Parshat Vaetchannan

Many people refer to the Jews as “The chosen people.”  There is often a lot of controversy and debate about what exactly that means.  Being chosen of often gives Jews a sense of pride, and it sometimes gives critics a reason to accuse us of thinking we are better than everyone else.  Much has been written on this topic, I don’t want to get in to the discussion of what it means to be chosen, but I would like to point out a verse in this week’s Parsha which our tradition has used to point out a detail of what chosenness certainly does not mean. 

At the end of this week’s Parsha (Deuteronomy 7:7-8) Moses tells the Jewish people:

It is not because you are the most numerous of peoples that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you – Indeed, you are the smallest of peoples, but it was because the Lord favored you and kept the oath He made to your fathers that the Lord freed you with a mighty hand and rescued you from the house of bondage, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 

The simple meaning of these verses is that God didn’t choose you because of your large numbers, because you really aren’t that large compared to other nations.  The Jewish people didn’t deserve the goodness done unto them by God at that time, it was done from the merit of God’s feelings (so to speak) towards the forefathers and the promise he made them. 

There is also deeper meaning to this text which provides us with an important perspective when considering what being the chosen nation means.  Rashi, quoting the Talmud (Chulin 89a) points out this approach in our tradition.  The Talmud explains that the Hebrew words for “not because you’re the most numerous”, לא מרבכם, could have a different meaning than the literal meaning mentioned above.  It could also mean, it’s because you did not make yourselves great [in your own eyes] when I (God speaking) bestowed goodness unto you.  With that approach, the verse would read, “It’s because you did make yourselves great in your eyes that the Lord set his heart on you…”

According to this approach, it is specifically because the Jewish nation did not feel that they were greater than any other nation when they were singled out and given God’s deliverance and gifts, that makes them worthy in God’s eyes of being chosen.  Therefore, I feel that whatever your understanding of what it means to be the chosen people, it is important that your perspective still maintains a great sense of humility.