Why are Jews God's chosen people but the most persecuted humans in history?
The Chosen People
by Rabbi Shraga Simmons
Appreciating an often-misunderstood idea.
The Jewish nation is often referred to as "the Chosen People."
Many people (including Jews) are uncomfortable with this idea. They perceive the concept of a "Chosen People" as racist and mindful of the Nazi concept of a supreme "Aryan" nation. It appears to contradict the accepted Western ideal of all people being equal before God.
Is the Jewish concept of choseness racist?
When the Torah refers to the Jewish people as "chosen," it is not in any way asserting that Jews are racially superior. Americans, Russians, Europeans, Asians and Ethiopians are all part of the Jewish people. It is impossible to define choseness as anything related to race, since Jews are racially diverse.
Yet while the term "Chosen People" (Am Nivchar) does not mean racially superior, choseness does imply a special uniqueness.
What is this uniqueness?
Historically, it goes back to Abraham. Abraham lived in a world steeped in idolatry, which he concluded was contradicted by the reality of design in nature.
So Abraham came to a belief in God, and took upon himself the mission of teaching others of the monotheistic ideal. Abraham was even willing to suffer persecution for his beliefs. After years of enormous effort, dedication and a willingness to accept the responsibility to be God's representative in this world, God chose Abraham and his descendents to be the teachers of this monotheistic message.
In other words it is not so much that God chose the Jews; it is more accurate that the Jews (through Abraham) chose God.
Choseness was not part of God's "original plan." Initially all of humanity was to serve the role of God's messengers, but after the fall of Adam, humanity lost that privilege, and it was open for grabs. Only Abraham chose to take the mantel. If others would have (and they were offered the choice), they too would have joined in this special covenant which was sealed upon the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.
If a privilege is offered to everyone willing to pay the necessary price, nobody can protest that those willing to make the extra effort are being shown favoritism. For example: It is reasonable that an employee who agrees to work overtime, attend training seminars, and manage special projects, should be entitled to a performance bonus -- particularly if each employee was given the same opportunity.
The essence of being chosen means responsibility. It is a responsibility to change the world -- not by converting everyone to Judaism, but by living as a model community upheld by ethics, morals and beliefs of one God. In that way, we can influence the rest of mankind, a "light unto the nations" (Isaiah 42:6).
Judaism is Universal
Further, Judaism is not exclusionary. A human being need not to be Jewish to reach a high spiritual level. Enoch "walked with God," and Noah had quite a high level of relationship, though neither were Jewish. Our tradition is that all of the 70 nations must function together and play an integral part in that "being" called humanity.
According to Judaism (Talmud - Sanhedrin 58b), any person can achieve a place in the World to Come by faithfully observing the seven basic laws of humanity. These seven laws are named the "Laws of Noah," since all humans are descended from Noah:
1) Do not murder.
2) Do not steal.
3) Do not worship false gods.
4) Do not be sexually immoral.
5) Do not eat the limb of an animal before it is killed.
6) Do not curse God.
7) Set up courts and bring offenders to justice.
Torah is for all humanity. King Solomon built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, he specifically asked God to heed the prayer of non-Jews who come to the Temple (1-Kings 8:41-43). The Temple was the universal center of spirituality, which the prophet Isaiah referred to as a "house of prayer for all nations." Non-Jews were welcome to bring offerings to the Temple as well. In fact, the service in the Holy Temple during the week of Sukkot featured a total of 70 bull offerings, corresponding to each of the 70 nations of the world. In fact, the Talmud says that if the Romans would have realized how much they were benefiting from the Temple, they never would have destroyed it!
Most other religions say that non-believers are condemned to eternal damnation. Even the calendar systems of Christianity and Islam reflect an exclusionary philosophy; each begins with the birth of their respective religion. The Jewish calendar, on the other hand, begins with the creation of Adam, the first man, teaching us the intrinsic value of every human, even though the Jewish religion was not yet born.
For this reason, Jews do not proselytize in search of converts. One can still merit a place in heaven, no conversion necessary.
