and who is not a a civilian, that's insane. It's insane. It's immoral. It is up to the civilian to identify himself as a civilian, and then we won't kill him. That's Jewish thinking. It's sensible thinking. Should we be proportionate in our response? Absolutely. But the Jewish way. As soon as you achieve peace, you stop killing. You don't kill any person, not not not one, once peace is achieved. Proportionate means only kill as many as it takes to bring peace. That's proportionate. And that's sensible. That's moral. Proportionate doesn't mean if you kill two, I kill two. If you rape two, I rape two. If you take hostages, I take hostages. That is so immoral. Why are we following moral instruction from an immoral world when we are the authors of morality? We got to go back to be the teachers, not the students. For the sake of the world, not only for our own survival. So, with sovereignty. Yeah, I really appreciate you coming here today. I loved reading the manuscript. I would encourage everyone, if you see it here, oh, that's not coming out properly. Well, it's to win a war. Tabitha, can we put that up on the screen really quickly? Is that possible to get that graphic one again? To win a war, the Jewish way. And And this conversation danced around the book because I said you'll be able to read a lot of the book, but the Rabbi talks about civilians, about proportionality, about the morality of the world, how to understand the war, the halachas of war. It's just a wonderful read, an inspiring read, a brilliant book. It's concise. It's I read it over Shabbat. It's just a pleasure. And um I would encourage everyone, I mean, this is sort of inyana d'yoma. This is what's happening right now. So, let's actually look at the Jewish way of how to win a war. And um thank you, Rabbi, for writing the book. is now available The book is now available on Amazon. Excellent. It's out. All right, Rabbi. Thank you very much. Thank you. one more message for all of our listeners here, all the people that are on live, that will be listening in later. If you had one message that you wanted to deliver, sort of from in the challenge of the war, a message that sort of we can take home with us, what would that message be? We are going to see miracles. That's the good news. The bad news is, we're going to see miracles. We shouldn't need miracles anymore. We should be the miracle. So, yes, God is going to take us out of this really messy situation. But really, coming of Mashiach means no more miracles necessary. The world, nature becomes godly, and you don't need supernatural. God doesn't want to be supernatural. God wants to dwell among us. So, he doesn't want to be supernatural. He wants to be naturally super. And we have to do that. Bring God to the world. Bring the world to God, like a good shadchan. Until the world is filled with the knowledge of God, like water fills the ocean. We should be the miracle. Not have to wait for God's miracles. In galus, only God's miracles. Geulah means we've become the miracle. Thank you so much, Rabbi. That's really absolutely beautiful. Thank you for joining us today. The next time that you're in Israel, there is the deepest settlement in Eretz Yisrael in the mountains of Judea. At the edge of Jewish settlement, Ari and I went three mountain tops a little bit deeper just to grab another few inches of land overlooking the Dead Sea and the Judean mountains overlooking the Judean desert. A spectacular place in the mountains where King David wrote most of the book of Tehillim, right outside of Bethlehem. If next time you're in Israel, we would love to have you out at the Arugot Farm. I will personally, Rav Manis. I will personally wash your feet and slaughter you a sheep. You will get VIP Judean treatment at our farm. It'd be a great honor to have you. It'll be a great honor having you on the fellowship. I think you just scared me off. He scared me off, too, Rabbi. I don't know why he does that. Come to my house. We'll just make you a steak. Thank you. All right. I hope Yes. Yeah. All right. Shalom. Shalom. Have good news. Only good news. Amen. Amen. All right. Shalom, everybody. See you next week.