Chosen People
OK. So sometimes I get religious on you people. Bear with me. Its just part of my heritage.
Sheltered as I am from other sects of Jews and their religious philosophies, I was very surprised to read on a blog that Jews have difficulty with the concept of being God's chosen people. The discussion came up again tonight in a shuir I go to, where one the guys in the shuir was discussing the militant feminist women (Stern girls) he encountered at a Pesach hotel. One of the girls felt that it was wrong to say that the Jews were God's chosen people. How can we apply a human term of favorite to God? And why would God show favoritism to one set of people over another?
Still, we see this concept of favoritism in Judaism constantly. Every morning we (men) thank God for not making us gentiles, women or slaves. The Kohen, and the entire Levi tribe is considered to be better than regular jews, and a jew born to specific jewish parents who should not have been in bed together can consider himself a mamzer and is ineligible to marry a run of the mill ordinary jew. The Bachur, first born, has special privileges as well, another example where we see God showing favoritism.
With every element of "favoritism" that God shows on someone, their personal level of responsibility and scrutiny by God is raised. It isn't a carte blanche ticket of religious I'm-Better-Than-You. It carries obligation, which is satisfied through Mitzvot.
Do I believe, like my Constitution says, that All Men are Created Equal? In certain aspects, absolutely. In terms of legal rights, ability to work, and discrimination issues, I whole-heartedly believe all men were created equal. But the writer of those words was a slave owner. He was able to say yes, all men are created equal in most circumstances, but he drew lines, separating the equality of free men and slaves. My line is similar. We are all people, and we are fairly equal. But God has chosen my people to be a light among the nations. It is a responsibility, and a burden than has been paid with the blood of millions of jews throughout history. It is a responsibility we all shoulder.
One more thought on the subject. Germans thought that they were the master race. Within a few years, over 12 million people died because of that belief. Jews have always believed that they were a chosen people. How many people have we kiled in the history of our people based on that belief of superiority?
Sheltered as I am from other sects of Jews and their religious philosophies, I was very surprised to read on a blog that Jews have difficulty with the concept of being God's chosen people. The discussion came up again tonight in a shuir I go to, where one the guys in the shuir was discussing the militant feminist women (Stern girls) he encountered at a Pesach hotel. One of the girls felt that it was wrong to say that the Jews were God's chosen people. How can we apply a human term of favorite to God? And why would God show favoritism to one set of people over another?
Still, we see this concept of favoritism in Judaism constantly. Every morning we (men) thank God for not making us gentiles, women or slaves. The Kohen, and the entire Levi tribe is considered to be better than regular jews, and a jew born to specific jewish parents who should not have been in bed together can consider himself a mamzer and is ineligible to marry a run of the mill ordinary jew. The Bachur, first born, has special privileges as well, another example where we see God showing favoritism.
With every element of "favoritism" that God shows on someone, their personal level of responsibility and scrutiny by God is raised. It isn't a carte blanche ticket of religious I'm-Better-Than-You. It carries obligation, which is satisfied through Mitzvot.
Do I believe, like my Constitution says, that All Men are Created Equal? In certain aspects, absolutely. In terms of legal rights, ability to work, and discrimination issues, I whole-heartedly believe all men were created equal. But the writer of those words was a slave owner. He was able to say yes, all men are created equal in most circumstances, but he drew lines, separating the equality of free men and slaves. My line is similar. We are all people, and we are fairly equal. But God has chosen my people to be a light among the nations. It is a responsibility, and a burden than has been paid with the blood of millions of jews throughout history. It is a responsibility we all shoulder.
One more thought on the subject. Germans thought that they were the master race. Within a few years, over 12 million people died because of that belief. Jews have always believed that they were a chosen people. How many people have we kiled in the history of our people based on that belief of superiority?
posted by Air Time at 11:39 PM
8 Comments:
Ok, first of all, being a Stern graduate, most of us are not militant feminist females. I actually am a big opponent of femenists. They ruin things for the rest of us. Anyways, I've gathered that it's the PC garbage that has been so indocrinated into us by culture and media that automatically makes some people want to shy away from certain words that might end up "hurting" some-one else's feelings. Like, let's not use the word, "favorite". That's just mean to every-one else. Let's use, maybe, preferred religious customers. I think you're right, in the sense that people and groups in Judaism have extra responsibilities based on their birth, tribe, sex, etc. Would I call them G-d's "favorites"? Not necessarily. We all have different obligations within Judaism that impose various responibilities with mitigating consequences and rewards. As a woman, do I feel inferior to man b/c I can't go up to the Bima, read the Torah in front of the Tzibur, or be a Chazan, etc. Things that have been argued over and demonized by the Reform and lower Egalitarian Conservative movements, i.e. the militant feminists, absolutely not. G-d has granted me different obligations that men cannot follow and vise versa. I'm happy. I feel priviledged. I think that's what some people don't get. They get too caught up in the PC that they can't see the bigger picture and the blessing that G-d has bestowed upon the Jewish people by, as you said, making us a light among nations. They should get passed the symantics and understand the gifts that they've been given. Kadosh does not mean holy. That's the Christian definition of the word. It means seperate. We're seperate from all other nations. In this post-modern relativist age, separate is bad. All is equal and nothing can be above anything else. Crap. What's so wrong with being different and separate? We've spent our entire history fighting, dying, and surviving for it.
OC-
I agree with you on several points.
A) Not every Stern Grad is a militant Feminist. I wasn't very clear, but the girls who he had his seder with were militant feminists from Stern.
B) Every person in Judaism has a different role to play, regardless of tribe, birth order and gender.
However, I don't like shying a way from a word like favorite. Your solution of calling it preferred religious customers just adds confusion to the discussion.
For eight days this past month we said "You chose us from all the nations."
It sounds like a clear choice of playing a favorite, even with the responsibiity that it brings.
Air, I was being very sarcastic when I changed the term to a more "PC" version. I was just saying that that's an example of what those kind of people would have you do. I have no problem with the term, "favorite" or "chosen", either. That's how it's written. That's the way it is. I hate PC garbage. You don't like the term, come up with something that makes you all warm and fuzzy inside and reinforces some insecurity. Yeah, let people play symantic games until they're blue in the face. Reality is what it is. So, in short, I very much agree with you.
ok, so then there are no words we can use to describe god and what he thinks, does, and so on. favorite is as good a word as any. how would you translate segulah?
and dont give me the 'we just have different obligations' crap. if we have different obligations, there must be a payoff for it.
and yes, orthodoxy is in fact misogynistic. whats the big deal? its 3000 years old, give it a break. saying anything else is a defensive cover-up for the truth. live with it.
sure -- your role is cleaning the table, and my role is that i get to get priority for all things holy.
sewer workers and presidents 'each have their job to do' but lets face the truth, shall we?
and the only reason we havent killed millions of people is because we never had the opportunity. now that jews have their own state, look at how they treat the palestinians...
The way we treat Palestinians is not because we think as Jews we are better than they are.
It is because they are in our land, trying to blow us up.
i was thinking of the sefardim, not necessarily the arabs.
but speaking of arabs...it was their land first. and in any case, why cant we share it? why must israel be an apartheid state?
if israel would treat the arabs decently the situation would improve radically. thats israel for you, always playing games.
Airtime, I think you should just ignore this anonymous. Obviously, this person is too cowardly to give a name and is also trying to goat angry responses from you. You can't stop the world from stupidity. It's a fact of life. Let anonymous continue to be a poor stupid fool, living in the comfortable bubble of his/her naive beliefs, and go about your merry way. There's no pt in answering.
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