The Myth of the Chosen People
Today, on social media, a grossly misinformed individual, repeated the oft repeated trope that Jews consider themselves ‘superior’ because the Bible refers to them as the ‘chosen people.’ Of course, nowhere in the Bible does it refer to the Jews as the “Chosen People.”
From those who are not informed, or harbor animus towards Jews, the characterization of Jews being ‘chosen’ was invented by those who use it as a cudgel to disparage them as being racists. The erroneous term is taken as arrogance, as if “chosen” meant superior. Inside the story, it means something quite different and paradoxically harsher. They were singled out to carry a burden that does not lift. To be chosen is to be accountable, continuously, in a way that history does not allow them to forget.
According to the oracle of Baalam “Behold, a people dwelling alone, and not reckoning itself among the nations,” (Numbers 23:9) are a people set apart, not because they are superior and not for privilege, but for purpose. Israel is bound by a covenant with God, which structures its laws, worship, and identity differently from the neighboring peoples.
They are bound by a covenant that demands more of them than of others: stricter laws, higher expectations, relentless moral accounting. Their story is not one of easy favor, but of pressure, of being held to a standard that exposes failure as much as it lauds success.
