Kee Tavo
Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8
Isaiah 60:1-22
“How odd/ Of God/ To choose/ The Jews!”
William Norman Eiver’s pithy verse illustrates the ambivalence many Jews feel about the concept of chosenness. Throughout history, this doctrine was taken by some to mean that the Jews were given special status by God. In difficult periods of Jewish history, it provided a source of hope and reassurance. However, to outsiders, the doctrine of chosenness was proof that Jews were aloof and haughty, a description that made Jews bristle.
The origin of the concept of Israel’s election is found in a number of places in the Book of Deuteronomy, in this week’s portion, Kee Tavo.
“And the Lord has affirmed this day that you are, as He promised you, His treasured people which shall observe all His commandments, and that He will set you, in fame and renown and glory, high above all the nations that He has made; and that you shall be, as He promised, a holy people to the Lord your God” (Deut. 26:18-19; also see: 7:6, 14:2).
“Now, if you heed the word of the Lord your God, to observe faithfully all His commandments which I enjoin upon you this day, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth” (Deut. 28:1).
“The Lord will establish you as His holy people, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. And all the peoples of the earth shall see that the Lord’s name is proclaimed over you, and they shall stand in fear of you” (Deut. 28:9-10).
The title of “treasured” or “holy people” also finds currency in other places in the Bible. Most notable is the comment, “You alone have I singled out of all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2).
Nevertheless, the prophets also chastised the Israelites for thinking that God’s special treatment was exclusive. Compare Amos’ statement to a later one: “‘To me, O Israelites, you are just like the Ethiopians,’ declared the Lord” (Amos 9:7). Such universal expression resonates in the writing of Abraham Joshua Heschel: “God is either the Father of all men or of no man.”
In spite of the elevated status of being called am kadosh (a holy people) and am segulah (a treasured people), the concept of chosenness produced anxiety among Jews because it was often interpreted by non-Jews as indicative of Jewish conceit and superiority. Such self-exaltation often resulted in the charge: “You Jews think that you are better than anyone else.”
The view of 20th-century philosopher Mordecai Kaplan is representative of how uncomfortable modern Jews have become with the concept of chosenness. He suggested that the doctrine has no place in an age that decries inequality of every kind, and he argued that while it may have had its place in Jewish life, it, nevertheless, has always been viewed with suspicion.
Kaplan, therefore, in prayer books produced beginning in 1945 for his Reconstructionist movement, removed the words, “who has chosen us from among all peoples,” from the blessing recited before the reading of the Torah. He stated: “We…advocate the elimination of all references to the doctrine of Israel as the Chosen People from our liturgy.”
The bitter lesson of history is that Jews would prefer not to be singled out for any special treatment — or for any special punishment, for that matter — because Judaism’s critics and enemies have utilized this doctrine as a model for their own racist ideologies.
This “just leave us alone,” philosophy was articulated in “Fiddler on the Roof” by the fictional Tevye, who said, “Master of the Universe, You promised to make the seed of Abraham as the sands of the seashore and as numerous as the stars of the heavens. Lord of all worlds, thank you very much. But don’t you think it’s time to choose someone else?”
One way that modern Jews have attempted to resolve the tension between universalism and particularism has been to recognize that the special status of chosenness is an earned title as much as it is a given one. God made special demands for the right to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6).
Israel Zangwill’s appreciation of this compromise is found in his description, “the chosen people is a choosing people.” Thus, the choice not of privilege but of service affords a simple response to Eiver’s verse: “It isn’t odd./ The Jews/ Chose God.”