(Courtesy: Rabbi Gil Steinlauf )<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We Jews have a lot to be proud of. We have a long and ancient history. We have been beacons of justice and ethical teachings for countless generations. We have survived more attempts at annihilation than we care to number. And despite everything\u2014exile, civilizations rising and falling, ever-shifting politics and locales\u2014we have survived and have been successful beyond anyone\u2019s imagination. There\u2019s a very special feeling that we have about our identity as Jews. Yes, it\u2019s pride. But it\u2019s also gratitude and wonder, and a deep feeling of a collective heritage and destiny in this world that we share. And there\u2019s also a phrase that often gets quoted and bandied about: we\u2019re the \u201cChosen People.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us associate our special feeling of Jewishness with that \u201cchosenness.\u201d How could we not\u2014there is so much that feels special about being Jewish. But for obvious reasons, the \u201cChosen People\u201d expression also engenders a lot of resentment from other peoples, both non-Jewish and Jewish. Does it really mean that we think that God made us inherently better than everyone else? This week\u2019s Torah-reading has one of the core references that have given rise to the idea of the \u201cChosen People.\u201d It says, \u201cAnd God has affirmed –\u2018Hayom\u2019\u2014today–\u2018L\u2019hiyot lo l\u2019Am Segulah\u2014to be God\u2019s \u2018Treasured People.\u2019 So the original expression is \u2018treasured,\u2019 not exactly \u2018Chosen.\u2019 But the Torah then goes on and says, \u201cGod will set you–\u2018Elion al kol haGoyim\u2019\u2014above all the nations\u2014\u2018Lit\u2019hilah, uleShem, Ul\u2019tifaret\u2019\u2014in praise, in fame, and in glory, and you shall be an \u201cAm Kadosh,\u201d a Holy People to the Lord Your God. When you hear words like that, it\u2019s hard not to think that we have a religion with a superiority complex! In all fairness, all religions understand themselves to bear ultimate truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All religions see their own adherents as possessing a special role and destiny. And so Israelite superiority in the ancient world is one aspect of this teaching. Luckily, however, we have the wealth of the Jewish tradition to turn to that can give us some more insight into this teaching. The good news is that anyone who takes the idea of the Chosen People to mean that we Jews should think that we\u2019re inherently better than everyone else, is confused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The great 18th-century Rebbe, Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev discussed this very line, and brought to light some very interesting insights that we don\u2019t necessarily notice on the surface. He said, yes, it certainly says that we Jews are a people treasured by God. It certainly places us over the many idol-worshiping nations of the ancient world as morally superior. But there are some interesting hints of other dimensions to this text as well. When it says, for example, that we will be superior to the other nations in praise, in fame, and in glory, Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev notices that those three adjectives are in an interesting order. If we are indeed some kind of superior class of supermen and superwomen, wouldn\u2019t our fame be renowned, and first in the series of adjectives to describe us? But it\u2019s not. \u201cFame\u201d comes second, not first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Levi Yitzchak explains that what makes us so special to God, so treasured, so holy, isn\u2019t that we\u2019re smarter or better than anyone else. Take a look at the ancient Israelites at the moment that these lines were originally uttered. They were finishing their 40-year wandering in the desert. Over all the long years, they had really messed up. They made massive mistakes. They endlessly lost faith, they had complained, they were regularly willing to give up and run back to slavery in Egypt. They made the Golden Calf. They even mounted a full-scale rebellion at one point against Moses and Aaron, and their leaders were only stopped when God opened the earth and swallowed them up. Not a good track record, and certainly not people distinguished as on a higher plane than all others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But at that moment, as they were poised to go over the River Jordan into the Promised Land, they made it. Despite all their failings and sins, they had climbed back up. They found a way to rekindle their faith. They were devoted to the Covenant with God, and were brave enough to face their new lives in the land. The great 19th century Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch noticed that the word \u201cHayom,\u201d meaning \u2018today,\u2019 keeps appearing again and again at this section of the Torah. He explains that we truly became a treasured people \u2018hayom,\u2019 on that day, after all the 40 years were over\u2014because we were willing to take responsibility for our past and for our destiny right then\u2014even before we entered the land, even before we had anything, while we were still in the wilderness. Hayom, on that day, we owned up to ourselves. We made T\u2019shuvah, we returned to the best in our humanity. In our willingness to get real with ourselves, to make T\u2019shuvah, to honestly Return, this is what makes us an \u2018Am Segulah, a treasured people to God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev explains: you know why the Torah uses the word \u2018Tifaret,\u2019 \u2018Glory\u2019 to describe us? Is it because we\u2019re just so great? No! The only real Tiferet in the world, the only real glory is when we human beings are willing to embrace even our worst sins, our worst mistakes, our most shameful moments. And instead of running away from them, we bravely go into them. And we learn from them. And we use the insight from these experiences to be the very cornerstone of our strength, of our faith, of our bravery. That turn-around, that transformation, is what is truly glorious. And this is why, according the Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, those three adjectives are in their unique order. The last and final word is Tifaret, glory. Glory comes last in the series, because true glory comes at last: when we can transform even our greatest failures into the sources of our greatest success. In this way, glory comes last, but certainly not least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The thing we thought was the least worthy part of ourselves\u2014our guilts, our shames, our mistakes\u2014this can be our crowning jewel. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak describes how God uses our past sins that we have transformed as a garment that God proudly wears. When we really make T\u2019shuvah, that\u2019s when we become the glory of God! So indeed, God did choose the Israelites. God did set them above all the depraved and immoral idolatrous nations of the ancient world, and bestowed upon them the merit of inheriting the Land of Israel. But that chosenness is not a badge of honor that we get to wear no matter what. It\u2019s God\u2019s banner, worn when we are willing to be like our ancestors in the desert. Just like those ancient Israelites, we have all made some bad mistakes in our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We all have so many things we wish we hadn\u2019t said or done. We have things in our past that we\u2019re ashamed of. But Hayom, on this day, we can go inside and transform our past to become our greatest strength.. Rosh HaShanah is just a week and a half away. On that day, we will say \u2018Hayom Harat Olam,\u2019 this day is the birthday of the world. On Rosh Hashanah, we will remind ourselves, over and over, that we certainly are not more special than anything else in this miraculous world that is treasured by God. But like our ancestors before us, we become a people, we become a treasure to God, when we own up to our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We get to be a shining example to all the nations of the world that our humanity and this world is not hopeless. Even if we have made a mess of our lives and this world, we can always turn it all around Hayom, today, right now, when we turn our hearts around and face the Truth. This year, may we embrace the Truth that if we are chosen for anything, it is teach all the peoples of this world how we are all the treasure of God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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