Sheep, then and now

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These sheep are most likely on the table now during this week of Id il Adha, the Muslim Festival of Sacrifice.
Click to enlarge the photo.  See a lone goat going in the wrong direction?  :)  

We saw them in April crossing a road just northwest of my town in the Negev. 

A friend and I were driving home parallel to the security wall. 
On the other side is the West Bank. 

Id mubarak, wishing a blessed and happy holiday to the Palestinians across the way and to our Bedouin neighbors here in the Negev. 
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Shepherds and flock on the move

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I was out walking when suddenly a cloud of dust started moving toward me from the west.
(Hint: you can enlarge the photos and solve the mystery.)

Turned out to be a large flock of sheep and goats!

Two young Bedouin shepherds and their dog kept them moving at a fast clip.

The fine dust coming into my camera (and my nose) was not a good thing but there was no way that I was going to miss this exciting photo opp!

I followed the flock.
 

Here we were walking part of the Israel National Trail.
Some of the goats took a minute to stand on hind legs and eat a bit of the Meitar Forest.

You can see the houses of Meitar up on the hill.

The flock moved on toward their home in the hills and I turned back to start the climb up to my home in town.

Because the sun was setting and night would soon cover the desert.
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(Linking to Camera Critters.)
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Still green, to the flock's delight

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Sheep grazing next to Meitar Forest!
(Enlarge the photo to see them better.)
For this lovely scene I have only to walk five minutes from my place here in the Negev town of Meitar.
I've lived here for several years and go out hiking often, but this is only the second time that I have sighted the flock.
The first time was in this post, where you can meet the young Bedouin shepherd and his charges.
Shabbat shalom.
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday and Camera Critters.)
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A Swiss donkey and a black sheep

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A fun and unusual night in Boudry, Switzerland, last month.

Every December this nice man takes his calm donkey around to all the Christmas events in the region.
The kids and the people love it.
I especially loved seeing a donkey again.

One farmer brought a young lamb, which I just HAD to hold.

The donkey led the way for a multi-cultural holiday procession through the cobblestoned medieval old town.
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(Linking to Camera Critters.)
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So many sheep!

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Look!  SHEEP!  Right here in the foothills of the Swiss Jura Mountains! 

My personal Swiss shepherd*, Sr. V., took me up to the hills for a brisk walk on this Shabbat day.
The sun came out for a few hours today after a long time of rain and cold. 
* (while I am volunteering at the Community of Grandchamp)

The sheepdog looked a bit like a sheep himself, only whiter. 

I was so excited to see such a huge flock.
Right there across the lane from the vineyards. With a fence strung between the sheep and the remaining grapes, of course. 

And finally something to contribute to Camera Critters.
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Shade for all

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The view from the Beer Sheva-Meitar bus window. (Nicer than in the previous post.)
A flock of sheep and goats takes shelter from the noon-day sun.
The Keren Kayemet (Jewish National Fund), Israel's tree management organization, was nice enough to plant these trees at scattered places in the desert.
(I know it's the KKL's work because I enlarged the photo and found a white pillar with the emblem.)

And also taking advantage of the shade -- two Bedouin girls under a tree.
Even though they sit with their back to the flock, one or both of them must be the flock's shepherd.
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(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)
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Friendly Austrian sheep

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When I worked at Heifer Ranch in Arkansas, the joke was "If you had to look through a slatted fence all day you would have rectangular pupils in your eyes too."

Here is Austria we went for an Ausflug today and visited an open-air museum of centuries-old farm buildings in Bad Tatzmannsdorf.
This big mama ewe was on display too.

Giving the sheep sugar treats was verboten.

But we did pick up some apples from the grass and the sheep loved them.

Unlike in America, sheep are allowed to keep their long tail.
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(Linking to Camera Critters.)
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"Naturally luxurious" sheepskins

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You know you're in Australia if the huge Costco store sells sheepskins.
Amazingly smooth wool in various colors.
A rug costs 180 Australian dollars.

Populations: The sheep-to-person ratio in New Zealand is over 7 to 1, and in Australia there are almost 5 sheep to every human.
This ratio is high compared to most countries, but sheep numbers are now on the decline in both NZ and Australia. 

(For ABC Wednesday, H is for a heap of sheepskins.)
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First time to meet the sheep + shepherd!

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I finally met the good shepherd!!
Two years I've been roaming the desert outside my town and yesterday evening was the first time I saw the flock!
Enlarge the photo, don't miss his nice smile. 

