Shabbat Eykev

It still amazes me how often I hear non -Jews claim that we Jews are so arrogant and exclusive because we claim to be the chosen people. And they happily ignore the fact that both Christianity and Islam at various times have proudly claimed to be the chosen people, the beloved of God or Allah too. And yet they get so offended that someone else is given that title.

Let’s examine exactly what the Torah says.

“For you are the people consecrated to God, from amongst the people of the earth. Not because you are the most numerous of peoples, indeed you are amongst the smallest. But God grew attached to you because you were the smallest of them. But because God favoured you because of the oath that he made to your fathers.” Nowhere does it say you were automatically better because of this. (Devarim 7: 6 to 8).

But then this week, the Torah goes on to reiterate what a rotten bunch we really are.

“You should never say in your heart that it’s thanks to my strength and my valour that I’ve achieved all this. Do not say in your heart that God is driving out these people before you, saying that it is because of my righteousness he is bringing me to this land. It’s not because you are so righteous or so upright of heart that you’re coming into this land. It is only because of their wickedness that they are being driven out. And only so that I can keep my word to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. You should know it’s not because you are so righteous that God is giving you this land because you are a stiff-necked people (Devarim 9: 5 to 9). 

We were given or rather inherited a mission. An obligation a burden more, to change the world not through preaching but through behavior and example. Our relationship with God was contingent on our abiding by the Torah, which is why we would never be able to accept an alternative or a new covenant.

It was only when others challenged us with their claimed superiority that the rabbis brought the word BACHAR, which should be translated as SELECTED, into the liturgy every time that we read the Torah when we say that “He has selected us from other nations by giving us the Torah.” It is a burden, an obligation. Like being selected to go to war!

Even so, chapter after chapter, we have been reading and will continue to, about how we backslide, how we disconnect from our ideals, how we don’t deserve what God has given us. How awful we are. How terrible most of our leaders have been, and what mistakes they have made. Hardly a compliment. And so relevant now that we are fighting amongst ourselves almost as much as our enemies. Hardly an image of perfection.

If we are so special, so chosen, why is the Torah so full of condemnation of our behaviour and predicts time and again we will continue to backslide and be stiff-necked and defeated and exiled and punished. The paradox in this is that our holy texts tell us that we are not deserving, and yet all our enemies are so busy telling us that we think we are.

As Tevye the Milkman says in Fiddler on the Roof “ God, could you not have chosen someone ese?”

We are not likable. We are stubborn. But we have survived and produced so much good as well.

Rabbi Jeremy Rosen lives in New York. He was born in Manchester. His writings are concerned with religion, culture, history and current affairs – anything he finds interesting or relevant. They are designed to entertain and to stimulate. Disagreement is always welcome.