Q:
How should we understand the status of a gentile when the Bible says that we are G-d’s chosen people?
A:
The answer is we have to understand that the old Jew appreciated a gentile even more than we appreciate ourselves.
Now listen carefully. The old Jew lived by the tenets of the Torah. And the Torah teaches – and it’s a fundamental principle – that men are created in the image of Hashem. Which men? All men are tzelem Elokim.
Now, I remember in Slabodka the Rosh Yeshiva never agreed that gentile boys should be called shkotzim. The word sheketz would mean ‘an abomination’ if you translate it literally and the Rosh Yeshiva was dead set against that. And he wasn’t speaking about to their faces – even when they don’t hear. “It’s wrong!” he said. “A tzelem Elokim!” It’s a Torah principle.
And once in the shmuess he explained a Gemara (Megillah 15b) that Esther when she was going to Achashveirosh to intercede for her people, and ותלבש אסתר מלכות – she was clothed with ruach hakodesh as she was going (Esther 5:1). And as she came to a certain place in the palace where there were images of idolatry so the ruach hakodesh departed from her because of the images.
But she didn’t attribute it to the images. She blamed herself and she was thinking, “What sin did I do because of which I am being deprived of ruach hakodesh?”
And she said maybe because she called Achashveirosh, “kelev, a dog.” In her prayer, she had said, “Rescue me from the dog” (Tehillim 22:21). And so she did teshuvah and in that same mizmor she changed her words and she said, “Rescue me from the lion” (ibid. 22).
Now Achashveirosh, we have to know, as far as we see, was not very far from what she called him. And still, it’s considered wrong. That’s how the Rosh Yeshiva concluded, that it’s considered wrong. You cannot call a goy such a derogatory name. Because he’s tzelem Elokim. It’s against the teaching of the Torah. And so the ancient Jew understood that.
Today liberal Jews consider themselves even worse than dogs. They consider themselves as frogs. Their great grandfather, they say, was a frog. That’s what the liberal Jews say. A college professor will tell you, “Certainly. We’re even paramecium; not even a frog.”
And therefore, what dignity can these liberal Jews have in their own eyes, a Reformer, a Reconstructionist, any apikoris who believes in evolution? He despises himself.
But the ancient Jew regarded even his gentile servants with more respect than a modern liberal regards himself. They didn’t mistreat their servants. This you have to know. The ancient Jew was kindhearted and was decent towards his servants.
Now, who is to blame for that opinion that the gentile was greatly inferior to the Jew? There’s only One who is to blame for that. That’s Hakodosh Boruch Hu. It’s His fault. What can we do? He stated in His Torah that He chose us and is interested only in us. And there’s a statement in Tanach, מי כעמך ישראל גוי אחד בארץ – Who is like Your nation, Yisroel, one people in the world (Shmuel II 7:23). Which means the rest of mankind are only background and scenery and we are the main actor in this world.
Now the main actor is not going to kick all the others who appear in the play, but certainly he understands that he is the one for whom the play was written and they only come in to help him carry out his role.
So the Jew didn’t despise in the sense that we talk about despising an animal. The Jew looked up to mankind. If mankind understood how great the Jew appreciated his dignity, the dignity of mankind, they’d admire the Jew for that teaching. Only they don’t want to listen. But the truth is, that’s what the Torah says.
(December 1980)
