In this column I want to give you the reader a new look on Bible stories:

While in New Zealand and looking around at the beautiful natural scenery of greenery, the farmlands and the grazing sheep all around the country, I wonder if people would understand the life of a shepherd – a person who looks after his cattle and is always on the move with the cattle looking for green pastures to graze. New Zealand excels in sheep and cattle farming, but there are no real shepherds in the Biblical sense; there are all farmers.

In order to understand Biblical stories, e.g.: in Genesis that we are currently reading – our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his sons were all shepherds. From the very beginning there was a continuous struggle between the people who tilled and worked on the land (farming, wine-making, etc) and the shepherds who wandered from place to place looking for green pastures and water for their cattle. As we read we see that not always was there harmony between these two groups. As a matter of fact, the first one murdered in the Bible was Abel - a shepherd and the murderer was Cain – “a man of the field” (This idea came forward from one of our weekly shiur students).

The Egyptians also did not like the shepherds – reference Genesis chapter 46:34. Hence the children of Israel settled in the Land of Goshen as Joseph suggested to them.

One can also see another Biblical reference in Numbers Chapter 32, where the tribes of Reuben and Gad, who were shepherds, preferred to stay beyond the Jordan River and not enter the Holy land. I think that when the land of Israel is described as the Land of Milk and Honey, it was to attract the shepherds.
Being close to nature as a shepherd helped in their spiritual well-being, as we see Moses and many of our prophets were shepherds.

The Book of Joshua and Judges describes the beginning of the Jewish settlement in the Land of Canaan – about the changing profession from shepherd to farmer and only during the time of the time of King Solomon, the farmer is the one who is “settled” and the shepherd is the “nomad”. As in Micah 4:4 is said about the people of Israel: “They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree with no one to make them afraid”