For more, please read ‘Death of Hellenism, Then and Now’.
Also, please see short bios on Samuel Gompers and Louis Brandeis.
Tag Archives: Chosen People
What Are the Jewish People “Chosen” For?
This week’s very powerful Torah portion is Va’etchanan. In it, Moses continues his farewell speech to the nation before his death. Among other important points, he recaps the Ten Commandments, and proclaims the text of the Shema. Included in this speech are a number of significant prophecies and statements.
Moses reminds the people that what they witnessed at Mt. Sinai was a totally unique, once-in-history event, where God brought forth a divine revelation to the entire nation, with every single individual experiencing a prophetic vision. Moses tells us to always remember that this has never happened elsewhere in history (Deuteronomy 4:32-34). Although modern Biblical critics will immediately point out that there is no proof that such a national revelation ever took place, Moses tells us that no other people has ever even claimed such a thing! To this day, there is no nation or religion that claims to have started with a national revelation. Strangely, only the Jewish people make such a claim.
A 1907 Illustration of the National Revelation at Sinai
(Although some point out that the Aztecs seem to have a similar story of their god guiding them through a Wilderness to their very own promised land in Mexico, most modern scholars agree that this myth is very recent, adopted from the Jewish story in the Torah. The Aztecs picked it up from Christian missionaries and made it their own.)
Another prophecy in this week’s portion is that the Jewish people will be scattered around the world, and will always remain small in number (4:27). Three thousand years later, the prophecy still holds true, with just 0.2% of the world’s population being Jewish. That’s quite amazing, as it defies normal growth patterns. There are roughly two billion Christians in the world, and their religion emerged over a thousand years after Judaism. The number of Muslims is also steadily nearing two billion, and they came around even later, roughly 1400 years ago. Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and virtually all other major religions outnumber the Jews. Even the Bahai faith, which started just 160 years ago is quickly catching up, and will soon outnumber Judaism, too.
Moses suggests that it is precisely because we are small in number that God chose us (7:7). Perhaps this can be explained with simple economics of supply and demand. The more of something that there is, the less value it is perceived to have. (Note the word perceived; all human life is of course equal.) The sworn enemies of the Jews seem to agree: Hamas thought it was totally fair to demand 1000 Palestinians to be freed in exchange for one Jew – Gilad Shalit!
The big question is: why did God “choose” us?
The Chosen People
To understand why God chose the Jewish people, and what exactly we are chosen for, one must look back to the beginning of the whole story. Originally, there were no Jews and no Torah. There were only Adam and Eve, in a perfect world, living with God’s revealed presence. The problem of this “perfect” world was that Adam and Eve were essentially unable to truly enjoy it. Having never experienced anything “bad”, they had no concept of what is “good” either. Life was just bland.
In the middle of Eden, God placed the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. By consuming of its fruit, Adam and Eve would be introduced to these new concepts. They would now have to experience hardship and confront evil, but measure for measure, they would now also be able to enjoy goodness and pleasure. After all, it is only because we have had negative experiences that we can truly understand, appreciate, and strive for the positive ones.
Adam and Eve had a choice. They chose the Tree of Knowledge. With that, their perfect world was over. However, this was only temporary. God’s intention was for mankind to live in a world of goodness, not one of suffering. Yet, in order to make the most of the Garden of Eden, mankind first had to experience evil, overcome it, and transcend it. Ever since Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden, their mission has been to remove evil from their midst, restore goodness, and finally return to that Garden.
Adam and Eve were unable to do this, and neither were their children, or grandchildren. As humans multiplied, they only become more and more sinful, pushing themselves further away from Godliness and goodness. After ten generations, God hit the “restart” button to try again with Noah. Noah ultimately failed as well, and once more each passing generation only fell further into immorality. It took another ten generations before things started to change.
