Where did Jewish singularity lie? The clue lies in the precise wording of Bilaam’s blessing: “Behold it is a people that dwells alone.” For it was as a people that God chose the descendants of Abraham; as a people that He made a covenant with them at Mount Sinai; as a people that He rescued them from Egypt, gave them laws, and entered into their history. “You will be to Me,” He said at Sinai, “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Judaism is the only religion to place God at the center of its self-definition as a nation. Jews are the only nation whose very identity is defined in religious terms.
Why, if God is the God of the universe, accessible to every human being, should He choose one nation to bear witness to His presence in the human arena? This is a profound question. There is no short answer. But at least part of the answer, I believe, is this. God is wholly Other. Therefore He chose a people who would be humanity’s ‘other’. That is what Jews were – outsiders, different, distinctive, a people who swam against the tide and challenged the idols of the age. Judaism is the counter-voice in the conversation of mankind.
This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.
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