Conversion
An important component of Judaism's non-exclusionary approach is that any person -- regardless of national or racial background -- can choose to accept the Torah and become part of the Jewish nation. Indeed, some of the greatest names in Jewish history - Ruth, the ancestor of King David, and Onkelos the Talmudic Sage -- were converts to Judaism.
According to the Code of Jewish Law (the "Shulchan Aruch"), there are three requirements for a valid conversion (paralleling the Jewish experience at Mount Sinai):
1) Mitzvot - The convert must believe in God and the divinity of the Torah, as well as accept to observe all 613 mitzvot (commandments) of the Torah. This includes observance of Shabbat, Kashrut, etc., as detailed in the Code of Jewish Law, the authoritative source for Jewish observance.
2) Milah - Male converts must undergo circumcision by a qualified "Mohel."
3) Mikveh - All converts must immerse in the Mikveh, a ritual bath linked to a reservoir of rain water.
All of the above must be done before a halachically-valid rabbinical court of three Jewish men who themselves believe in God, accept the divinity of the Torah, and observe the mitzvot.
Author Biography:
Rabbi Shraga Simmons spent his childhood trekking through snow in Buffalo, New York. He has worked in the fields of journalism and public relations, and is now the Co-editor of Aish.com in Jerusalem.
http://tinyurl.com/y2tymh
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Our True History - Pyramids and Sun-gods by Nassim Haramein - 3/4
Why God Exists From a Scientific Point of View and Self Evolution?
Before going into a debate about the existence of God, I want you to understand how I was raised. I grew up in a Christian family. My dad is a part-time pastor and my mom is spiritual, but not religious. My grandfather is an in-your-face atheist, and my grandmother is a committed Christian. Anyway, we always celebrated Christmas and all the other Christian holidays mostly because its fun to celebrate the holidays, the kids love it, and it gave the family a reason to come together. I’ve been agnostic for most of my life, which means I believed there was most likely a God. However, I couldn’t be 100% certain, because I had no absolute proof to warrant a rational decision. I was never an atheist, which means you are certain there is no God. I’ve never really liked extremists whether they were atheists or religious extremists, because they seem very closed minded and judgmental; and they often allow their biases to twist their perception of reality to support their false beliefs even when the evidence in front of them is clearly not in their favor.
Growing up my mom and dad didn't really talk to me about religion. They thought I should have the choice to learn and decide on my own what to believe. Today my dad says things like “I'm praying for you” and “bless you” all the time. Initially, I took it like he was trying to force his religious beliefs on me and thought I’m praying for you meant I pity you, which annoyed me because I was very successful and wanted his approval. I also felt I had a whole bunch of sound scientific reasons why religion was a bunch of manmade fiction. Now I take what my dad says as a form of affectionate like saying I love you; and my thoughts have changed, because I have a valid reason to believe that God exists. My first real talks about religion happened when I was about 12, because my grandfather liked to debate everything from politics to religion. He's a really smart guy, so I listened to what he said and became interested in learning more about religion in order to make an educated decision one way or the other. I never took the things he said for face value, because I really wanted to know the real truth.
So I read the New Testament, the Old Testament, the I-Ching, and most of the other major and ancient religions. I even lived in Israel for a while to see all the sights, met the Pope, talked to the Dali Lama through email and listened to the preaching’s of every major religion from different speakers. The ones that impressed me the most weren’t trying to push their religious beliefs, and they did not act like fanatics who spoke in tongues, talked about blowing people up, discriminating against the non-believers or innocent people going to hell because they weren’t sure what to believe. Instead they used the teachings of their religion to help people and improve the lives of the followers, their community, their marriages, their families and their friendships. The ones I really listened to weren’t driven by money or getting their followers to believe in miracles; they were helping their followers create strong, happy families and avoid common problems that affect our personal lives and our careers. They did this by using stories and the teachings of their religion to paint the picture, inspire people, and help them develop into good citizens. They were trying to create a better world by leading people with their hearts and their minds, and there was a good reason for everything they said. I think that having faith and loving anything or anyone is a commitment. We shouldn’t be expected to commit to someone blindly or have faith in something we cannot prove. That’s why I’m writing this today.
