I think the Hebrew Bible, which shows no pity toward any nation, definitely conveys that message.

With God's help, the eighteenth of Iyar, in the year "and all the living shall thank You," for Israel’s Independence,

To David — greetings,

Indeed, the Hebrew Bible does not show favoritism to any nation. Rather, it places upon them the heavy yoke of the seven Noahide commandments: to believe in one God and not worship any other, and to uphold the basic moral values—not to murder, not to commit adultery, and not to steal; not to eat a limb from a living animal; and to maintain a normative judicial system in order to create a proper society.

In order to impart these foundational values to humanity, a "vanguard force" was established: the Jewish people, who heard the Ten Commandments at Sinai, so that they would be "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation," the Archimedean point that would move the world from religious and moral savagery to the faith of the Hebrew Bible and its values.

But in order to influence rather than be influenced, the Jewish people first had to deepen and internalize in their own hearts those beliefs and foundational values. For that purpose they received the detailed guidance of the Torah and the Prophets and their disciples, the tannaim and amoraim and the sages of the generations, as well as the 613 commandments, which would instill faith and values in the heart of this "elite unit" with greater refinement and greater depth.

But for the Jewish people to influence all humanity, the nation needs political independence, through which a "model society" can be created that will shine forth to humanity, until peoples and individuals from all over the world come to the "House of the God of Jacob" to learn His ways and walk in His paths. Political independence is the basis for spiritual independence, so that it will be influential and not, Heaven forbid, dragged along behind others.

And indeed, the founder of the monarchy in Israel, King David, expressed in the psalm he wrote when the Ark of the Covenant was brought to his new capital, the vision of influencing all nations to call in the name of God. The psalm opens: "Give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name, make His wonders known among all the peoples."

David’s plan of action for creating religious and moral influence on all humanity is formulated in the last six chapters of the Book of Psalms. Psalm 145 ends with the hope: "And let all flesh bless His holy name forever and ever." And in the following psalms the path is laid out: through the center in Zion (146), and through the Jewish people to whom God gave unique laws and ordinances (147), and when God lifts up the horn of His people (148) and executes judgment on its pursuers and oppressors (149)—then the vision will be fulfilled, that all nations will recognize the kingship of God and "let every soul praise the Lord" (150).

The beginning of spiritual influence on the nations was in the days of Solomon, when people came from all over the world to hear his wisdom. But the early temptation to try to exert influence also brought with it the infiltration of foreign influences into the Jewish people. The women Solomon tried to convert in order to forge cultural ties with the nations of the world turned his heart aside and weakened his strength. And the notions of absolute rule held by the kings of the nations penetrated the hearts of Rehoboam and his young companions, bringing about the split of the kingdom and the loss of the ability to exert religious and moral influence.

A new path that brought increased spiritual influence over the nations of the world came during the period of the Return to Zion through the guidance of the Men of the Great Assembly. The weakness and fragmentation of the people, scattered and divided among the nations, required mobilizing renewed strength to preserve the Jewish character.

And so in every city and every village there arose a community sustaining spiritual life around the local "miniature sanctuary," a sanctuary without statues and idols, but full of spiritual activity centered on prayer and the study of the Torah and the words of the Prophets and the Writings, while maintaining connection with the Temple in Jerusalem and preserving the hope for complete redemption according to the vision of the prophets.

The gentiles were amazed by a religion unlike anything they had known. Some mocked the "atheism" of a religion without idols, and the "idleness" of a nation that refrains from labor for more than a seventh of its life. But alongside the mockers, there were also many gentiles who came to visit and take interest in "a nation of philosophers" whose lives revolved around the weekly gathering in the "miniature sanctuary" and the sacred writings that were read and studied diligently by young and old alike.

Many of the gentiles who became interested began drawing close to Judaism and its commandments. Some became full righteous converts, and some began observing commandments partially. The influence was so great that Roman writers complained that "there is no place in Rome without a Jew." This process was halted by Hadrian’s decrees against circumcision, which brought about the Bar Kokhba revolt and its cruel suppression. Hadrian’s successors rescinded the prohibition for Jews, but strictly forbade the circumcision of gentiles, and thus stopped the possibility of converting gentiles.

But the "Jewish germ" that had entered Roman culture was not eliminated; rather, it underwent a mutation: Christianity, which proposed accepting the Hebrew Bible, belief in monotheism, the vision of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible, and the idea of a weekly day of rest, while canceling the burden of the detailed commandments and claiming that a new Torah had been given that superseded the Jewish Hebrew Bible. A similar process happened several centuries later in the Arabian Peninsula, when Muhammad created Islam, which accepted some of Judaism’s values while giving up others.

Judaism’s rebellious "daughters"—Christianity and Islam—introduced into the consciousness of hundreds of millions of people the values of monotheism and the prophets’ vision, the day of rest and weekly prayer, and more. But this partial adoption was accompanied by many distortions and corruptions, and by hatred of the source—Judaism, which refused to accept what these "disciples" had done to the original Torah of Judaism.

So we are "in the middle of the road." Hundreds of millions of people have accepted a considerable portion of Judaism’s values—but in their ingratitude toward the source from which they drew, they brought about major moral corruptions.

Let us hope that the renewed revival of the Jewish people in its land will also bring about a renewed spiritual flowering of the Jewish people, and in its wake an intensification of its religious and moral influence on all humanity.

With blessings,
Amihuz Yaron Schnitzler