A few years ago in 2016, a couple named Gil and Jenna Lewinsky of Canada, made it their mission to return a rare breed of sheep called “Jacob’s Sheep” to their origin land of Israel. For the first time in 2,000 years, the primitive looking, spotted (piebald) sheep with four horns will roam their native hillsides.

The name “Jacob’s Sheep” for this genus of sheep comes from the reference in Genesis 30 in which Jacob takes all of the “spotted” sheep with him from his father in law Laban’s flocks. Said to have arrived in Israel from the time of Noah, the sheep are entirely black but speckled with white spots. Although the breed is about 5,000 years old, they had died out in Israel almost 2,000 years ago.* Most of the entire species disappeared around the 1900s with only a rare few remaining, …