I'm also pretty unique. I not only studied religion; I also studied science to the existent that I know as much as anyone with a Doctorate would know about the conceptual side of physics and how the universe works. That doesn’t mean I’m a numbers guy or somebody that writes things on a chalkboard all day, but I can hold an intelligent conversation with anyone about physics without making myself look like an uneducated idiot. I was a numbers, chalk board guy at one point in college, but I decided to start using common sense to understand the universe I live in. This happened when the Nobel Laureate I worked for explained to me that people with PhD’s in Physics who work at NASA don’t make much; he also said they are typically close minded because they spent most of their life cramming so many facts and numbers into their heads that they have a hard time coming up with anything new on their own. That didn’t appeal to me with my big goals to help mankind. I also didn’t want to become the world’s biggest nerd.
After all, if I’m successful in business, then I can afford to hire all the Nobel Laureates I need to crunch numbers for me and work on my science projects. Instead, I get to be the creative, common sense guy that solves problems like the fact that the neutron has the exact weight and charge as a proton and an electron combined, but all the nerds on the planet who spent 8 years of their lives in school couldn’t figure out that a neutron was just a proton and an electron stuck together. Sad, but true; I don’t mean any disrespect to people with more formal education in science, but this just shows us that the real value of an education are not the facts and figures we cram in our heads, but our ability to think critically, solve problems and be creative. I'm not trying to impress you or stroke my own ego by saying this, but the articles I've written about physics shock people, because they are completely unique and add value to our understanding of the universe.
There were so many times I’ve been called a genius by college professors that you would think I’m the next Einstein or Steven Hawking. I'm also one of the few people on the Earth that could have an intellectually challenging conversation with either of them, while talking about common sense things in science that aren't known by anyone - unless they've read my articles on physics. So I have a unique understanding of both sides. I've been an agnostic scientist, and now I’m a believer that’s still a scientist. I no longer have any doubt that God exists, because I have a good reason. If you’re interested in learning why, keep on reading and share this with your family and close friends.
I learned that religions offered stories about God that were probably written by man to make a best effort to describe God throughout history and accomplish mutual goals. Some of these goals included overthrowing the Romans, teaching people morality and ethics, using religion to cultivate power over the masses, starting holy wars and influencing the politics of earlier times. As societies learned and changed, old religions were replaced or evolved to meet the needs of the people. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that any religion that did not adapt to the changing needs of society, and what we know to be true about the universe, would eventually be replaced by man's search for a better fit as he approaches a more complete understanding of the universe. After all, new religions are created everyday that have slight differences in their beliefs. Christianity itself has literally hundreds of unique sects that have slightly different beliefs about God, the Bible and Jesus. Even the beliefs of Christians vary significantly from person to person.
I think the most valuable things I learned from giving myself an excellent education are keeping an open mind, understanding how personal bias effects our decision making, and tolerance and acceptance for the beliefs of others. Realistically, we are all probably wrong to a certain extent, but we can work together to discover the truth. Almost everyone has something valuable to offer as long as they are tolerant and open to understanding the beliefs of others. I also learned that no religion presented any significant proof of the existence of God, so I turned to science to find the answer to my question.
The first thing I want to mention is the Theory of Infinite Complexity, which states with enough time, humans will evolve their understanding and mastery of the universe until they appear to be Gods. Let’s start by considering what our caveman ancestors would think of modern man with all his understand and gadgets. To them he would be some type of God to be worshiped for his mastery of fire and his ability to strike down dinner or a dangerous animal by shooting thunder at it with a stick. He might even show up with a Hummer, a laptop, DVDs, an iPod, and any number of things that would appear to be magic. You get the idea, right?
Now here comes the part that most people will disagree with initially, because they don’t keep up on breakthroughs in science and the potential of technology. Already we know how to control the flow of time and bend space based on Einstein’s work decades ago, and today we have no-brainer ideas to actually do it. We also have the basic idea to construct a quantum computer based on quantum entanglement, which would be able to calculate anything instantly. We can even use the same discovery to build transmitters and receivers that communicate instantly with anyone or anything in the universe, no matter how far away they are. Instantly means faster than the speed of light, which is something that even Einstein didn’t think was possible. If you have doubts, look up quantum computer and quantum entanglement on Wikipedia.
