Ishmael, Isaac and nuanced rejection

In the past two years many Jews have felt as if the world they thought they knew simply disappeared. Western democracies, universities, and social justice spaces that once seemed welcoming - or at least somewhat neutral - have turned openly hostile toward Israel and the Jewish people. At the center of much of this hatred is a familiar accusation: that Jews think they are chosen, and accordingly, Jews think they are better.

While we wholeheartedly reject the antisemitism implicit in this assertion, we need to honestly confront what the idea of a chosen people means, and what it says about our role on the world stage. Equally important is the question of what the concept of chosenness implies about the other nations of the world which, presumably, are somehow not chosen. Does that mean they're rejected? And for that matter, why did God choose a people in the first place, rather than eliminating the concept altogether?

In this episode I speak with Tanach scholar Yael Leibowitz about what chosenness actually means in the Bible, and what it does not mean. We look at the earliest stories in Bereishit from Cain and Hevel, to the Tower of Bavel, to Abraham, Sodom and Gemorrah, and Saul and Amalek and ask what they can teach us about Jewish distinctiveness, responsibility, and the rage that difference can provoke.

We also talk about how Tanach should and should not be used as a guide to contemporary geopolitics; the danger of turning verses into an inappropriate defense of ultranationalism; and what it means to insist on moral clarity about evil like the atrocities of October 7, while retaining a sense of nuance and avoiding simplistic, reductionist thinking.

In particular, I was fascinated by Yael's contention that the stories of Tanach represent repeating motifs that recur throughout human and Jewish history. In this way, Tanach teaches us as much about the present as about what happened millennia ago. At the same time, Yael openly addresses the flip side of that coin by talking about why certain events in Tanach cannot be seen as norms that should be implemented today.

If you have ever struggled with the idea of the chosen people, or wondered how to defend it in a world that uses it against us, this conversation is for you.

To order Yael's new book Ezra-Nehemiah: Retrograde Revolution, click here.

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Music: "Happy Rock" by bensound.com