A flock of sheep was stolen Wednesday night – again – from the farm of a Jewish widow living near the Yatir moshav.

The family’s faithful shepherding dogs managed to bring back 15 of the 40 hostages.

The Talia farm belongs to a family from South Africa who has spent years holding off thieving Arab marauders, as well as past officials from the Bush administration who during the term of then-President George W. Bush tried to pressure Israel into forcing the family out.

Even the Israeli government has tried to force the family out in years in order to seize the property as strategic state land.

Last year, Ya’akov Talia died in a tractor accident, leaving his widow and their children.

One son was an IDF officer, but he has had no choice other than to return home to protect his family and his property from local Arabs, who have stolen the sheep before.

Between 1 am and 3 am Thursday morning, a number of the Talia family’s 40 sheep were loaded on to a truck near the outpost of Avigail, according to a local source.

“Fifteen were recovered,” the source said. “Apparently the dogs managed to bring them back.”

Several years ago, another farmer was sentenced to prison for shooting a Bedouin in his yard who presented a security threat to his family; the Bedouin and a group of others had broken into his farm and stolen sheep numerous times. Dromi lost his sheep and served time in an Israeli prison because he defended his farm in southern Israel.

“The Shai Dromi” law was later enacted to enable an Israeli to defend his property without fear of being jailed for doing so. But although he was acquitted of manslaughter, Shai Dromi was convicted on possession of weapons, which led to jail prison. Why? Because he was unable to obtain a gun license and therefore was forced to purchase a weapon without one, in order to protect his family and property.

In the book of Shemot we learn of the mitzvah of Pidyon Petter Chamor-Redemption of the firstborn donkey:

Shemot 34:20 And the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break its neck. All the first-born of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before Me empty.

Part of the concept of redeeming a donkey, which represents an animal with no sanctity or holiness, implies that even the lowest can be redeemed, and transformed into something better than itself and thus deserving life, in this case, via the redemption process with a sheep.

This particular ceremony was performed on Thursday in the town of Beit Shemesh.

No animals were injured in the redemption process.

Overnight, a group of Arabs infiltrated into Chavat Gilad (Gilad Farm) in the Shomron. They were attempting to, once again, steal a flock of sheep from the farm.

Just before they got away with it, the farm’s alarm system went off and the Arabs ran without their plunder.