Beit El

And now we're gonna note all the different geographical areas of the land of Israel.

"Ari hahar," the mountain range, which goes from Beer Sheva through Hebron, through Gush Etzion, Yerushalayim, Beit El, the Shomron, all the way down to Emek Yizre'el.

"Ba'arai hashfela," the coa-- the lowlands.

"Ub'arai hanegev" to the south, to the Negev area.

Three times it happens.

So verse two, "Shev napo ki Hashem shlachani ad Beit El." Stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me as far as Beit El.

But Elisha says, "As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you." "Stay here," Eliahu tells Elisha, and Elijah answers by swearing in God's name, "I will not leave you." It happens again in Beit El, "I will not leave you." Again in Jericho, "I will not leave you." Three times the master tells his disciple to stop following, and three times the disciple refuses to be left behind.

Yeah, Jeremy, uh, that threefold refusal, "I will not leave you, I will not leave you, I will not leave you," people in our fellowship already know where I'm going with this, okay? Th- the, it's the key to this chapter, and it tells us everything about why Elisha, and not someone else, becomes the heir to Elijah.

Elijah's testing him, at least that's what I think.

You've done enough.

You don't want this." Right? And every single time, Elisha refuses.

The companies of prophets at Beit El and Jericho knew Elijah was being taken that day.

They went to the ambush in the back of the city.

They sat between Beit El and Ai, which are two cities next to each other, on the west of the city of Ai.

They were the west of the city And Yeshua slept over that night amidst the nation.

So he was with the people, not elsewhere, getting ready so that the early morning they're going to approach and then have this battle.

Two temples, we're working on the third one.

It goes up there to Beit El.

By the way, this is a pet peeve of mine.

I lived in Beit El.

When I say Beit El, what is the image that's supposed to be conjured in your mind? I say Beit El, you say? Sulam Yaakov.

That should be in every Israeli kid's heart.

Every Israeli kid should know, I say Beit El, they say Sulam Yaakov.

It's one of the most beautiful Jewish symbols.

This includes Hebron, or Hebron, the first Jewish capital and burial site of the Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs.

Beit El, where Jacob dreamed of a ladder reaching heaven.

Shechem, modern-day Nablus, where Abraham first built an altar to God.

Shiloh, where the holy tabernacle stood, the heartland of the ancient Jewish story.

Smotrich's party is literally called Religious Zionism, HaTzionut HaDatit, and both are controversial.

Smotrich has impeccable religious Zionist credentials.

Born in the Golan Heights, raised in the West Bank community of Beit El, and educated at Rav Kook's yeshiva, Mercaz HaRav.

But I don't know if Smotrich's politics were what Rav Kook had in mind when he spoke about a Jewish state that would benefit all of humanity.

In all the different neighborhoods.

They do it in Beit El.

They do it in Ramot.

And God willing, they're going to do it in Ramat Beit Shemesh.

Not artificial intelligence, but it was called Ai.

It's a place near Beit El.

It was a city of Ai.

And after the war in Jericho, where the Jews won miraculously, they come up against Ai.

A house is much more important than a temporary shelter that we built for the animals.

And we have places called Beit El, Beit Lechem.

So I would think that the bayit would be the landmark.

But the Torah does the opposite.

[Hebrew] The, the God who answered Yaakov, you know.

So this is in the Torah, that, uh, the, that when Yaakov went-- was running away from Esav, and he stopped in Beit El, and the, uh, he prayed.

And our sages say that's the origins of our night prayer, Musa, um, Maariv.

Um, night is always a time of fear.

He, he was, uh, he cried out to God, and he said, "God, please save me," and et cetera, et cetera.

Both ways.

When he was leaving Esau, when he's going back home, he also stopped in Beit El.

He prayed.

He cried out to God and said, God, please save me, and et cetera, et cetera, both ways.

When he was leaving Asa, when he was going back home, he also stopped in Beit El, he prayed.

Then we moved to Yosef.

Mishan al-Yosef in Yosef in jail.