But mainly I brought up survivalism because I agree that it’s an important aspect of Jewishness, and I wasn’t sure if you were conscious of the role it was playing in your outlines above (your points #3, #4, A and C are all related to it). It’s another unique aspect of Jewishness — you don’t find it in Christianity or Islam.

Concrete: If one feels very close timewise and familywise to the Nazi killing of the Jews in Europe, it is natural to focus on the survival of the “genes”.

Theoretical- I have a theory about the Jewish contribution to wider society that is unproven, but goes something like this. Part of the Jewish population is devoted to the survival of the people. Their contribution to wider society is minimal, but they keep the “machine” alive. Part of the Jewish population is relatively oblivious to the survival of their people, they are busy migrating away from the core, but when the passion that they received from their parents (and the core) mingles with the problems of wider society the result is great creativity and a great contribution to wider society. It could be that the major products of this migrating population have already occurred in the past, when the major migration away from the core and towards modernity occurred. But in theory the interaction of the migrating population with wider society might yet produce surprising results in the future and then it is the machine in its totality, both the self devoted core and the migrating “abandoners” that are necessary to keep the process going.

But best of all is the way you obviously make an attempt to honestly explore different interpretations, even those you personally don’t agree with.

(One thing I found interesting in your two posts was the emphasis implicitly placed on survival, as a goal in itself. Have you thought much about this, just what it is that is supposed to survive? Is it a set of ideas and teachings, or is it “genes”? If it’s the former, then there’s really no reason to fear intermarriage. But if it’s the latter, who really cares?)

One question comes to mind: did this concept of chosenness play a role in the surprising survival of the Jewish people despite the Diaspora and its persecutions? If so, then despite my misgivings, it is owed a debt. My own inclination is to view the chosenness idea as playing a minor role in our survival. A well known adage says, “It is not the Jews who kept the Sabbath, but the Sabbath that kept (guarded) the Jews.” So in my view it is the commandments- specifically the commandment of the Sabbath that played the major role in our survival rather than the concept of chosenness.

But maybe this begs the question, for most commandments are accompanied by blessings which thank God for making us holy with his commandments. When we are called up to read from the Torah we bless God for choosing us. And the ceremonial blessing on wine at the beginning of the Sabbath and holidays thank God for making us holy (the Sabbath blessing) or choosing us (the holiday blessing).

And it may beg the question in another way for the effect (if not the purpose) of many of the commandments is separation. The laws of keeping kosher force Jews to eat separately (or order fish and salad, if they are more lenient). The law of keeping Sabbath usually involves separation from those who don’t keep the Sabbath for the 24 or so hours between sundown Friday until sundown Saturday. So if clannishness is one of the accusations against us, then the commandments must be cited as a major cause of our clannishness. And indeed separation has been one of the causes of our survival until now.

(Certainly if one wishes to focus on the negative effects of the chosenness doctrine, one need only study the writings of Israel Shahak. One can accuse him of cherry picking all the negative aspects of the Talmud, but for the most part he seems to be accurate in his criticisms.)

The question then becomes can Judaism or the Jewish people divorce themselves from the chosenness doctrine and still survive as a community? Is it possible to throw out the bath water without throwing out the baby? This has yet to be proven. (In fact one might say that certain groups of the Jewish people have thrown out the baby- the major commandment of Sabbath, say, and kept the bath water, the clannishness and the separation of the “chosen people” doctrine. But that clannishness is one of the things which keeps intermarriage down to 50% and delays the disappearance of half the Jewish people for one more generation.)

One more question comes to mind. I once listened to two Christians arguing about the purpose of the chosenness of the Jewish people. One of them claimed that the purpose was giving the Torah to the world. One of them claimed that the purpose was giving the Messiah to the world. Since the Messiah has already come (at least once) the purpose of the Jews has been fulfilled other than to recognize the Messiah so that he can come for the second time. If our purpose was giving the Torah to the world, well, certainly the Old Testament is one of the most famous books in the world and our presence might be superfluous. On the other hand the living and breathing existence of a people who keeps the Sabbath could be seen as continual giving of the Torah to the world.

According to Hillel who stated that the essence of the Torah was “love thy neighbor as thyself” (in his negative formulation: “Do not unto others what you would not have done unto you.”) and all else were details and means towards that end, then the question becomes what happens to our Torah when our emphasis is on survival rather than morality. Certainly one cannot keep the Torah in the grave, but certainly constant warfare seems to be quite far from Hillel’s formulation of Torah’s essence. This is the essence of the puzzle that the Jewish people face today regarding Israel’s survival. Will it be possible to end the warfare without ending Israel? Those who say it is possible have the burden to prove that they are realists rather than naifs.

“Whereas identity is an issue for other peoples that have thus been affected by secularism, the Jewish identity because of its high religious content has been particularly affected by secularism.

“(Zionism was born primarily amongst a group of Jews who at first wished to assimilate into their host societies and were rejected. Unable to return to their lost religion, a new secular twist to their original Jewish society was interpreted, so as to enable an identity and survival. )”

Concerning Christian positions on the Old Testament, I would say that there is broad variation. Some strains of Christian thought, historically and presently, do “devalue” the old Hebrew texts. But others do not. I was brought up in the Southern Baptist tradition and know that fundamentalists of that denomination (as well as Pentacostals and some others) believe that the canonical Hebrew texts, as well as the New Testament, were written by “the hand of God”. You might say that in important ways these Protestants “revalue” the Old Testament; for example, they often place different interpretations on the words of the Prophets than would Jews. They also may tend to accept Old Testament “stories” as the literal truth whereas most Jews might regard them as historical myth.

I would be very interested to read any explanations that you (or anyone) might want to offer for that “Jewish” self-characterization we call “exceptionalism”.

The safety and the freedom of Palestinians are the core issues. They will remain core issues as long as the Palestinian people do not have the ability to protect and defend themselves.

The focus on Israel seems to take all the oxygen out of the air. I would like to suggest that the focus be, unceasingly, on Palestine, and the people of Palestine.

The reason this is an issue that involves every American, and the people of all the rest of the world, is that our freedom is not separate from the freedom of the Palestinians, or the Somalians, or the people of any country.

Palestine – One State.

Sovereign within a community of nations. Acknowledged, equal and free to choose – just like the rest of us.

Predators and targeted assassination of elected political representatives make some people feel safe, while all they are doing is making of themselves a bulls-eye target.

No. No thanks, been there, done that.

Massive, system wide, fail – guaranteed, with a timeless warranty.

In other words, all nations are … nations. Well I’ll be damned.

This is the level of thinking that gets you published in the Jerusalem Post, apparently.