After the time of Abimelek, a man of Issachar named Tola son of Puah, the son of Dodo, rose to save Israel. He lived in Shamir, in the hill country of Ephraim. He led Israel twenty-three years; then he died, and was buried in Shamir. – Judges 10:1-2

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 3, 2016): Judges 10

A few years ago, Dan Amira suggested in a New York Magazine article that we celebrate President’s day (just over a month away) by remembering the most forgotten of the American Presidents. He nominated the 23^rd President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison. But it was his concluding paragraph that won me over to the idea.

Probably seven or eight people in the entire country could even recognize your name, Benjamin Harrison. None of those people are familiar with anything you did as president. But today, and forever more, Daily Intel will celebrate your non-existent legacy on Presidents Day. Because, after serving this great nation for four years as president, you deserve at least one day a year where people acknowledge that you did, in fact, exist. (Dan Amira – Let’s Celebrate America’s Most Forgotten President.) 

Significant people are not always famous people. The reverse is also true, famous people are not always significant people. It is just the way that life is. Another truth is that the ones who may be significant to me, may not be significant to you. People are important for a number of reasons, but maybe the most important is because they have had an impact on your life. Because of this, we know that Benjamin Harrison was important to somebody – even though we don’t know who – or why.

In my spare time I have been trying to build my family tree, just trying to see who it is that might be hiding in the branches. The family history includes the names a number of famous people who might be there, although it is not often the most famous that are the most interesting. But some of the names that have become important to me are very unimportant to the world. I spend some of my time chasing after a man nicknamed Poughkeepsie Pete – or Peter Mullen, born in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. in 1750. Family history assures us that our ancestors hailed from Ireland, but the farthest back my research has been able to go is to good old Poughkeepsie Pete. I just have no idea who his parents might be, and there seem to be no mention of them anywhere – or how much earlier it might be that my branch of the Mullen family emigrated from Ireland to what would one day become the United States. So Poughkeepsie Pete is important – but probably just to me.

Tola, the son of Puah, a man from the tribe of Issachar was a judge of Israel. But that is pretty much all that we know. Of all of the people who led Israel during this period of time, we know the least about Tola. There is no mention of his deeds or even who the enemies of Israel might have been at the time. We simply know that he rose “to save Israel” from somebody – and that he led Israel for more than two decades – what is, after all, a fairly significant length of time.

So, while we may not know exactly who this man was or what he did – and it is very unlikely that anyone will ever produce a movie about him proclaiming his deeds - Tola was significant, at least to the people living in Israel and especially those living in an around Shamir during this two decade stretch of time. Tola was significant, even though he was not famous and joins Benjamin Harrison on a list of forgotten leaders.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 1