Abraham’s Revolution
Abraham was the first person to properly recognize what the universe was all about. He understood that the current state of the world was wrong. Life was never meant to be this way. Abraham thus made it his life’s mission to repair the world. He travelled across the Middle East and spread monotheism, righteousness, and Godliness wherever he went. Abraham embodied all of the traits necessary to restore the world to a state of Eden. And so, it wasn’t so much that God chose Abraham, but rather, that Abraham chose God.
To complete the task of repairing the world would require more than just one man. This huge mission would require a nation. Thankfully, Abraham’s son Isaac continued in his father’s path, as did Jacob the grandson, and his own twelve sons. From these twelve sons an entire nation was born – a nation whose mission would be to restore the world to the Garden of Eden.
History shows that the Jewish people have indeed done so. The Jews’ moral contributions to the world have been vast, and described in books like Ken Spiro’s WorldPerfect – The Jewish Impact on Civilization and Thomas Cahill’s The Gifts of the Jews, among others. The Jews’ contributions to science, medicine, and technology may be even greater. Some of the most important minds behind breakthroughs like the personal computer and the internet, the cellphone and lasers, vaccines and automobiles were Jews, as were some of the greatest figures in biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics. It is also important not to forget the immeasurable spiritual contributions of the Jews to the world.
Of course, Jews are not perfect. The Torah itself attests to this many times, even in this week’s parasha that admonishes the nation on multiple occasions. At the end of the day, the name of our nation is Israel, which literally translates as “struggles with God.” Our history has been a difficult one, full of struggles and challenges. It is clear, though, that we are nearing the end of this period, and we will soon see the restoration of the Garden of Eden, as God originally intended.
The article above is adapted from Garments of Light – 70 Illuminating Essays on the Weekly Torah Portion and Holidays. Click here to get the book!
Abraham’s Revolution & the Purpose of the Jewish People
This week in the parasha of Lech Lecha we begin reading the story of Abraham, the principal forefather of the Jewish people. Abraham is considered history’s first Jew, being the one to whom the covenant of circumcision was first given, together with the Promised Land. The most pertinent question to ask is: why Abraham? What exactly was it that Abraham did to merit being the first Jew? What was so unique about him that made him the forefather of an entire nation, not to mention a multitude of other nations, too? (This is the meaning of his Hebrew name, as Rashi explains on verse 17:5 that Avraham stands for Av Hamon Goyim – “father of many nations”.)
The most common answer that is suggested is that Abraham was the first monotheist, and introduced monotheism to the world. A quick look through the Torah negates this argument very quickly. For instance, we know that Abraham’s life overlapped with that of Noah, who was obviously a monotheist, having communicated directly with God. Jewish tradition holds that Noah’s son Shem had a yeshiva, together with his grandson Ever, where our forefathers studied, and which long pre-existed Abraham’s arrival onto the scene. Earlier, we see that Enoch “walked with God”, too. There are many more examples we can bring to show that Abraham was certainly not the first monotheist, nor was he the first to teach monotheism to the world.
We must find another answer then, and to do this it may be easier to begin with another question: why is there a Jewish people at all? Why is there a need for a “Chosen People”, and what exactly are the Jewish people chosen for?
Back to the Garden of Eden
Originally, God had created man in a perfect world of no evil. There was no Judaism in the Garden of Eden; Adam and Eve were certainly not Jews. They chose to introduce evil into the world, and man was thus “expelled” from the Garden. Henceforth, it has been our mission to return to a perfect world—to repair the damage that was done, to remove evil from our midst, and to restore Godliness to the universe. We are in the world of tikkun, “repair”, and since the time of Adam, it has been man’s mission to recreate an immaculate world of pure goodness.
Unfortunately, Adam and Eve were unsuccessful in this task, and so were their immediate descendants. By the third generation, the Torah tells us that people began to profane the name of God. By the tenth, the world was full of corruption and immorality. Instead of repairing the world, people were only damaging it further. In last week’s parasha, we read how God essentially hit the “restart” button, yet promised to never do so again. The reason for this is fairly plain: God created the world for us; an infinite God requires nothing for Himself. It makes little sense for God to continue recreating the world if Man will keep destroying it. In effect, God was saying that henceforth it is up to man to take care of our own world.