I always see their droppings and sometimes even an ovine leg gnawed to the bone by jackals but never saw the flock on the hoof.

 After we chatted a bit, with the special sounds and calls that only shepherds have, he told the sheep "Heads up, enough grazing, let's go home."
I got nostalgic for my livestock work at Heifer Ranch in Arkansas; my way of calling sheep was "Sheep-sheep-sheep!" and for the goats the Hebrew "Bo-i bo-i bo-i!"

The sun had just set, ushering in our holy Sabbath Eve.
For the young Bedouin man, end-of-Ramadan Eid al-Fitr was just beginning.
It was a blessed evening all around.
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(Linking to Camera Critters.)
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Sheepskins on a pillar

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S is for stack of sheepskins for sale in Jerusalem's Old City.

For ABC Wednesday.
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Roadside browsers

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Lots of road construction going on between Meitar and Beer Sheva.

But that doesn't keep the goat herds from coming quite near the construction sites and the busy highway.

Enlarge the photo to see the goats browsing. 

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Linking the clear hot summer sky to SkyWatch Friday.

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UPDATE:  Here's a nice sheep + shepherds video (from the rainy season, when fields are green.

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Bedouin shepherds

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Here in the Negev I usually see Bedouin girls or boys watching the sheep and/or goats.

But if we enlarge this photo (click two separate times), we see an older man and woman in the traditional Bedouin garb moving their flock.

In the early morning sun the bus cast a giant shadow as we drove southward.
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(Linking to Camera Critters.)
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Blue sheep

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Sheep in an artist's garden.

Geula Nachmias is the artist.
Moshav Nevatim in the Negev is the place.
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You can much enlarge the pictures to enjoy the details of the "wool."
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Sheep on the shoulders

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I watched fascinated yesterday, June 29, the live broadcast of the Mass from St. Peter's for the great Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.
It was the occasion for the Imposition of the Pallium.

 (source)

After they together spoke the prayer of oath, the 34 new (or transferred) metropolitan archbishops individually knelt before Pope Francis as he put the pallium on their shoulders.

Please see  more photos of  woolen pallia here.
And a nice photo of Papa Francesco receiving the three special pins (representing the three nails on the cross) on his own pallium when he became Pope. 

The palllium is a symbol of communion with the successor of Peter; it  shows some shared authority between the Pope and the archbishops.

This is really interesting, as told by Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes of New Orleans:

Each year on Jan. 21, the Feast of St. Agnes, the pope blesses two baby lambs. The Trappists, who oversee a flock of sheep at Tre Fontane, select the two choicest baby lambs from their flock for this purpose. The Feast of St. Agnes has been chosen because Agnes means lamb and the lamb has always been a symbol associated with this Roman virgin and martyr of the fourth century. When the lambs are brought to St. Agnes Church on their way to the pope, one is crowned with white roses to signify her virginity and one with red roses to signify martyrdom.
Every archbishop is challenged not only to a virginal spousal love for the church he serves, but also to be willing to suffer even martyrdom in witness to the faith. 

After the lambs are presented to the Holy Father, they are transferred to the sheepfold at Castel Gandolfo, where a Vatican shepherd nurtures them. Approximately a month prior to June 29, the shearers remove their wool coats. Religious sisters then make the palliums for the new archbishops from this wool. Vatican officials insert the newly stitched palliums into a silver-gilt box located in a special alcove in the confessio of St. Peter’s Basilica overnight before the pallium ceremony. They rest here in a niche that is very close to the bones of St. Peter.
On June 29, the Holy Father celebrates the Eucharist with the new archbishops and, after the homily, places a pallium on the shoulders of each one. This expresses the solemn responsibility which each archbishop assumes to shepherd the flock of Christ entrusted to him. Like the shepherd who carries a lamb on his shoulders, the archbishop is to care for the flock entrusted to him with the care of the Good Shepherd. 

            - Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes of New Orleans

 

You know, I was a shepherd of real sheep in 1996-2002,  part of my livestock responsibilities as a volunteer at the Arkansas ranch and learning center of Heifer International. 

It is much easier to lead a herd than to move an individual sheep. 

Sometimes, rather than dragging a recalcitrant bleating young sheep  on a lead rope to a new place,  I would just carry it on my shoulders. 

Work-campers and visitors seeing this would immediately be transported to  New Testament imagery.

But friends, let me tell you, that hot oily wool pressing on your sweating bare neck is often full of burrs and bugs, dirt and poop. 

