In Parshat Vayeitzei, Genesis 28: 10-22, God promised Jacob, in a dream, that his children, his nation, would inherit the land that is known today at the State of Israel. God proceeded to promise, in that same dream, that through the nation of Jacob, who became known as Israel, all of the families of the earth would be blessed. The term families was meant to describe the sovereign nations of the earth.
The specific borders of that land would be meticulously delineated later in the Torah as lying between the Jordan River and the Great Sea, or the Mediterranean, and from Dan to the north to Beersheva to the south. Indeed, when Joshua approaches the River Jordan after the captivity and the 40 year sojourn in Sinai, the text clearly notes that two and a half tribes were allowed to live on land on the east bank of the Jordan even though this was not part of the land promised to Abraham, Issac and Jacob. Israel today exists exactly within those biblical parameters, from the Jordan to the Great Sea and from Dan to Beersheva. The only portion of Israel today that lies outside the Promised Land is a stretch of desert, known as the Negev, which runs south of Beersheva and on to the Gulf of Eilat.
The idea of the Chosen People, the people that would provide the vehicle by which the nations of the world would be blessed, has been a grossly misunderstood concept. Israel was not chosen to rule over any other nation. This in spite of generations of sinister conspiracy theories about this concept. Rather Israel is asked by God to do two things. Those are to take possession of that tiny and inscrutable land between the Jordan and the Sea and to then serve God, not serve man, as a priestly sect. This meant that emanating from that promised land, Israel would bear an extra layer of sacramental responsibility such as maintaining Kosher laws, Sabbath observance, other ritual requirements, and a higher moral and ethical standard as presented in the Book of Leviticus and elsewhere. Thus Israel was chosen to serve God, not control the secular world and, as such, the priestly nation of Israel would serve as a light among the nations.
The mission of Israel, and of the Jewish people as the people of the covenant between God and Abraham, Issac and Jacob, is thus to take posession of that tiny land as a holy place, one where the messianic age would be ushered in at a time appropriate to God, and to serve God by operating on a higher spiritual and ethical plane. This is a spiritual mission, not an earthly and material mission.
May Israel and the nations of the world wake up to the central and potentially miraculous mission of Israel and my they work diligently to foster that success of that mission for the good of all of humanity.
The specific borders of that land would be meticulously delineated later in the Torah as lying between the Jordan River and the Great Sea, or the Mediterranean, and from Dan to the north to Beersheva to the south. Indeed, when Joshua approaches the River Jordan after the captivity and the 40 year sojourn in Sinai, the text clearly notes that two and a half tribes were allowed to live on land on the east bank of the Jordan even though this was not part of the land promised to Abraham, Issac and Jacob. Israel today exists exactly within those biblical parameters, from the Jordan to the Great Sea and from Dan to Beersheva. The only portion of Israel today that lies outside the Promised Land is a stretch of desert, known as the Negev, which runs south of Beersheva and on to the Gulf of Eilat.
The idea of the Chosen People, the people that would provide the vehicle by which the nations of the world would be blessed, has been a grossly misunderstood concept. Israel was not chosen to rule over any other nation. This in spite of generations of sinister conspiracy theories about this concept. Rather Israel is asked by God to do two things. Those are to take possession of that tiny and inscrutable land between the Jordan and the Sea and to then serve God, not serve man, as a priestly sect. This meant that emanating from that promised land, Israel would bear an extra layer of sacramental responsibility such as maintaining Kosher laws, Sabbath observance, other ritual requirements, and a higher moral and ethical standard as presented in the Book of Leviticus and elsewhere. Thus Israel was chosen to serve God, not control the secular world and, as such, the priestly nation of Israel would serve as a light among the nations.
The mission of Israel, and of the Jewish people as the people of the covenant between God and Abraham, Issac and Jacob, is thus to take posession of that tiny land as a holy place, one where the messianic age would be ushered in at a time appropriate to God, and to serve God by operating on a higher spiritual and ethical plane. This is a spiritual mission, not an earthly and material mission.
May Israel and the nations of the world wake up to the central and potentially miraculous mission of Israel and my they work diligently to foster that success of that mission for the good of all of humanity.
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