The "Chosen" People

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, for centuries upon centuries, the question has been posed, "Why are the Jews considered the chosen people?" IN attempting to answer this question, the author (1) defines "chosen" to identify the role of the Jews as a people and to understand why God may have selected Abraham to begin with and (2) illustrates the responsibilities of the Jews as God's chosen people to determine what exactly, if anything, separates the meaning of their religious way of life from that of Christians, who also consider themselves divinely chosen. The paper concludes that the selection of the Jews as the divinely elected people is simply a means to an end because, once the obligation of the Israelite people is fulfilled and the nations of the world come together under one God in peace, then the necessity of having a "chosen" people will be gone.

From the Paper:

"Later on in the Torah, there seems to be a much more definite description of what the Jews responsibilities are as the chosen people, "Now then, if you will obey Me faithfully and keep My covenant, you shall be to Me a treasured possession among all the peoples." In this passage it is evident that the covenant with the Jews was not an unconditional promise to them to be their God, it was provisional. If they did what God instructed them and followed His laws, He would watch over them. In fact, using examples from the Midrashic story regarding the chosenness of the Israelite people, Rabbi Ishmael implies that the Torah and God's blessing were not just offered to the Jews, but were offered to all the peoples."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Berlin, Adele, and Marc Z. Brettler, eds. The Jewish Study Bible. New York: Oxford UP, 1999.
• Emil Fackenheim, What is Judaism? (New York: Collier, 1987)
• Judah ha-Levi, The Kuzari: An Argument for the Faith of Israel (New York: Schocken, 1964)
• Mekilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, ed. By Jacob Lauterbach (vol. 2; Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1933).

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