You must hold on tight to two hind legs and two front legs, all trying to pull away. 

Sheep protest, they do not always lie passively.

They want off your shoulders, back on the dirt and  back to the herd. 

This experience of mine  helps me appreciate the not-so-different  hard work of pastors in their pastoral work with their flock.   People can be a lot like sheep. 

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The video of the Imposition of the Pallium can be see at http://www.vatican.va/video/index.html , just go to June 29. 

Papa Francesco's good sermon, translated to English, is here. 

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Fresh mountain air from Switzerland

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For today's Psalm Challenge, hosted by Robert Geiss in Athens, I felt like using photos from my years in Switzerland, where mountains are mountains.

PSALM 95
[1] O come, let us sing to the LORD;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
[2] Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
[3] For the LORD is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.

[4] In his hand are the depths of the earth;

the heights of the mountains are his also.
[5] The sea is his, for he made it;
for his hands formed the dry land.

[6] O come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
[7] For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
O that today you would hearken to his voice!
[8] Harden not your hearts, as at Mer'ibah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
[9] when your fathers tested me,
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
[10] For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, "They are a people who err in heart,
and they do not regard my ways."
[11] Therefore I swore in my anger
that they should not enter my rest.
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Translation: RSV
For commentary and another translation see Rabbi Benjamin Segal.
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Photos from Switzerland:
1, 2:  A valley and Alps in Canton Glarus.
3: A flock at the foot of the Jura Mountains.
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Sea monsters and leviathan

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For Robert's Sunday Psalm Challenge, here is Psalm 74.  

 It is striking how much of and for our own troubled days this psalm sounds, especially if you go to The Message and read it in modern English. 

(But still, for my post I will stick with Rabbi Segal's translation.)

1. A maskil.  Of Asaph.

Why, O God, do You abandon us endlessly, do You fume in anger at the sheep of Your flock?

2. Remember Your congregation that You acquired in ancient times: You redeemed the tribe of Your inheritance; Mount Zion, there You made Your dwelling place.

3. Lift up Your feet because of  the endless devastation, all that the enemy destroyed in the sanctuary.

4. Your foes roared in the midst of Your Meeting-place; they took their signs for true signs.

5. Like one ascending through a tree thicket with axes he became known;

6. and behold – with hatchet and pikes they hacked away at all its carved work.

7. They burnt Your sanctuary in flames down to the land; they desecrated the dwelling-place of Your name.

8. They said in their hearts, “Let us destroy them altogether!’’ They set fire to all the Deity’s meeting places in the land.

9. We see no signs; there is no longer a prophet; and no one among us knows until what time.

10. Until when, O God, will the foe blaspheme, will the enemy endlessly revile Your name?

11. Why do You keep back Your hand?  Draw Your right hand from amidst Your waistcoat.

12. Yet God, my king, Who effects salvation in the midst of the land since ancient times,

13. it was You who shattered the sea with Your might and smashed the heads of the monsters on the waters.

14. It was You who crushed the heads of Leviathan and delivered him as food to the desert denizens.

15. It was You who split open springs and streams. It was You who dried up mighty rivers.

16. Yours is the day; so, too, Yours is the night. It was You who crafted moon and sun.

17. It was You who fixed all the boundaries of the land; summer and winter; it was You who made them.

18. Remember how the  enemy has blasphemed the LORD, how base people have reviled Your name.

19. Do not deliver the life of Your dove to the wild beast; do not endlessly forget the band of Your lowly ones.

20. Look to the covenant! For the dark places of the land are filled with haunts of violence.

21. May the downtrodden not come back disappointed; may the lowly and needy praise Your name.

22. Rise, O God, fight Your fight; remember that You are blasphemed by base men all day long.

23. Do not forget the sound of Your foes, the din of those who rise against You, that ascends on high all the time.

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Notes:

Although not a perfect fit for a Jewish psalm, the second photo (please enlarge it) is so strange that I could not resist showing it to you.

The frightening scene is painted on the wall of the Greek Orthodox church at Capernaum. 

The dragons and sea monsters in our psalm sound  like something out of Canaanite creation myths.

Rabbi Segal says 

The base metaphor of verses 12–17 is an international creation myth, not the one found in the first chapters Genesis. This myth, which is cited in several places in the Bible . . . , is based on the deity overpowering and physically destroying the god(s) and/or demons of the sea and taking control of water, of the seasons, of the earth, and of the heavens.

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