Why a Jew is Typically a Philosopher

When Theosophists suggested that a Jew is typically a philosopher,

he may have been thinking of Job, who despite his loss of a

debate with God accepted His authority. Even when they’re losers,

Jews carry on less than accusers of Hashem than His excusers.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks writes in the Koren Sacks Yom Kippur mahzor, quoted on his website on 10/6/16 (“Yom Kippur—How It Changes Us”):

 The sages said that Abraham was called ha-ivri, “the Hebrew,” because all the world was on one side (ever echad) and Abraham on the other. To be a Jew is to swim against the current, challenging the idols of the age whatever the idol, whatever the age.

So, as our ancestors used to say, “’Zis schver zu zein a Yid,” It is not easy to be a Jew. But if Jews have contributed to the human heritage out of all proportion to our numbers, the explanation lies here. Those of whom great things are asked, become great – not because they are inherently better or more gifted than others but because they feel themselves challenged, summoned, to greatness.

Few religions have asked more of their followers. There are 613 commandments in the Torah. Jewish law applies to every aspect of our being, from the highest aspirations to the most prosaic details of quotidian life. Our library of sacred texts – Tanakh, Mishnah, Gemarra, Midrash, codes and commentaries – is so vast that no lifetime is long enough to master it. Theophrastus, a pupil of Aristotle, sought for a description that would explain to his fellow Greeks what Jews are. The answer he came up with was, “a nation of philosophers.”