Anticipation- Day Five

Part Two—The Shepherds

The story of this baby is too amazing to be lost in our generation, so I have decided to record my portion as I experienced it.

It was the most amazing night in my entire life. It so changed me, that I use it as a marker. There was the time before the event, and the time after. Life took on new perspective. Did you ever find yourself in a place where there was a “before and an after”? You know you cannot go back to being the same because you have experienced something phenomenal? Maybe when you have your first child might be a parallel, but this event was so much more.

My name is Yonatan and I am the chief shepherd of the flocks outside Bethlehem, in the area of Bethlehem Ephrath and Migdal Eder, which I will talk about momentarily. I was standing at my post, resting on my staff and comparing notes with my fellow shepherds after a long day of watching over our flocks of sheep. We let them graze in the open during the daytime, but bring them into the sheep fold for the night so they can be more easily protected in the dark. We were just deciding whose turn it was to keep watch, when the atmosphere opened up and a light-being appeared out of nowhere.  Pulsating waves of energy enveloped us with blinding brightness as he stood beside us.

Adrenaline took over and I was ready to fight, but there was nothing to fight. There was just an illumination with a shape like a man, only radiant from within. His features and robes were transparent and as my eyes adjusted, all bravado drained out of me. I have come to understand he was an angel, but I had never seen a transparent being with a man-like form.

I don’t think there are adequate words for what we experienced.  Stunned? Petrified? Frightened? Astounded? Astonished? Mezmerized? Who can put an accurate description on our initial impression? If you rolled all those words together into one, it wouldn’t be enough! Suffice it to say the angel needed to tell us not to be afraid. I thought it was the end of us. I really thought our time on time earth was coming to an end at any moment. So, to hear, “Do not be afraid”, took some time to register. It was like sleepwalking to the edge of a precipice, waking up just before taking that fatal step and having someone tell you not to be concerned! I faintly heard something about “tidings of great joy” and I think that penetrated enough to allow my panic to recede so I could begin to absorb what the being was saying.

Still, I had a very hard time concentrating, because my mind kept telling me I was dreaming; this couldn’t be real. However, there was something physical happening simultaneously inside my heart. I could feel it coming alive to hope and possibility and wonder, even as my mind was questioning, “How can this be happening?”  Did you ever experience an event that seemed to occur in slow motion, but in reality took but an instant? I don’t want to sound crazy, but it felt like time was honey and we were caught up in the thickness of it. We had the capacity to know deeper things and understand this heavenly being. He did not just say, “Do not be afraid,” he emanated peace. It surrounded us and centered us and quieted us so we could receive him and the message he brought to us.

The Angel told us a baby had been born who would be the Mashiach ben David.  I remember the words exactly. He said, “Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people. For to you is born this day in the Town of David a Savior, Who is Christ the Lord! And this will be a sign for you by which you will recognize Him: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”

Then all of the sky opened up and filled with light beings. They were all emanating music. It wasn’t like our singing; it was other worldly. We could understand the words, but it sounded more like it was coming from within them, rather than from their mouths. We got caught up in the sound and it began to work its way into us. It filled us up with a holy and weighty anticipation of something to come. They sang, “Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace among men with whom He is well pleased.”

I don’t know how long it lasted, but it seemed like time had swallowed us up and it did not exist any longer. There was an impartation of knowing that changed us from the inside out. We even felt different physically, as if being in this atmosphere had altered our bodies. And then the Heavenly Host slowly faded away, but we somehow carried the sound of the music within us. We could faintly discern it all the days of our lives.   The other shepherds and I had been gifted with a revelation of magnanimous importance and were fortified to carry it.

We had been waiting a long, long time for The Mashiach.  But the Mashiach as baby born in a manger?  That was so outside of what we had ever thought or imagined! We couldn’t conceive of such a thing, but the angelic appearance was undeniable!!  What did it all mean?

Everything we did was in preparation for that day. So, when we realized what the angel had told us, we were absolutely compelled to go and see for ourselves, and I led the way.

I guess it made sense in terms of the location…I mean, they do say that Mashiach will be born in Bethlehem.  This territory is set aside for the raising of special flocks of goats and sheep which we attend to very carefully, because they have to comply with the ritual laws of the Temple.  We raise them for the Temple sacrifices in Jerusalem, which require the goats and lambs to be unblemished and spotless.

I and my fellow shepherds have held this profession for generations, in this region pregnant with history. I am proud to say it is the birthplace of David, another shepherd, and the location where the minyan of the elders gathered at the gate in the story of Ruth and Naomi. The mountains of Hebron surround this place. David was anointed by Samuel in this region. He later ruled here for seven years, learning to govern before being called to fight the Jebusites in Jerusalem, where he then reigned for thirty three years. So, as you can see, we honor and revere this place.

As it says in the Mishna Shekelim 7:4: “An animal that was found between Jerusalem and Migdal Eder, or a similar distance in any direction, the males are [considered] burnt offerings. The females are [considered] peace offerings. Rabbi Yehuda says, those which are fitting as a Pesach offering are [considered] Pesach offerings if it is thirty days before the festival”.

Here stands Migdal Eder which is also known as the “tower of the flock.” It is a watchtower with two levels. The top allows us to climb up and look over the fields to watch for marauders or any kind of danger to the sheep in our care.  The bottom portion has a room for the birthing ewes. We keep alert for the signs of birth, and bring them into the watchtower for protection and to help in the lambing. The flocks are kept outside every day, all year long, except when it is time for the females to deliver. Then we bring them into this bottom room, and give special care to the ewes and lambs as they are delivered. As I said, we have studied the rabbinical laws and we know what is required for this royal task which includes keeping the birthing room ceremonially clean, and making sure each lamb is inspected and approved.

This room has a manger; a depression in the rock usually used for feeding, in which the newborn lambs are placed for inspection. If they are deemed fit for the Temple, we swaddle them in cloths to warm them and protect them from injury or blemish. It is especially important to keep the lambs warm, because they can easily suffer from hypothermia in chill winds. They must be spotless for the Temple sacrifices. Many, many sacrificial lambs have been born here, and destined for the altar in the Temple! We shepherds now understood that it was the perfect place for the Lamb child to be born, and it was here in our own Tower of the Flock, that Joseph found a place for his laboring wife to give birth.

How fitting that Joseph, after finding no lodging place in the town for his laboring wife, was led to this gateway of both history and future for such a momentous prophetic moment!  We were very familiar with the story of another Ewe, also a shepherdess who had died giving birth in this very place. Her name was Rachel, wife of Jacob, one of our Patriarchs. Her burial site is nearby. She died here after going into hard labor while she and Jacob were travelling to Bethlehem.  With much travail, she brought forth her second son, Benjamin. When she realized she was dying, she declared her son to be the Benoni,“Son of my sorrow”, but his father changed his name to Benjamin, “Son of my right hand”, thus proclaiming the two realities of the Christ to come: his death and resurrection and his humanity and Deity.

Yes, we knew where to go to find this baby!  There was never a doubt, and we hurried to Bethlehem Ephrath and the Tower of the Flock, speaking reverently and quietly to one another on the way. We felt compelled to reiterate and marvel over what had just happened, making us all the more certain that the fantastical nature of the appearance of the angels had actually happened. Hearing each other share the varied nuances of our collective experience, gave it undeniable validity. The hushed wonder and the electric anticipation increased, as we made our way to see this Child Lamb, while our minds wrestled to absorb what we would witness.