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The Jews as a chosen people: Tradition and transformation

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DOI: 10.4324/9780203884898

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The Jews as a Chosen People
4 Tradition and transformation
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3 S. Leyla Gürkan
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First published 2009
by Routledge
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2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 1
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada 1
by Routledge 1
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 1
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business 1
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. 1
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s 1
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” 2
© 2009 S. Leyla Gürkan 2
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now 2
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in 2
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
2
2
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library 2
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
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Gürkan, Salime Leyla. 2
The Jews as a chosen people: tradition and transformation/S. Leyla 3
Gürkan.
p. cm. – (Routledge Jewish studies series)
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Includes bibliographical references and index. 3
1. Jews–Election, Doctrine of–History of doctrines. I. Title. 3
BM613.G87 2008
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296.3'1172–dc22 3
2008026896 3
ISBN 0-203-88489-2 Master e-book ISBN 3
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ISBN10: 0-415-46607-5 (hbk) 4
ISBN10: 0-203-88489-2 (ebk) 4
ISBN13: 978-0-415-46607-3 (hbk) 4
ISBN13: 978-0-203-88489-8 (ebk) 4
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1
2 Contents
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3 Preface xi
4 List of abbreviations xiii
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7 Introduction 1
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PART I
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Chosenness as ‘holiness’ 7
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3 1 The biblical language of chosenness 9
4 2 Ancient Jewish literature 22
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6 3 Rabbinic literature 33
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9 PART II
0 Chosenness as ‘mission’ 45
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2 4 Universalist Jewish philosophies: Spinoza
3 and Mendelssohn 47
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5 5 Jewish Emancipation and modern Jewish movements
6 in Germany 59
7 6 Modern Jewish congregations in America 75
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9 7 Zionist understanding 90
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2 PART III
3 Chosenness as ‘survival’ 113
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5 8 The discourse of ‘Holocaust and Redemption’ 115
x Contents
9 The American experience 138 1
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10 The Israeli experience 167 3
Conclusion 185 4
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Notes 190 7
Bibliography 218 8
Index of ancient sources 233 9
Index of names and subjects 241 1
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Introduction

The Jewish idea of the chosen people is one of the topics on which a great
number of academic as well as non-academic works have been written from the-
ological, philosophical, and psychological perspectives. However, if we put
aside Arnold Eisen’s The Chosen People in America (1983), little has been done
concerning the socio-historical aspect of the question of chosenness, and Eisen’s
excellent work restricts its scope to American Jewish experience from the late
nineteenth century to 1980. This present study aims to examine the relation
between the development of the idea of chosenness and the shaping of Jewish
religion, in particular as it affects notions of Jewish identity down through the
ages. The intention is to survey a vast corpus of Jewish literature, biblical,
ancient Jewish, rabbinic, and modern, and conduct a descriptive and analytical
study designed to contribute to a better understanding of a central doctrine of the
Jewish religion and the primary constituent of Jewish identity.
The idea of chosenness, which basically denotes the special relationship
between God and the people of Israel, is the raison d’être of the Jewish religion
as well as Jewish people. In one way the Jewish idea of being chosen refers to a
general problem of all monotheistic religions in respect of their claim to exclus-
ive truth; in this Judaism is not alone. However, unlike the Christian notion of
chosenness and the Islamic claim to truth, both of which are individualist and
faith-centred, the Jewish doctrine of chosenness is based on the physical and
collective existence of one people, the Jews. Indeed, what is unique about the
Jewish idea of chosenness is related to the fact that it provides Judaism with the
elements of religion and nationality at once.1 This is why the Jewish religion is
bound up with the existence and experience of the Jewish people as a physical
collective entity. So Judaism does not only shape but is also shaped by its
followers, namely the Jewish people, more so than any other religion is.
