'Why Did You Sit at Home among the Sheepfolds?': Israel and the People of the Book
by Nils A. Haug • February 14, 2025 at 5:00 am
Zionism is simply the right of the Jewish nation to live peacefully in its ancestral home -- the land promised them in millennia past. Canaan is their inheritance, and has served as their sanctuary for nearly 4,000 years in a world that largely despises them.
The great British statesman Winston Churchill said in 1922 that Jews had returned to Palestine, as it was called then -- based on its revised name, given by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who was trying to sever Judea from the Jews -- "as of right and not by sufferance, and that this was based on their ancient historical connection."
The biblical Song of Deborah praises those tribes who participated in the battle under the leadership of Barak, the son of Abinoam, and scorns those who did not: "Why did you sit at home among the sheepfolds?" the song asks; "Why did Dan stay home?"
"Even an ancient vision has its moment of birth," wrote the Israeli poet Nathan Alterman (1910-1970). Alterman lovingly described Israel: "The surroundings of the Kinneret have been a kind of symbol of earthly beauty to us...."
Alterman's vision of Israel, Eretz Yisrael, and her natural beauty, seems to have been given birth through a deep commitment to an ancient promise made by the Creator to the patriarch Abraham, forefather of all Jews. This covenant was repeated to his son Isaac and then grandson Jacob, again by the Creator. Moses emphasized this promise at Sinai when he declared to the twelve tribes that G-d would restore to them the land of their ancestors.
In this way, the area to be possessed became known to the world at large as the "promised land." The biblical book of Bereshit (Genesis) records the extent of the land, Zion.
