I recently had a conversation with a young American who wanted to understand my seemingly sudden fascination with the subject of the Jewish people’s mission among the nations. Since our discussion more or less encompassed the next installment of what I had intended to write I will present it as it took place.

I’m not convinced that you are aware of the fact that you are a giant. Indeed it’s true. As a Jew you are a being of mythical proportions and you have the absolute right to take profound pride in the fact that you are Jewish. Each and every one of us performs a tremendous service for all of humanity. By virtue of the mere fact that you live as a Jew who observes the Torah and its mitzvos you are constantly carrying out the mission of which we spoke previously when we described the sense of mission that must beat in the heart of every Jew wherever he is.

You look at the Gentile world and the history of our nation within that world throughout the generations through the lens of the fear suffering and affliction that have been our lot among the nations. In your eyes it is all one long — too long — period of darkness marked by an unending yearning for redemption so that we can be finished with the suffering once and for all. That is certainly a legitimate feeling and in fact you are correct. But only in part.

It’s Your Mission

The tribulations of our exile have prevented you from looking at the other side of the coin. You sometimes fail to perceive how your entire life both as part of our people’s history and on an individual level is one long mission in the service of Hashem modeled after the life of Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu was the first person to take on the mission of lech lecha of embarking on an eternal project among the nations of the world. And the purpose was to benefit all of humanity to change it for the better and above all to bring them all back to Hashem for the future.

True these evil nations have beaten you and oppressed you but at the same time because of you and because of the life of Torah that you lead their own lives have changed for the better. The world today — at least the Western world despite the evil which seems to flood it is dramatically different from the pagan world that existed millennia ago and from the Greek and Roman worlds with all of their philosophies and orders. Actually this fact may fuel their hatred even more. The anti-Semitic German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once remarked that the Christians hate the Jews not because they killed their “god” but rather because they gave him to them in the first place. Ultimately as the Rambam explains Christianity is a necessary stage leading to the penetration of Jewish principles into society albeit in the warped guise of church ideology. Over the generations it has effected major changes in the world in its perceptions and its ways of life.

Yet the Gentile nations have desired over the years to cast off the yoke of the Jewish principles that were implanted in them by Christianity as well as by Islam in its original form. This has led them to endless violence. They are angry at us and they vent their wrath on us. A certain French thinker was once asked for his understanding of what a Jew is. His response: “The people that do not allow us to rest in peace.”

Do you understand my friend? Do you see how much of a reason you have to take pride in being a Jew? Our very existence awakens the conscience of the world. Our presence agitates the human mind and stirs its sense of morality whether directly or indirectly. We rob them of the ability to sleep peacefully in the embrace of their idolatry -- with all the cruelty and immorality that characterizes the contemporary permissive approach to life of which the Internet is one of the prime promoters. I personally feel pride when I think about our role in all this. I perceive the great mission that we carry out by virtue of our mere presence in the world. We do this not by proselytizing Heaven forbid but rather by simply living in accordance with the dictates of the Torah. That is how we have kindled the lights of truth justice and morality in the hearts of billions of human beings throughout the history of the world.

Let us describe in more detail this change that has taken place in human consciousness. The wicked Titus who burned down the Bais Hamikdash and destroyed the state of Judea believed that he had destroyed the Jewish people and ended their mission in the world. But in truth he gave us eternal life with his own hands. Due to the downfall of the Jewish kingdom Rome was flooded with masses of Jews whether as slaves or as free men. The Roman authors Tacitus and Seneca for instance bemoaned the fact that the Jews were introducing “corrupt” philosophies into the national consciousness by introducing such concepts such as compassion extending aid to others charity and the “indolence” of setting aside the seventh day of each week as a day of rest. Their presence in Rome also brought about a massive conversion movement as the pagan world stood on the verge of collapse. The wave of Judaization was halted only by the appearance of Christianity which provided them with a falsified version of Judaism mingled with idolatrous ideas that were more appealing to the disappointed adherents of pagan religions of the day.

No New Bible

Let us consider the following. If Bill Gates today donates a substantial portion of his fortune to charitable causes — and he is only one of many examples — this is not a product of the legacy of Greek or Roman culture. On the contrary this is a result of the Jewish concept of kindness and charity which now flows through the veins of the American people.  

Tell me my friend if billions of people now believe in the Creator of the Universe even with distortions isn’t that a product of the Jewish people’s mission among the nations? Again it is because of our very presence and again it is not the product of proselytization. It is simply because we live as Jews keeping halachah and we refuse to adopt the ways of life of the Gentile nations.

