Q&A: Defining the Concept of a Chosen People
Defining the Concept of a Chosen People
Question
Hello, honored Rabbi,
Regarding the concept of a “chosen people” in the second book of the trilogy, three questions arise (p. 405):
1. How does one define an essential difference?
2. How does one prove empirically that it exists?
3. What is the source?
My answers to the Rabbi:
1. First, this is a collective matter. An essential difference between “the Jewish people” and non-Jews. Not between “an individual Jew” and “an individual non-Jew” (the Rabbi also noted this on p. 411).
From this it follows that the difference can be defined as follows: the Jews grasp the absolute truth and lead the world toward it.
I’m guessing the Rabbi would also agree that this is a fact, and there is no reason he should not agree that this is how the essential difference should be defined.
An analogy for clarification:
A team commander versus the team. The essential difference is that the team commander is meant to lead the whole team to the mission (the “truth”).
The Jews are “the team commander of the world.”
2. There is no shortage of evidence:
A. The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and its influence on the world.
B. The survival of the Jewish people over thousands of years in countless different cells, with no dependence between those cells.
C. Prophecy.
D. The wisdom of the Jews.
E. Relatively high rates of belief among the people.
F. Influence on faith in the world, including the creation of two obvious imitations (Christianity and Islam).
G. The hatred of the nations.
I think anyone who reads the evidence honestly can בהחלט conclude that there is proof here for the definition written above.
3. The source: verses in the Torah. As the Rabbi writes (p. 409). Indeed, the plain meaning of the verses shows that this chosenness is a state acquired through belonging to the Jewish people and observing Torah and commandments (the fact is that anyone who converts becomes part of that same chosenness), and not some innate “genetic package.”
In summary, once it has been clarified that we are speaking about a collective, once that essence has been defined, once we have seriously judged the evidence, and once we have found a source, we have answered all of the Rabbi’s questions (which, between the lines, the Rabbi also answered himself; he was only missing the definition that I added in the first answer).
I hope that now the Rabbi can be at ease regarding the concept of a “chosen people.”
*By the way, of course I haven’t said anything new; you can find a million answers from rabbis on Google that are exactly like mine.
Thus it is proved.
Answer
My mind is completely at ease, except that you did not answer any of my claims. Read what I wrote there again and you will see that everything you wrote here is irrelevant.
Discussion on Answer
I didn’t understand what there is for me to explain. When I ask what the chosenness is, you answer that the chosenness is a chosenness of the people. But I didn’t ask whose chosenness it is; I asked for the definition of chosenness. You answer with a slogan that Jews can hold onto the absolute truth (does truth get held?). I have no idea what to do with these empty slogans. You can always define the people’s chosenness as the fact that it has three angels guarding it. What am I supposed to do with statements like that? How do you test them and their meaning?
This is so unrelated to my questions that I don’t even know how to explain it further. It’s as though someone answered me that the answer is 13. How would I explain to him that this answer does not answer the question? It simply does not answer the question, that’s all.
“When I ask what the chosenness is, you answer that the chosenness is a chosenness of the people.”
That is simply not true. I defined the people’s chosenness as “the ability to hold onto the absolute truth that exists in reality, by connecting to the Creator.” The fact is that most of the commandments and Torah study for its own sake were given to all Jews, because only they can connect to that truth. Therefore, even if a nation of non-Jews starts building sukkot and putting on tefillin, it won’t help them very much. It won’t help anyone, beyond the technical aspect; it is devoid of any meaning (and perhaps even harmful).
“For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you”—to make it possible to connect to Him (to hold onto the absolute truth)—”from all the peoples on the face of the earth.”
How do I test this?
I look at all the evidence I brought. The Rabbi has decided that it does not persuade him, and that is his right.
The fact is that intellectually and intuitively this fits and is clear to many, many other Jews (including secular ones).
Actually, at this point we have finished the discussion, because the Rabbi has decided that the evidence is not sufficient for him, and I have decided that it is.
How do I test the meaning?
Very simply—I look in the holy Torah (an authoritative source) and see what is written and in what context.
In all the places where chosenness is mentioned, it appears in contexts of observing commandments / statutes / ordinances / covenant.
And in one place it is even mentioned that the purpose is to lead all the nations in this matter:
“And the Lord has declared today that you are to be His treasured people, as He told you, and that you are to keep all His commandments; and that He will set you high above all the nations that He made, for praise, for fame, and for glory, and that you are to be a holy people to the Lord your God, as He spoke.”
In simple words: the commandments were given to the people of Israel, who must fulfill and observe them, and also crown the Holy One, blessed be He, over the whole world. That is really not an empty slogan when it has such meanings.
Here too I think I can’t explain myself any better, and here too it is probably worth ending the discussion, because it’s not only me saying it, but the Torah itself 🙂
I have a question for the Rabbi, and I would be glad if he could answer it—suppose standing before the Rabbi is a platoon consisting of 30 soldiers plus the platoon commander. If one asks the Rabbi whether he sees an **essential difference** between the 31 soldiers and the officer (total),
what would the honored Rabbi answer?
Rabbi Lundin explains the concept of a “chosen people”:
“A special quality whose meaning, in our sense, is… to bring world-changing messages to the world”
The honored Rabbi asked (p. 405, quote): “How is an essential difference (chosenness) between a Jew and a non-Jew defined at all, as distinct from the difference between a Belgian and a Tanzanian…?”
So I answered by defining the essential difference between the people of Israel and all the nations (not just one specific nation).
“Holding onto the absolute truth (God) and leading the world there.”
That is, the nations do not have the ability to hold onto the absolute truth, and therefore they also do not have the ability to lead toward that truth.
This is the difference between the Jewish collective and any other people. And it is a very essential difference, not just some “difference in character between a Belgian and any other nation.” If that is not considered an essential difference, then I don’t know what is…
I’d be happy to understand why the Rabbi does not think this answers his question.