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Parshat Re'eh continues the final speech by Moses to the Israelites. In this speech Moses talks about the Israelites being blessed or cursed, depending on whether they choose to follow the commandments or not. Moses then encourages the Israelites to avoid the rituals of other religions. For example: “do not drink the blood of a killed animal.” He also tells them to burn other people's altars and places of worship. Moses tells the Israelites to only worship their own God. If a person were to tell you to worship other Gods, “let your hand be the first to put that person to death.” Then Moses enforces the dietary laws of kashrut. Moses tells the Israelites how to treat slaves, then he goes on a rant about the holidays. Through it all Moses calls the Israelites an am segulah - a treasured people.
Am segulah suggests that the Israelites are a chosen people, but what does that really mean? The Torah tells us that being a chosen people means that you are the “treasured people” “chosen by God” or even “the heart of nations.” Personally, I believe the Torah is trying to tell us that God loves us and protects us. So what does it mean to be treasured? To be loved and protected. I think that I am protected, not by God alone, but by my family and friends, my community, who treasure me.
Rashi suggests that the people are like a precious golden cup or gem among a larger collection of cups and gems belonging to a ruler. They are precious, special, but not exclusive. “All people and nations belong to God,” writes Rashi, “No people, including Israel, can claim that it alone is God’s people.” Rashi states that we are an amazing, great, and loved people, but we are not the only ones. We must show respect to those who deserve to be respected, but teach others how to earn respect. I have Muslim people in my school who deserves to be respected as much as I do. From my point of view they are people just as good as me and therefore deserve the same respect.
Philosopher Martin Buber maintains that the notion of Israel as a Chosen People “does not indicate a feeling of superiority but a sense of destiny. It does not spring from a comparison with others but from a concentrated devotion to a task, to the task that molded a people into a nation.” I like Buber's teaching because he says that being a chosen people does not come from being better than others. He states that it is less of an identity cast upon us, but something we choose to set upon ourselves. When my team wins a game of ultimate frisbee, we did not win because of fate, we won because we set ourselves a goal and worked hard towards it.
I am a member of the Northwest Boychoir and in my opinion, the Jews being the chosen people is a little bit like being in the highest level of the choir. I have a lot of friends and buddies in choir and a lot of my friends in school and other places as well as choir are Jewish. This makes me feel chosen because I get to meet more people and make more friends. Both choir and being Jewish are fun. Choir is fun because the group is good and being Jewish is fun because of the extensive amount of holidays and fun events. Both are also fun because of friends, of course. When ever I am having fun I feel very chosen and special. I have been in choir for a long time (since I was five) and I have been Jewish all my life. Losing either would make me lose something important in my life. They both open up opportunities. Being Jewish means more camps, more holidays, more eccentric traditions and food. Being in choir means a tour every other year, the ability to feel professional. I get to perform in many different places and in front of many different people. This makes me feel chosen because it gives me something that I wouldn't have otherwise.
I was “chosen” to be in the choir but in the big picture, I worked hard. I think that those four hundred years of labor with the Egyptians was the Israelites' work towards being the chosen people, whether they knew it or not. But now that I am in the choir I can't just say I’m done and accept my reward, I still have to work, but I know what I’m doing and am prepared to keep working. I think that God expected the Jews to be prepared for work when they set out into the desert. I think that God thought that they would rise to the occasion. But the Israelites took being free as: wander for an hour or two than sit down in a nice house with watermelon and working air conditioning. It’s as if you want to become a politician, and you work hard to become president. You make it. You're president. The thing you do next is NOT goof off for the next four years, you still have to work. Cough cough.
I hope that we can walk away from this having learned that being a chosen people is not just something that you're born or convert into, it is also an identity. It can be lost, but also earned.
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