A rebuttal from MAxtheMAGAnificent.

I'm not posting a return email address, for this post. As far as I'm concerned, Max is entitled to his opinion, as is everyone else to theirs. That's what FREEDOM of Speech (and thought) is all about! However, we're not going to turn the front page into a battle zone on New Years Eve. With Max's permission, I'll gladly put his email address in the 'reply here', area.

Lynda

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In the midst of the current explosion of the fomenting of hatred of the Jewish people by the Palestinians and their supporters and pundits like Clif High, there is the re-emergence of an old angle of attack against the Jews. This is the idea that the Jews consider themselves to be superior to all other humans and entitled to do anything they want to anyone else because they consider themselves to be the "chosen people of God." In other words, on top of everything else that is wrong with the Jews, they are supposed to be the ultimate malignant narcissists and thus are to be rightfully hated.

The reality is, of course, very far different from this popular misconception. The concept of the Jews as "the chosen people" comes from the Torah passage (Exodus 19:3-6) in which God addresses Moses immediately prior to His revelation at Sinai:

"...if you hearken well to Me and observe My covenant, you shall be to Me the most beloved treasure of all peoples, for Mine is the entire world. You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you shall speak to the Children of Israel.”

These words encapsulate the reason God “chose” the Jews; namely, to be a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation”. The reference here to priests does not refer to the Kohanim, priests who are descendants of Aaron the High Priest, for clearly all Israel are not priests in that sense. Rather, the reference here is to the “priestly function”. The priest’s function is to “bring” God to the people, and to elevate the people to be nearer to God. The purpose of the Jews is thus to bring God to the world and the world closer to God. This “priestly function” was termed by the prophet Isaiah as a “light to the nations”.

In pre-biblical times when paganism, polytheism, and idolatry were all the spiritual rage of mankind, the monotheistic concept as embodied in the Torah given to Moses at Mt. Sinai was truly revolutionary...and it was the Jews who were chosen to bring this concept of one God to humanity.

It turns out that the Jews ended up doing a pretty good job of bringing God to the world and the world closer to God as they were chosen to do. Between Christians and Jews today the God of the Bible has about 2.4 billion adherents or about a third of the human population of the planet. Allah, the God of Islam is generally not considered to be the same god as the God of the Bible, although the Jews and Christians are considered to be "people of the Book" and Jesus is considered to be a prophet in Islamic liturgy. Islam however picked up the concept of monotheism which was introduced to the world by Judaism and if you add in the 1.9 billion Muslims you get to about 57% of the human population who adhere to a unitary god.

So now you know the true meaning of concept of the Jews as a chosen people. They were chosen for a task...basically to be ambassadors of the God of the Bible and make the world a holy place for Him, not to be superior to and/or to lord over others. No more, no less.

MAX