In truth some of the Gentiles’ hatred for us also stems from their disappointment in our failure to carry out our mission properly. It’s hard to believe but that’s the way it is. Take a look for instance at the commentary of Haamek Davar on the pasuk “Behold a nation that lives alone and is not counted among the Gentiles.” A few years ago I received a chilling confirmation of this idea from a conversation that an Israeli professor related he had had with a group of colleagues in Oxford. The professor asked his colleagues why they felt such profound hatred for the State of Israel. The Gentile academics’ answer should give us plenty of food for thought. “We thought ” they told him “that when the Jews came back to Israel they would give the world a new Bible. But look what you have done and how you look.” Do you understand? When we do not fulfill our mission properly these are the results.

You are a young man from the United States and we are having this conversation on Chol Hamoed Pesach. You certainly must be aware of the tremendous impact that this holiday has on Americans. Just before Pesach a Jew sent me several examples of this profound impact which are very reminiscent of Rav Shimshon Refael Hirsch’s explanation that yetzias Mitzrayim was the liberation of the concept of man from slavery and that the Jewish people were to be the representatives of that idea in the world. Take a look at how the Exodus from Mitzrayim is an integral part of the culture in which you live. Here are a few examples.

In the seventeenth century the first British colonists who viewed the British king as a modern Pharaoh crossed the Atlantic Ocean—the modern-day Yam Suf—and came to America considering it a modern-day Land of Israel.

In the year 1776 Thomas Paine published Common Sense which became a text of major importance in the American Revolution. He portrayed Great Britain as a “Pharaoh” and cited the opposition of Gideon and Shmuel Hanavi to the institution of monarchy.

The Founding Fathers of the United States — Benjamin Franklin John Adams and Thomas Jefferson — proposed that the official symbol of the new country should be an image of the splitting of the Yam Suf the drowning of Pharaoh’s chariots and the pillar of fire. They drew on the emergence of the Jewish nation from slavery to freedom and they viewed the thirteen colonies as a modern version of the twelve tribes.

The emancipation movement in the nineteenth century and the civil rights movement in the twentieth century were both influenced by the model of Yetzias Mitzrayim specifically and by Tanach in general.

In 1830 the verse engraved on the Liberty Bell became symbolic of the widespread opposition to the enslavement of blacks: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all of its inhabitants” (Vayikra 25:10). Harriet Tubman who managed the clandestine smuggling of black slaves from the southern states to the north was called “Moses ” and the unofficial song of the black saves was “Go Down Moses.” The majority of the eulogies for Abraham Lincoln after his assassination in 1865 described him as a “Moses” who was responsible for freeing the slaves; the analogy was carried further by noting that he also did not reach the “promised land.” In memory of Lincoln the French government donated the Statue of Liberty whose crown is reminiscent of Moshe Rabbeinu’s face upon his descent from Har Sinai. The statue also clutches a tablet that reminds observers of the luchos that Moshe Rabbeinu brought down from Har Sinai.

You must understand my friend that you and I are the purveyors of change in the world. That is our task that is our mission and that I say once again is the source of our pride.

And the Gentiles know that that is our mission. I am giving you a gift: my new book about the Revelation at Sinai Sinai Me’az U’l’tamid (Sinai Then and Always). You will find many quotations there from the wise men of the nations that are a clear fulfillment of the Torah’s prophecy that “it is your wisdom and insight in the eyes of the nations.” Here is but one example:

"If the earliest Jews were able to survey with us the history of their progeny they would find nothing surprising in it. They always knew that Jewish society was appointed to be a pilot-project for the entire human race. That Jewish dilemmas dramas and catastrophes should be exemplary larger than life would seem only natural to them. That Jews should over the millennia attract such unparalleled indeed inexplicable hatred would be regrettable but only to be expected. Above all that the Jews should still survive when all those other ancient peoples were transmuted or vanished or vanished into the oubliettes of history was wholly predictable. How could it be otherwise? Providence decreed it and the Jews obeyed" (Paul Johnson A History of the Jews New York 1987 pp. 586-7).

Our conversation continued. We spoke of the nature of every individual Jew’s mission in the context of the mission of our entire people. We also discussed the effects of inculcating this sense of mission in ourselves and we dealt with the very question that brought him to me in the first place: What does all this have to do with the issue of Internet which has been irrevocably thrust upon us?

We will discuss that with Hashem’s help in next week’s column.