Another ten generations after the Flood, the world was corrupt once more. Since God wouldn’t be destroying it again, from where would the solution come? Who would rise to the challenge? This is where Abraham comes into the picture.
Abraham’s Revolution
From a very young age, Abraham recognized the cruelty that permeates the planet, and made it his life mission to make the world a better place. He quickly deduced that there must be one singular God, and made the effort to find the answers to life’s big questions. But it didn’t end there.
Unlike Shem, Ever, and their kind, Abraham actually wanted to do something about it. Shem and Ever could not confront the rampant idolatry and corruption of their society, so they fled and opened their own secluded yeshiva. All who were interested were welcome to join, but otherwise Shem and Ever were silent.
Abraham, meanwhile, was far more proactive. He understood that man’s mission is to perfect the world. He understood that there is nothing to wait for. Abraham actively entered the battle, fighting the immorality of the day head-on and starting a massive education campaign. Jewish tradition teaches that Abraham built his home along a busy intersection, with a door on each side to make it as easy as possible for people to enter. Food and drink were both abundant and free of charge for all who were willing to listen. Abraham is even said to have written a book of several hundred chapters outlining his arguments against idolatry, immorality, and corruption, while presenting a summary answering the biggest questions of life. Abraham was so passionate about his work that he even risked his life for it. It came to a point where his movement threatened King Nimrod, and the latter threw him into a flaming furnace.
It was only at this point that God stepped in. It is incredible that until this moment, Abraham had done all of that without ever having communicated directly with Hashem. Until then, he was in the same boat as all of us are today—in a world with no prophecy or revealed Godliness; in a world full of immorality and atheism. Nonetheless, his knowledge and faithfulness in God never wavered, nor did he abandon his mission. This is precisely why God chose Abraham. In many ways, it is more appropriate to say that Abraham chose God.
The Chosen People
And this is the true purpose of the Jewish people. We are meant to continue the work that Abraham started nearly four thousand years ago. Like Abraham, the Jews as a whole have always been on the side of righteousness, and morality, regardless of what society said, or how much we were persecuted. A “light unto the nations”, the Jews have revolutionized the world in each generation, moving civilization forward, and bringing it ever closer to a perfect world.
It is no surprise that roughly 25% of Nobel Prize winners are Jewish (despite being just 0.2% of the world’s population!) nor is it surprising that in 2013, the UN passed 21 out of 25 resolutions against Israel. One of the world’s tiniest countries, with a population that makes up just 0.1% of the planet, somehow earns 84% of the world’s resolutions! The world’s eyes are constantly focused on Israel. The Jewish State is held to a far higher standard than any other. The world looks to us for moral guidance, and for higher consciousness (and they are rightly upset when we fail to uphold this ideal).
This is our task as Jews, just as it was the task of Abraham. This is why Abraham was different, and why Abraham was chosen. We are continuing his work in repairing this world and bringing it closer to the primordial state of Eden. And we are finally living in a time where this is no longer just a dream. Technology has brought the world together in a way that was never possible before. Jewish teachings say that every person on Earth will one day hear the shofar of Mashiach. This was once relegated to the category of miracles. Today, it is possible for anyone with a smartphone and an internet connection. The prophets Isaiah (11:9) and Habakkuk (2:14) both state how the era of Mashiach will be one where the world is saturated with knowledge. We are indeed living in a world where we are constantly bombarded with information, and any question can be answered within seconds by a simple Web search. In other words, we are now living these ancient prophecies.
The fulfilment of man’s original mission—the one that Abraham took upon himself, and that the Jewish people have continued throughout the millennia—is nearly upon us.
—-
For another fascinating perspective on Abraham’s unique contribution to the world, click here to read an article by Rabbi Dr. Akiva Tatz.