Q&A: A Chosen People
A Chosen People
Question
Hello Michi,
I listened to your lectures on the special status of the Jewish people.
You clarified that you do not find the distinctiveness of the Jewish people, or its “otherness,” to be something especially striking, something of a different kind from the distinctiveness of any other nation relative to the rest of the nations.
At the same time, I would ask: when this separateness extends across several areas, doesn’t that make it a different kind of distinctiveness?
– Consistent and “stubborn” survival of a minority over thousands of years (while powerful empires vanished from the world)
– The conspicuous prominence of the percentage of Jews receiving Nobel Prizes in various fields, relative to non-Jews
– The Jewish people are endowed more by virtue of their minds than by the toil and labor of their hands. As far as I can tell, we are definitely considered a startup nation, and were perceived that way already from the beginning of the exiles.
– It seems that for thousands of years, whether in exile or here in the Land, our very existence has been like a thorn in the world’s backside, and it is not always clear why. There is always some reason to be found…
It seems that there is something here beyond mere biography or purely evolutionary adaptations…
I am of the opinion that the title “a chosen people,” “a light unto the nations,” is first and foremost a role (“and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”). All human beings were created in the divine image, but each has his own role and uniqueness.
At the same time, the role we received at Mount Sinai is binding upon us (as we were commanded), and therefore it seems that we were equipped with a genetic “payload” (“software,” in your terminology), some different kind of potential, that would enable us to fulfill the role.
And who knows—perhaps failure in that role (potential that never moved from possibility to actuality) gives rise to subconscious disappointment and discriminatory, antisemitic attitudes on the part of the nations of the world…
Best regards
Answer
What I am arguing is that there is no way to determine what “uniqueness” even means in this context. Clearly we have genetic uniqueness like every people does (especially a people that does not intermarry), and clearly there is uniqueness that is the result of culture and history, as with every people. But every people has this kind of difference as well as that kind. Therefore the claim of a “chosen people” in an essentialist sense does not seem to me to be well defined.
Discussion on Answer
If the claim is that this is a special people, I completely agree. The claim that there is something planted and built into every single one of its individuals, as distinct from all the rest of humanity, is a different claim, and that is one I am not inclined to accept. As I said, I also think it is not well defined, as I explained in the previous message.
Fine then, my brothers Oren and Erez and Alon are exceptionally gifted trees!
The special quality of the Jewish people comes from their having been chosen to adopt for themselves, first of all, the commandments of God, and afterward they are a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Holy is more than merely suited for something, in that one is already observing the commandments and not merely has received them. What is our role? To receive the Torah, to keep it, and then we will be a light unto the nations—not before that! The Torah is compared to fire: if you pass it on to others, your fire is not extinguished. “Is not My word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that shatters rock?”—to teach you that just as fire does not burn alone, so too words of Torah do not endure in isolation. Don’t be stingy with your light; use it to light more candles—“The soul of man is the lamp of God, searching all the inward chambers.” Illuminate people’s hearts with the lamp of God—bring people to repentance. That is what “a light unto the nations” means.
And keep them and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the nations, who shall hear all these statutes and say: Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is whenever we call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has statutes and righteous ordinances like all this Torah that I set before you today? Only take heed to yourself and guard your soul diligently, lest you forget the things your eyes saw and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life…
Keeping the commandments is the wisdom and the understanding; if you did not keep and do them—it is worth nothing. And you rightly mentioned the intellectual side of Jews in high-tech, and let us agree that if most of us Jews were commandment-observant, then of course we would all be high-tech people. Obviously from here we see that the Torah makes one wise. And who gave us the Torah? God. So why will the nations say that we are wise and not speak of God—“Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people”? Because if we are wise because of the Torah, then the One who gave it is even wiser. And all this brings closeness to God, and then we have a righteous Father who protects us closely, and you cannot say there is no close providence: “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth”—His servants, and the kingdom of priests and the holy nation, are close to God, and He blesses them. God always helps us if we heed His words, as it is written, “whenever we call upon Him.”
Why shouldn’t we relate to the concept of a people’s special quality in a way similar to how we relate to the special quality of individuals? Just as the special quality of individuals is evident in abilities or traits that are exceptional relative to the average, so too the special quality of a people would be evident in the same way. If we identify exceptional individuals within our people easily and intuitively, why shouldn’t we use those same powers of identification to identify exceptional peoples?