How odd of God… | The Jerusalem Post

I ADMIRED Mordecai Kaplan, one of my professors in rabbinical school, in many ways. Unlike most teachers, he really made you think. But I disagreed with his determination to eliminate the concept of the chosen people from Judaism. Among other things, he would not recite the blessing said when called to the Torah which states “… who chose us from among all the nations.”

I still disagree with him about that, but over the years I have grown to understand what motivated him. He felt that the idea of “chosenness” was just another form of racial superiority, dividing humans into inferior and superior races. The result of that belief has been the murder of millions of Jews and enslavement of blacks by other races. Kaplan was right that such a belief has no role in Judaism and must be expunged wherever it exists. But that is not what ‘the chosen people’ means and it is important that we understand it correctly.

There is no question but that Judaism makes a distinction between Jews and non-Jews, but in what way are Israelites differentiated from others? Judaism teaches both universalism and particularity.

The Torah begins with the most universal theme of all – the creation of the world and of humankind by the one God (Genesis 1:1- 2:4). It concludes with the most particular theme of all – the word “Israel” (Deuteronomy 34:12). The opening chapters of the Torah are concerned with all of humankind and with such questions as “How was the world created?” “Who created it?” “What is the role of humans in the world?” “How did evil arise?”

These apply to all of humanity. The idea of the creation of Adam and Eve, the sole ancestors of everyone alive, is the clearest proof that all humans are related and cannot be divided into superior and inferior races. This was understood by the sages of Israel who taught that God created only one human so that in the future no person would be able to say, “My father is greater than your father.”

But, on another level, these opening chapters are only a prologue to, and an explanation of, the particular role the People of Israel plays in the world and the covenantal relationship God established with that nation, the descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob.

The narrative of the Torah tells that after the creation, God is disappointed with the actions of humankind, a disappointment based not on how people behave toward God, but how they behave to each other. The world is filled with violence rather than with justice and peace. Therefore, God destroys everything and everyone, keeping alive only Noah and his family who will start afresh.

Unfortunately, this sad story repeats itself after the flood, but this time God does not destroy all humans. Rather, God seeks someone who is loyal to God’s ways, someone who is righteous. That person is Abraham and, therefore, God makes a Covenant with him, promising to make his progeny into a great nation that will have its home in the Land of Canaan. Abraham was expected to walk before God and be blameless – t’mimim (Genesis 17:1-2). As the book of Nehemiah put it, “Finding his [Abraham’s] heart true to God, You made a Covenant with him…” (9:8). On this basis, Abraham’s descendants become God’s chosen people.

Exactly what it is that Abraham and his descendants are to do is spelled out in the story of Sodom and Gomorra when God informs Abraham of His plans for them. “I have singled him out that he may instruct his children and his posterity to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is just and right…” (Genesis 18:19). It is significant that no mention is made about teaching the belief in One God – as important as that is – or eliminating idolatry.

The essence of Abraham’s task is to do what is just and right. That is “the way of the Lord.” The final step in this process is the Covenant at Sinai in which the people take upon themselves the task of being God’s holy people, a priestly people who will be devoted to and minister to the one true God and demonstrate God’s ways to the entire world (Exodus 19:5). The chosen people is the holy people, the kingdom of priests, no more and no less.

However, the story does not end so simply, because this people, too, disappoints God.

God declares He will destroy them and make a new chosen people from the family of Moses. However, Moses refuses this role and dissuades God (Numbers 14:11-20). Just as God decided never to destroy humanity again, so, too, God will not now destroy Israel, although Israel will be punished and disciplined when it breaks the Covenant. Thus, Israel remains the chosen people, a people that will be held accountable for its part in the Covenant of Sinai ‒ being punished, even exiled, when they break it, but never to be totally destroyed or relieved of its position. That is what traditional Judaism teaches about our “chosenness.”

The people of Israel is not depicted as superior to other nations in the Torah, nor is it to rule over them (Deuteronomy 9:4-6). As a matter of fact, Moses makes it clear that the possession of the Land of Canaan “is not because of your rectitude…but because of their wickedness… and in order to fulfill the oath that the Lord made to your ancestors…” In a remarkable passage, Moses goes on to detail Israel’s lack of virtue, its stiffneckedness and its frequent rebelliousness (Deuteronomy 9:6-24). How does this fit in with the selection of Israel as God’s treasured people, a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:5-6), God’s “first born son” (Exodus 4:22)? This status gives Israel both privileges and responsibilities, but it does not imply racial superiority.

The role of Israel as God’s chosen people is expanded in prophetic writings.

The prophet Amos attempted to describe the relationship of God to Israel and to the nations in two seemingly contradictory statements. On the one hand, “You alone have I singled out of all the families of the earth – that is why I will call you to account for all your iniquities” (Amos 3:2). On the other hand, “To Me, O Israelites, you are just like the Ethiopians – declares the Lord. True, I brought Israel up from the land of Egypt, but also the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir” (Amos 9:7). In other words, the Lord is the God of all nations and cares for them all – not only Israel ‒ even if they do not worship the Lord as does Israel. God cares for them and saves them as He has cared for us.

At the same time, Amos recognizes that God’s relationship to Israel is unique in that only Israel entered into an exclusive Covenant with God at Sinai. Israelites were the first to attain that closeness, but not the last. We are the pioneers, but that exclusivity will not last forever. In prophetic literature, the doctrine is taught that the time will come when all nations will learn what Israel knows and teaches about God and, while not becoming Israelites, will worship the one God and thus become God’s people, as well. “In that day, Israel shall be a third partner with Egypt and Assyria as a blessing on earth, for the Lord of Hosts will bless them, saying, ‘Blessed be My people Egypt, My handiwork Assyria and My very own Israel” (Isaiah 19:24-25). See also Zechariah 14:9 and Isaiah 66:18, 49:6.

In a sense, the position of Israel among the nations is the same as the position of the priesthood – the Kohanim – among the Israelites. Singled out for a task, required to observe commands that others need not observe, but not inherently superior to them. This idea could lead to a concept of innate superiority, which has happened within some mystical Jewish thought and the teachings of certain Hasidic groups, but that is a distortion of what the Scripture teaches and what the Sages taught.

Whatever one may think about the concept of the chosen people in the Bible, it is clear that it does not imply racial superiority of Israelites over others. All human beings are judged on the basis of their deeds and held responsible for breaches of morality, i.e. wickedness, but not for idolatry or worship of other gods. Idolatry is a sin for Israel alone.

That God has somehow chosen us remains a central teaching of Judaism. It cannot be eliminated without doing great damage to the structure of our belief and the meaning of our existence. It is essential, however, that it be properly understood and not misused in ways that impugn the Torah’s concept of universal brotherhood. The only “chosenness” that can be justified is that in which we “keep the way of the Lord by doing what is just and right.”

Rabbi Reuven Hammer is a Jerusalem author and lecturer, a former president of the International Rabbinical Assembly and a founder of the Masorti Movement in Israel. His most recent book is ‘Akiva: Life, Legend, Legacy’ (JPS), now available in a Hebrew edition published by Yedioth Books and the Schechter Institute.