A Surprise IDF Discovery

With war comes loot

My daughter, IDF commander Tikvah Slifkin, told me a great story the other week. As part of her work, she need to reach out to another commander that she knew from way back but had not spoken to in several months. She called him and he reacted with surprise, because he was just about to call her.

And why was he about to call her? Because he was currenly stationed in an area which is sort of a holding area for troops about to enter Gaza. And he noticed a book on the ground. It was wet from the rain but it looked readable and he was excited to find something to read on Shabbos. He was even more excited to notice that it was written by someone related to Tikvah Slifkin!

It was my old and long out of print book, Man & Beast: Our Relationship with Animals in Jewish Law and Thought. What a great find - and what a strange place to find it!

I posted this story on Facebook, and one person commented as follows:

“What's amazing is that this commander looks like he is prepping for his bar mitzvah speech. We hear of "soldiers" -- and certainly "commanders" -- and the brain (at least the American brain) thinks of mature, professional, warriors. But really... they're just kids. Just kids. It's amazing... and devastating... when you think about it.”

Another person responded that they *are* mature, professional warriors as well, and someone else noted that these kids have grown up fast and have learned the responsibilities of soldiering, as sad as that may be.

But one woman commented that she was very amused to see someone describe this soldier as looking like he is prepping for his bar mitzvah speech. Because it’s her son!

Then I was contacted by a woman who said that her own son had lost his copy of my book that he took with him when he went to fight in Gaza, and she thinks that it belongs to him! And then he reached out to me and confirmed that it’s his copy - he took two of my books with him to Gaza but lost one of them!

Several people commented that they loved the thread. While it wasn’t any kind of miraculous story, I think it was just nice to see several different IDF families all connecting together through an unexpected find.

I told the mother of the soldier who found the lost book that although Man & Beast is out of print, I have some copies left and I’ll be glad to give her son his own copy!

(I’m wondering if perhaps I should reprint it - if you’d be interested in either buying or sponsoring it, please write to Ellen at advancement@biblicalnaturalhistory.org).