Despite an apparent traditional Jewish emphasis on being the priestly people of
God serving humanity, chosenness is usually understood in terms of ‘a covenantal
community in which one’s primary concern is for his own people’.2 As a result of
this, the Jewish conception of a special relationship between God and Israel also
erects a fundamental separation between Jews and other nations, by leaving the
latter at the periphery of Jewish history. From a non-Jewish, and particularly
Christian, point of view, however, the ongoing Jewish claim to chosenness and
2 Introduction
uniqueness becomes a reason for the Jewish subjection to otherness, inferiority, 1
and even persecution.3 Nevertheless, it was, and still is, strongly emphasized by 2
many that the election of Israel among all other peoples was due to its monotheis- 3
tic commitment in the completely idolatrous world of ancient times. Thus chosen- 4
ness, it is argued, was granted to serve one God in purity and not for the 5
attainment of any privilege or superiority.4 However, there have been, and still 6
are, Jews who believe in the holiness and superiority of the Jewish people as 7
an innate and eternal quality. Besides, in the presence of other monotheistic 8
religions, the ongoing Jewish insistence on chosenness and the subsequent claim 9
to having a ‘unique’ role in the establishment of monotheism in the world seems 1
superfluous. In such circumstances, Judaism could claim at best to undertake ‘a’ 1
role to help, alongside other monotheistic religions, the establishment of the true 1
worship of one God – as has been advocated by several modern Jewish scholars. 1
Throughout Jewish tradition there have been two major dimensions of the 1
concept of chosenness: one as a ‘quality’ and the other as a ‘duty’. The history 1
of the doctrine of chosenness has witnessed sometimes an overlap of the two, 1
namely the unconditional/substantial and conditional/relational aspects of cho- 1
senness. In rabbinic literature, in particular, these two dimensions of chosenness, 1
quality (holiness) and duty (covenant), can be found side by side. However, 1
according to the majority of ancient rabbis, it is because the people of Israel 2
have been unconditionally chosen by God through his eternal love for them that 2
they are appointed with a duty. It is formulated in Jewish liturgy as ‘Blessed are 2
you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has chosen us from all peoples 2
and has given us your Law’. For some others like Maimonides, however, Israel 2
is great only for the sake of the Torah. In this way it is believed that the Jewish 2
people incorporated in themselves chosenness on both conditional and uncondi- 2
tional terms. However, the question of how far the physical Israel corresponds to 2
the spiritual Israel has been at the centre of the Jewish religion up to contempor- 2
ary times. Most of the time the physical Israel as a tangible collective commun- 2
ity constituted of the Jews is equated with the spiritual Israel as an abstract 3
utopian entity. Chosenness in this way refers to an eternal and unconditional 3
quality of the Jewish people as well as and even more than an ambition towards 3
and a search for an ideal, which might include other peoples as well. On the 3
other hand, the tension between the ‘particularity’ of the election of Israel and 3
the ‘universality’ of the creation of humans in the image of God and of the 3
redemption of humanity, cannot be explained away very easily.5 The dilemma 3
embedded within the Jewish claim to chosenness for the service of humankind 3
becomes even more problematic in the face of the fact that, in Judaism, human- 3
ity is usually understood to be divided into two fundamentally opposite groups: 3
Jews (God’s people) and non-Jews (the gentiles). In accordance with changing 4
socio-political circumstances, the attitude of Jews towards non-Jews had differ- 4
ent forms in Jewish tradition, ranging from hostility to tolerance and friendship; 4
and often the nature of the non-Jewish attitude determined the shape of the 4
Jewish attitude. However, the fundamental aggadic division between Jews and 4
non-Jews was fixed, to a great extent, by the Jewish law, halakhah, as being 4
 Introduction 3
1 mainly independent of the outside world. In fact, this point leads to another
2 argument that the Jewish claim to chosenness greatly helped create the above-
3 mentioned inner dynamics of Jewish self-understanding, which in turn made the
4 Jewish people subject to either the position of a ‘superior’ chosen or that of an
5 ‘inferior’ other. Jewish self-understanding rules out the option of being ‘equal’
6 and ‘normal’ in the real sense unless one totally gives up chosenness. Equality
7 and normality come with a sense of uniqueness at best. There is also a parallel
8 question to answer, namely whether chosenness, and therefore Jewishness, to
9 use the division made by Rav Joseph Soloveitchik, is a given identity into which
0 a Jew is born (fate) or a faith/responsibility/a way of life that one chooses to
1 embrace (destiny), or a bit of both.
2 In parallel to these divisions, it is strongly argued in this book that although
3 the idea of chosenness has been central to Judaism and Jewish self-definition in
4 every period, the concept of chosenness has not stayed the same throughout. In
5 other words, the doctrine of chosenness is not a monolithic and homogenous
6 doctrine which retains its original form and content in every period of Jewish
7 history; just as, and perhaps because, Judaism, as Jacob Neusner rightly argues,
8 is not ‘a unitary and uniform religion, unfolding in a continuous history from
9 beginning to present’.6 Accordingly, the doctrine of chosenness, as a dynamic
0 one, has gone through a constant change, depending on who is employing it,
1 against what sort of background, and for what purpose. Despite the fact that a
2 sense of uniqueness, as understood in both religiously given and historically
3 inherited terms, has always been essential to Jewish identity throughout the
4 history of the Jewish people, chosenness was originally understood in terms of
5 holiness (election and covenant) in pre-modern times, and later mission (a
6 unique Jewish vocation) and survival (a unique Jewish existence) in modern
7 times, with an overlap of quality and duty, on the one hand, and of superiority
8 and inferiority on the other.
