Why We Need Sheep Dogs

Here’s one of Aesop’s fables: One day, the wolves sent a delegation to the sheep and asked to make eternal peace with them. “The dogs are at fault for the conflict between us,” the wolves told the sheep. “They are the source of dispute. They bark at us, threaten us, and provoke us. Banish the dogs and there will be nothing to prevent eternal friendship and peace between us.” The foolish sheep believed this and banished the dogs. And so, without the protection the dogs used to offer, the sheep became easy prey for the wolves. -As quoted by Guy Bechor
at Ynetnews.com in his story A Middle Eastern Lesson

You can compress the fable into the sentence, "when one lives with wolves, keep dogs for protection". Bechor is using the fable to illustrate the need for Jews in the middle east, who live among many wolves, to keep "dogs". The primary "dog" kept for protection is the Land of Israel itself and of course, the Land's chief defense force, the IDF. Much of the world, such as the United States and the particularly the Obama administration, believe that the sheep should send away their dogs (the nationhood of Israel and the Israeli army) in order to ensure peace between sheep and wolves. However, if you've been paying attention to a number of terrorist events as I recorded them in a recent blog post, you can see that sending away the dogs is a very bad idea. Especially in light of the so-called unity pact forming between Hamas and Fatah as well as the emphasis that such a pact does not need to recognize Israel as a state. No, Israel needs to keep the dogs.

Bechor says what you'd expect him to say from his perspective, and I agree with him, but he did make one unexpected statement:

When one observes the fate of the Christians in the Middle East, one realizes what would have happened to the Jews had they been defeated, heaven forbid, or remained without protection. Christians are being butchered in states that experienced “democratic change” such as Iraq, Egypt and Tunisia; their churches are being burned, they’re prompted to escape, and their property is looted.

The Christians were misfortunate enough not to establish a state with a clear Christian identity, unlike the Jews. Naively, the Christians believed in partnership with other ethnicities, and now they’re paying the price – in Lebanon, where they’re becoming extinct, in the Palestinian Authority, and very soon in Syria as well.

Bechor amazingly compares Christians and Jews and more or less suggests a "Christian state" in the middle east as a means of protection. He compares the motives behind Zionism and Jewish statehood to what Christianity should have done in the middle east and, having "naively" assumed they (Christians) could live in peace among their Muslim neighbors, are now paying the price, even in so-called "democratic" Arab nations.

I recently read a commentary of Menachos 52 that re-enforced Bechor's point very successfully:

Shortly after the Holocaust, when Rav Yisrael Grossman, zt”l, paid a visit to the Abir Yaakov of Sadigura, zt”l, he was surprised to find him in an exceptionally joyous mood. When the rebbe noticed Rav Grossman’s surprise, he used a parable to explain why he was filled with joy despite the recent tragedy. “Imagine a poor Jew, beaten down and sickly, who has nowhere to even rest his head. If people have mercy and open their homes to him, he will surely be filled with boundless joy from gratitude.

“The Jewish people today are likened to this poor man. Although we endured such cruelty which resulted in the murder of millions of Jews, we must never lose sight of the positive. Now that we have entered Eretz Yisrael, which is our homeland, we are exactly like a poor displaced man who has finally found a home.”

He added, “You might argue that the spiritual level here is not exactly optimal. Nevertheless, the very fact that Hashem has brought us back home after such a tragedy is also enough to make us joyous!”

The Kaftor VaFerach, zt”l, learns the greatness of Eretz Yisrael from a statement on today’s daf. “The Midrash Rabbah explains that the verse (Bereshis 2:12) - 'the gold of that land was good,’ refers to the spiritual gold of Torah. ‘There is no Torah like the Torah of Eretz Yisrael and there is no wisdom like the wisdom of Eretz Yisrael.’ In Bava Basra (158b) we find that the very air of Eretz Yisrael imparts understanding of Torah. In Menachos we see that when Rav Avin told over a teaching to Rav Yirmiyah, his hearer criticized those who live in Bavel saying that they were fools who lived in a place of darkness. This is in contrast with Eretz Yisrael, whose very air is the breath of Hashem.”

Menachos 52
Stories off the Daf
The Land of Light and Wisdom

It's commentaries like this one that warms my heart and makes me long to visit the Holy City and to breathe the air, but this isn't an option for me for a number of reasons, not the least of which is financial. Some Christians, when they describe "going home" are talking about going to Heaven when the die. Other Christians believe that the Jews are just "holding" Israel for them and, when Jesus comes, the Jews will be marginalized, and all of the covenant promises involving Jews and the Land will be transferred to the Christians.

I don't believe that, but then, as a Christian, as Bechor points out we have no place to go. Or do we?

In Rabbi Hershel Brand's book On Eagles' Wings: Moshiach (Messiah), Redemption, and the World to Come, he makes his various points using a fictional conversation between a Rabbi and a young student. At one point, when the Rabbi is describing Gentiles in the world to come, the student is incredulous and asks if there will even be Gentiles in the world to come. The Rabbi answers in the affirmative and assures his student that there are actually some "righteous Gentiles" who have merited a place the world to come. Despite the book's generally anti-missionary tone and its less than Christian-friendly presentation, it's nice to know from Rabbi Brand's point of view, that a few of us will "make it".

But where do we Christians belong? Today, the Jews have a land: Israel. Although the rest of the world is fighting as hard as it (we) can to take it away from them and to exterminate the Jews once more (didn't we just finish commemorating Yom HaShoah?), the Land is God's and He gave it to the Children of Israel as their perpetual inheritance. Some say that, as grafted in non-Jews, we also have a stake in the physical land, but Israel isn't very big, even in terms of its Biblical borders, and it's hard to imagine the worldwide population of Christians and Jews (at least in today's world) being able to fit. Also, you have to examine the idea of whether or not Christians are "Israel" in the sense that Israel is Israel.

In any event, a Christian has as much chance of making aliyah (emigrating) to Israel today as a wolf does of winning a popularity contest among the sheep...that is to say, none.

Jews have a mandate to establish and maintain a Holy Land that goes all the way back to Abraham. Although all nations will be blessed through Abraham's offspring (Genesis 22:18), that blessing doesn't translate into an inheritance such as the one provided to Israel by God.

Gentile disciples are blessed through Abraham's seed, Jesus (Yeshua). As disciples of the Jewish Messiah, we have belonging to each other and to God and salvation in the world to come. As far as I can tell, we also have a part of this:

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. -Revelation 22:1-5

The wolves are savaging the Christian sheep in the middle east. They want to do the same to the Jewish sheep, but the Jews were smarter and built a strong pen for themselves (I can't help but be reminded of the three little pigs and houses made of straw, sticks, and bricks). God was the prompt for the Jews to build that pen. The rest of us have our individual nations and it would behoove the Christians in the middle east to find safe haven in countries that will not try to kill them. We don't have a "Christian nation" (America never was and it especially isn't in the current era). Assuming Revelation 22 includes the Gentile disciples of the Jewish Messiah as "his servants" then our inheritance, as such, isn't available in any tangible sense. Until the Messiah comes, we continue to live in the various nations of the world and to live inside our faith and our hope...and we continue to wait.

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark.