“Our heroic shepherds are returning from another day on the front lines of the struggle for the open spaces❤️”
The Torah doesn’t just mention that our forefathers were shepherds as some random detail. This is how Hashem shaped the Jewish people from the very beginning.
Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov all lived as shepherds. Yaakov spent years tending Lavan’s flocks — and his own — and that’s where his character and his prosperity were built. It wasn’t easy work. It was hard, patient, responsible work out in the fields.
When Yaakov’s sons go down to Egypt, they don’t hide it. They stand in front of Pharaoh and say straight out: “We are shepherds.” That’s who we are. That’s our family’s way.
Look at Moshe Rabbeinu. Before Hashem spoke to him from the burning bush, he spent decades as a shepherd in Midian. The Midrash teaches that Hashem tested him by watching how he treated a single lost sheep. Only when Moshe showed that kind of care was he ready to lead Am Yisrael.
And David HaMelech? He starts as a shepherd boy. He fights off lions and bears to protect his flock. That same courage and responsibility later protect the entire nation. That’s why he could write “Hashem is my shepherd…” — because he lived it.
So don’t think of shepherding as just an old job. It is the formative occupation of the Jewish people. HaShem chose shepherds to become the fathers of our nation for a reason.
Source: Elisha Yered, Activist for the Resettlement of Eretz Yisrael
Torah
Midrash
Posted August 19, 2026
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