9 As regards the structure of the book, although it is broadly historical, tracing
0 the main characteristics of different periods and the forms into which the idea of
1 chosenness has been moulded in those periods, there is an overlap between
2 historical and thematic perspectives. Having surveyed the various different and
3 sometimes conflicting interpretations of the doctrine of chosenness that appear in
4 our three periods, ancient, modern, and post-Holocaust, often at the same time,
5 a dominant theme, i.e. ‘holiness’, ‘mission’, and ‘survival’ respectively, can be
6 identified in each period, and the historical and socio-political developments
7 underlying each are highlighted. The theological, philosophical, and sociological
8 dimensions of the question of Jewish chosenness are thus examined in their
9 historical context, in particular as responses to the challenges of Christianity,
0 modernity, and the Holocaust. This three-fold historical/thematic division leads to
1 the conclusion that, on the one hand, Jewish understanding of chosenness has
2 developed in two directions, one quality-based, the other duty-based, and, on the
3 other hand, the different forms into which it has evolved down the ages have had
4 important implications for the factors that make up Jewish identity. Accordingly,
5 it is possible to survey the changing parameters of Jewish self-understanding
4 Introduction
from a religious-national category separated from other peoples (pre-modern) to a 1
religious community working towards universal redemption (modern) and an 2
ethnic group striving for survival in both physical (post-Holocaust) and spiritual 3
terms (post-modern). 4
The first part of the book, ‘Chosenness as “holiness” ’, deals with the founda- 5
tion of the Jewish idea of chosenness as laid out in the Hebrew Bible, by defining 6
the basic terms and concepts related to it and by indicating certain ambiguities 7
surrounding it, particularly in relation to the reason for and the purpose of chosen- 8
ness. It also deals with the interpretation of the biblical notion of chosenness in 9
rabbinic (mainly Talmud and Midrash Rabbah) and non-rabbinic literature from 1
the Second Temple period (i.e. Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Qumran Writings, 1
Philo, and Pauline letters). In the formation of the late rabbinic writings, in 1
particular, an emphasis is placed on the rise of Christianity and the Christian 1
version of chosenness as a counter movement to the Jewish religion and Jewish 1
chosenness. This is a process which, it is argued, had a significant influence not 1
only on the growing rabbinic support of the biblical idea of chosenness, but also 1
on the nature of Jewish self-understanding in successive periods, by creating an 1
ambivalent sense of Jewishness, namely that of a socially inferior and religiously 1
superior one. It is also emphasized that the main theme in all biblical, rabbinic, 1
and non-rabbinic writings is the eternal holiness of the people of Israel, as a 2
religious-national category separated from other peoples in this world as well as 2
in the world to come. 2
The second part, ‘Chosenness as “mission” ’, in which early and late modern 2
Jewish interpretations of chosenness in both Europe and America are discussed, 2
points to a new turning point in the history of the Jewish people and Jewish reli- 2
gion. What is emphasized here is that in the wake of the European Enlightenment 2
and the Jewish Emancipation, the theme of holiness of the pre-modern period 2
was replaced by the theme of mission, creating a new Jewish self-understanding 2
as based on the principles of universalism and progress. German Reform Jewry, 2
in particular, which eventually became the leading voice of the American Jews 3
between the mid-nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries, redefined Judaism 3
as a universal religion based on a mission, instead of an exclusive one based on a 3
nation. The Jews, in the same way, were defined as a religious community striv- 3
ing for a universal goal. They were not only a chosen people awaiting a national 3
redemption to be established by God, but also a choosing people working 3
towards universal redemption. Chosenness thus was considered to refer to some- 3
thing beyond mere status. It was a responsibility as well, a universal/spiritual role 3
which would establish redemption on earth on the basis of justice and equality. 3
In this way, the rabbinic notion of the fundamental difference between Jews 3
and non-Jews, each having totally different attributes and opposite roles to play 4
in this world (i.e. the people of God versus the enemies of God), was fiercely 4
challenged by the enlightened Jews. 4
The third and final part, ‘Chosenness as “survival” ’, in which the Jewish 4
encounter of chosenness in post-Holocaust Jewish writings is discussed, sheds 4
light on the most recent period in the history of the Jewish people. Here a contrast 4
 Introduction 5
1 is made between earlier and more recent Jewish responses to the Holocaust and
2 the influence of the latter on the shape of a Jewish theology and Jewish under-
3 standing of chosenness in both America and Israel. What is indicated by the term
4 post-Holocaust is the period that began after the Six Day (1967) and Yom Kippur
5 wars (1973), when the theology of survival with its emphasis on Jewish suffering
6 and victimization (Holocaust theology), as well as Jewish uniqueness and unity,
7 became dominant themes in Jewish self-definition. In this way the post-Holocaust
8 discourse refers to a transformation of Jewish self-definition from a universalist
9 into a particularist basis, through which the modern rhetoric of a unique Jewish
0 contribution to humanity has been replaced by the rhetoric of a unique Jewish
1 survival, with its religious and secular versions. So in relation to this early reac-
2 tion to the Holocaust, the main emphasis is placed on the condition of survival,
3 which controlled the Jewish agenda in both America and Israel throughout the
4 1970s and 1980s. As for more recent years, it is argued that it is possible to see it
5 as a beginning of a reorientation, particularly among American Jewry, from a
6 mere survivalism to a search for meaning in being Jewish. This part will also
7 cover some recent interpretations of chosenness, with an emphasis on the points
8 at which they depart from the previous three main interpretations of chosenness,
9 namely holiness, mission, and survival.
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