Why Jews Are Called the ‘Chosen’ People – and Why It’s Often Misunderstood

It still amazes me how often I hear non-Jews claim that Jews are arrogant and exclusive because we claim to be the Chosen People. And they happily ignore that Christianity and Islam proudly claim to be the Chosen People of God or Allah.

So, let’s examine what the Torah actually says. It was in last week’s Torah reading that the idea of a Chosen People is first mentioned.

“For you are a people dedicated to God and God shows you to be God’s treasured people; it’s not because you are the most numerous of peoples that God grew attached to you and shows you indeed you are the smallest; it was because God favored you and kept the oath made to your fathers.”(Deut. 7:6-8).

This week, the Torah returns to this theme — and there are a series of sentences that I think are crucial in clarifying exactly what it means.

There is no suggestion whatsoever of automatic superiority.

Here’s one example:

Never say in your heart, ‘It is thanks to my strength and valor that I have achieved all this … Do not say in your heart that God is driving out these people before you saying it is because of my righteousness. He is bringing me to this land. It is not because you are so righteous or your upright heart that you are coming to this land, but only because of their wickedness that they are being driven out, so that I can keep my word to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And you should know that it is not because you are not so righteous that God is giving you this land because you are a stiff-necked people. ( Deut. 8:17 and 9:5-9)

Here’s another: “It was to your ancestors that God was drawn out of love for them, that you, their descendants, were chosen from among all people.” (Deut. 10:15).

It was only because of the initial relationship that God had with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that the idea of a nation that would carry on the message of what we now call ethical monotheism came into being. Their descendants were given the opportunity to present it to the wider world, and be an example of a different vision to paganism and its successors. Otherwise, we would be no different from anyone else. There was no hint anywhere of automatic superiority.

We were given a mission, an obligation — a burden — to change the world not through preaching, but through behavior and example. And our relationship with God was contingent on our abiding by the Torah. That is why we could never accept a replacement or a new covenant. It was only when others challenged us with their claimed superiority that the rabbis of the Talmud entered the word “chosen” into the liturgy. This occurs every time that we read the Torah when we say, ”Who has chosen us from all other nations by giving us the Torah.”

The obligation and means of carrying it through is the Torah. The two are inseparable. And certainly, if we fail, we have betrayed our mission and the struggles of those in our past who tried their best to keep the faith.

The phrase “chosen people” might have been better understood if we used, in translation, the words inherited, selected, or picked rather than chosen. But of course, there is nothing we can do in the face of prejudice. No rational argument will convince someone who has acquired an irrational prejudice otherwise.

The author is a writer and rabbi, currently based in New York.

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