Jeremy Rosen
The Chosen People
Summary
Jeremy Rosen explores the concept of the Chosen People, questioning if it implies superiority or moral advantage. The chosen status is conditional, not indicating intrinsic superiority. Biblical narratives show that being chosen doesn’t guarantee success. Jeremy also emphasizes the Israelites’ chosen status doesn’t make them inherently better; it comes with a burden to uphold standards. Chosenness applies to a place, suggesting potential and hope, not perfection.
Jeremy Rosen
Manchester-born Jeremy Rosen was educated at Cambridge University England and Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He has practiced as an orthodox rabbi, as principal of Carmel College in the UK, and as professor at the Faculty for Comparative Religion in Antwerp, Belgium. He has written and lectured extensively in the UK and the US, where he now resides and was the rabbi of the Persian-Jewish community in Manhattan.
No, I think it had to do with the idea of, we are so grateful to have this way of life. I thank God for this way of life and I do every day. I say when I wake up first thing in the morning, I say, “Thank you God for being alive and for giving me a way of life that I value and I appreciate and I hope will make me a better person.”
Some of the sons of Noah were considered to be superior to other. Now this superiority of the sons of one class or another was not a racist point of view because if it would’ve been a racist point of view, it would’ve applied to the tribes of Africa that were mentioned.
Well, I don’t know that he was unpopular amongst the Jews at that time. There are two basically movers in the case of Jesus. One of them are the Sadducees, the priests who claim he insulted the temple but there’s no evidence that he did insult the temple. And he may be objected to money changers, but money changers at that time were mainly helping people buy sacrifices to go into the temple. If there was a problem, the problem will not have been with the Jews.