Hebrew scholar and Jewish academic Irene Lancaster explains the biblical significance behind the name of Israel's military offensive in Iran - Operation Rising Lion - and its connection to CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia.
On Friday June 13th, an auspicious date in Judaism, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion. Friends from Israel sent Shabbat messages featuring a lion reminiscent of Aslan in the Narnia stories.
Later it became clear that 'Operation Narnia' was actually the code-name for the elimination of the nuclear scientists working in Iran on the best ways of exterminating the Jewish people.
Narnia is well known to generations of children thanks to the book series by CS Lewis, followed by the very popular films. Miracles can happen in a fantasy world - you're not quite sure what's real and what isn't. CS Lewis was influenced by Charles Williams' earlier book, The Place of the Lion, which is an allegory about this world and the next, in which amazing things can happen, but where evil exists.
This Shabbat we'll be reading Shelach Lecha, the famous 'Spy' incident from Numbers 13-15. Here the Jewish leader, Moses, sends out 10 people to investigate the Land of Canaan and to bring back their preliminary findings to the Children of Israel. This group of scouts is headed by Joshua and Caleb.
Tragically, the other members of the team see only negativity and bring back a bad report, based on their own fears and misperceptions. Instead of a courageous, lion-like stance, eight of the 10 remark that 'we were like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and so we were in their eyes.' (Numbers 13:33). This was the root of their sin. They felt badly about themselves and then projected that self-doubt onto others.
The Haftorah accompanying the Shelach Lecha story is taken from the Book of Joshua, Chapter 2. Because of his outstanding character traits, Joshus is chosen, 39 years later, to lead the children of Israel into the Land, and sends two scouts (Caleb and Pinchas in Jewish teaching) to Jericho to find out what is going on.
They stay at an inn owned by Rahab, who agrees to help them, thus ensuring safety for her family and herself when the children of Israel eventually enter the Land of Canaan. This time, courage replaces fear, not least in the person of Rahab, the innkeeper.
This prepares us for the reading from Balak (Numbers 22:2 - 25:9), which takes place on July 12. Here the gentile prophet, Balaam, hired to curse the children of Israel by Balak, the King of Moab, instead produces a series of blessings.
One of these blessings contains the prophecy that 'Behold, the people will arise like a lion cub and elevate itself like a lion.' This can be interpreted as meaning that the children of Israel are trained from the outset to be watchful. Only through education honed through experience can the young lion cub morph into the mature lion who, like Narnia, knows when to act.
This is how the past week has been interpreted in Israel. When someone continually states that they aim to exterminate you and boasts that they have the means to do so, there is only one response possible. The Jewish people have no other alternative than to survive, refusing to allow themselves to be wiped off the face of the earth.
After the attack on the Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, my daughter, Esther, reminded me that the Hebrew date was 23rd Sivan. This is the date when, in the Book of Esther, the people of Israel are permitted by the King of Persia to fight back to save themselves. And yesterday Psalms were recited around the world.
In Esther (8: 9-11) '... the King [of Persia] permitted the Jews of every single city to organize and defend themselves; to destroy, slay and exterminate every armed force of any people or province that threaten them ...'
This was in stark reversal of the decree signed with the King's seal by his vizier, Haman, the enemy of the Jewish people, which would have seen all the Jews of Persia slaughtered by their foes in the earlier month of Adar. This is the crux of the story of Purim, when the Jewish people brought themselves from the brink of extinction to an incredible triumph.
Perhaps echoing the themes of Purim, American Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, in a message to President Trump, is reported to have paraphrased the words used by Mordechai to Esther earlier in that Book, when she finds herself married to the King of Persia: ' ... who knows whether it was just for such a time as this that you attained sovereign power!' (Esther 4:14).
A great many miracles have occurred during this week, not least the fact that there were no fatalities in the aftermath of the Iranian attack on Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, southern Israel, which was already coping heroically with the aftermath of October 7th 2023.
There have been many lions in history: the Lion of Judah, Richard the Lionheart, the Cowardly Lion of The Wizard of Oz. However, the main traits associated with the lion is that they are both brave and generous, open-hearted and spirited. They may well be the 'King of the Jungle'. But to be the King of the Jungle, you have to take other people with you. A monarch needs subjects. Some monarchs know this, and others think they reign supreme through divine right.
A true monarch trains from birth and is disciplined, open and wise. People aren't born like this; they are educated into it. That is what Mordechai told Esther and that is what the Jewish people have known for a very long time. And this is why Israel has called their operation 'Rising Lion' and associated this operation with the Narnia stories.
