Chosenness: Privilege or Responsibility

Shemot Rabba 18:5

The privilege of special protection: This midrashic source speaks not of a conditional relationship between the Israelites and God, dependant on their loyalty and performance of Mitzvot, but rather an unconditional love that results in the apportioning of two angels, Michael and Gavriel, as protectors and guardians over Israel. While this does not preclude the possibility of other guardian angels existing protecting other peoples (and therefore God having covenants with other nations) it certainly implies and leaves you thinking this is a special perk for the chosen people alone. 

Understand this midrash in light of dark periods in Jewish history: If we consider Jewish history and the trials and tribulations that have faced the Jewish people generation after generation, we could be left wondering where these guardian angels were during the darkest periods of our history. A closer reading of the midrash itself contains the answer to this question. The period of history it is relating to was indeed a dark and unstable period for the Jews of Eretz Yisrael. Sancherev was besieging Chezekiah’s Jerusalem, but the story as it is told in the Tanach has Sancherev suffering considerable setbacks at the hand of Israel’s guardian angels. While Jewish history has had long periods of suffering and darkness, the fact that the people of Israel are here today to tell the story, have survived, and ultimately thrived, is testament to God’s protection and love of His Chosen People. No other ancient people has survived exile and dispersion and still exists today to tell the tale. 

Vayikra (Leviticus) 26:3-20

The consequences for observing and disobeying the covenant: Toward the end of the book of Vayikra, the Torah reemphasizes the eternal nature of this covenant. The commitment of the people to God and the covenant between them cannot be broken. Therefore, any rebellion against God and disobedience of His commandments will lead to severe consequences (Vayikra 26:14-26 listed below). However, this initial section begins with the rewards and blessings that will result in loyalty and obedience to God and observing of the commandments. 

Chosenness as privilege: Taken on its own, this first section, focusing as it does on the promise of automatic blessings, feels like the special relationship between the Israelites and God is unconditional, and certainly a fait accompli if they are only loyal in the service of God. Chosenness seems to be a privilege here, and although the larger context of these verses emphasize the  conditional nature of these blessings, the bottom line (see below Vayikra 26:44-45) the covenant and bond is eternal and cannot be broken by either party.

Consequences for not keeping the Covenant: After the promise of blessings and a life of goodness if the Israelites fulfill the word of God, (see above inVayikra 26:3-13)  the Torah details the heavy punishments for the abandonment of the Torah and its commandments (Vayikra 26:14-43), an excerpt of which is found here (26:14-20). The Torah takes 30 verses to describe in graphic detail all the ills that the Israelites will endure if they are disloyal and abandon God and His Torah. Tragically, all of the retributions listed have befallen the Jewish people over the course of its long history, in its far-flung communities.

Chosenness implies Responsibly: With this broader perspective on this section, we can now see that the privilege of chosenness comes with stark responsibilities and disastrous ramifications if these responsibilities are not fulfilled. This responsibility is framed in a similarly powerful way in the next source.

Amos 3:1-2

Background to the text: Amos was a prophet called to prophecy during the reigns of King Uzziah in the south and Yarov’am (Jeroboam) II in the north, times of political stability and prosperity, accompanied by idolatry and corruption in the 8th century BCE. His is one of the books that comprise the Minor Prophets, minor reflecting the length of the books and not the importance of their teachings.

Chosenness as responsibility – being held to a higher standard: In this text, Amos implies that having been chosen by God comes with being held to a higher standard. If this is the case, one can understand why the Israelites might not have been overly excited about having been chosen (and why the talmudic rabbis imagined that the acceptance of this covenant might not have come out of a desire to be in a special relationship with God, but rather out of fear of death, as if a mountain was held over their heads – see Talmud Bavli, Shabbat 88a in the Block “Who Chose Who?”).

Vayikra (Leviticus) 26:44-45

The eternal covenant: This section ends, after the lists of reward and blessings for obedience and the punishments and curses for disobedience, God reaffirms that the covenant between Him and the Israelite nation is eternal and can never be broken. And so it has been throughout Jewish history. Despite some seemingly close calls, the Jewish people has survived generation after generation to this day.

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Confrontation

The Universal and Particular mission of Jews: Soloveitchik sees chosenness as being complex in that it requires of Jews a dual responsibility: universal, inasmuch as all human beings descend from the first human, Adam, and particular, given that God chose the Jews to enter the covenant. The universal responsibility is to bear “the dignity of man,” to live in this world and to be of it, to embrace the “encounter with nature.” This responsibility is not that of the Jews alone, but is that of every human being. But Jews, unlike other people, are also “members of a covenantal community,” initiated by Avraham, seconded by Yitzchak, furthered by Yaakov and all his descendants, and grandly celebrated at the Revelation at Sinai. This membership comes with a burden, a task, to maintain the “sanctity” demanded by a covenant with God. In this, the Jew is different from other peoples, as the “mission” to preserve this sanctity is theirs alone.

For Rabbi Soloveitchik being chosen is not always easy, neither does it imply superiority. It calls for certain responsibilities, carries with it expectations of behaviors, and lays on Jews the burden of balancing the universal and the particular. 

Balancing the dual responsibilities: Soloveitchik’s concept of dual responsibility, of the need to balance the universal and the particular, is one that many Jews grapple with as they have integrated into society: when is one to be like everyone else and when is one to be different? Are these two separate parts of a person, are they to be actualized at different times, in different circumstances, or is there a way to integrate both without losing one or the other?

Video: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, The Chosen People

(1948-2020) British Rabbi and Jewish thinker, member of the House of Lords and former Chief Rabbi. 

Chosen to exemplify the dignity of difference: Rabbi Sacks begins by sharing the difficulties he has with the concept of Jews being chosen by God. Didn’t God create all of humanity and love them? Doesn’t God have a covenant with all of humanity? What does it mean to be chosen? He answers that the Jewish people were chosen to be different, in order to teach the world the dignity of difference. You can be different, and ‘other’ in society, and still be special and loved. God loves diversity, and that is why the universe has such diversity. 

Jews have always been the outsiders in society, they have wondered and never been at home for two thousand years, and this has brought at times suffering and persecution. Chosenness was less a privilege and more a responsibility – and sometimes a painful one. The responsibility that came with chosenness was to be different in order to demonstrate to the world that one can be different and still be loved by God. 

Vayikra (Leviticus) 26:3-20