Students at Stanford even found a way to link nerves like the one’s in your brain directly to a computer. That means we can communicate directly with a computer just by thinking. We’re also mapping and mastering how to rewrite our own genes to eliminate genetic diseases and improve on our own genetic blue prints. There are also many exciting breakthroughs in stem cell research that could someday lead to near immortality and organ regeneration. Nanotechnology is also a very promising field that has amazing medical applications. With man’s ability to communicate with a computer just by thinking and nanites in their body, he or she could change their body just by thinking. I’m not just talking about appearance; I mean everything, from the structure of our DNA to what our skin and bones are made out of to the structure of our brains, which is the concept behind Self Evolution.
These things and new discoveries in the future may lead man to think the same thing that our caveman ancestors would think of us today. People in the future will have resources and abilities that no ordinary human being today could possess. With the link between man and machine, verbal communication will become a thing of the past and mankind may start to think like a single evolving being over time made up of millions and possibly billions of minds working together. Essentially, we are evolving into God or a community of beings with the ability to reshape the universe any way we want at will. The real question is does God exist today?
With enough time almost anything is possible. We may even figure out how to change physics or discover that everything is the way it is for a reason, and another civilization that’s a lot further ahead of us made it that way so we could exist. With infinite time and space within a finite universe, the chance of one civilization being ahead of us so much that they fit our concept of god is a mathematical certainty. That means there is no doubt that god or something similar really exists, and we are not alone in the multiverse. Read the article Infinite Time & Space within a Finite Universe if you want to know what it is and why I use the term multiverse.
From a common sense point of view, there are also just too many coincidences in nature to believe that god or something similar does not exist. Take the water molecule as an example. If it was just a little bit different, life as we know it would not be impossible. The properties of water are exactly the way it should be for a reason, and that reason is to create life. We may just be some super being’s science project, but we have the same opportunity to evolve and fill God’s footsteps as any other intelligent race. Another question is why doesn’t God intervene when horrible acts of cruelty are about to happen to innocent people?
The next thing to consider is God’s impact on our lives, which I call the Theory of Appreciation and Manifestation. Why doesn’t God stop things like genocide, rape, suffering and murder? Why does God ignore us in our time of need and not change things when we pray for something better? Well the answer is simple. God only interacts with people that show appreciation. Otherwise, God just observes us and makes no effort to influence anything. This may sound silly, but it actually works. First, I saw appreciation work for my new friends and their family, a couple days later I saw Opera by chance and an audience of successful women talking about manifestation through appreciation, then I gave it a shot and my life started to change immediately like night and day. The interesting thing is that I didn’t do anything different.
I also thought very critically about whether there is a heaven or a hell and whether Jesus, Buddha, or any number of prophets and messiahs actually had anything to do with the real God. My thought is that we are like pets to God. If God doesn’t want us to cease to exist, then one of them will preserve our consciousness or our soul (mind). This is easily accomplished by super beings by transferring our consciousness to a new set of hardware, so they can continue to observe us. People that don’t show appreciation and earn favor just die, and there is no afterlife for them. There is also no guarantee that appreciation by itself will be enough to ensure an afterlife, and people who show an excessive or irrational appreciation for God are not highly regarded. There is also no actual hell with fire and brimstone or anything supernatural.
Although it is not the traditional version of heaven and hell, the choices we make and how society reacts to us influences the quality of our lives and the people in our lives. This is why suffering takes place, and where the closest thing that resembles hell actually exists. There is no real devil; there are only the evil acts of mankind toward other human beings.
We are all the sons and daughters of God. Messiahs and prophets are just the spearheads of religion, and most of them were either schizophrenic or making a personal sacrifice for the greater good of their people. Religion is clearly a manmade institution that helps people, but it also fills our heads with a lot of false information that holds back understanding and technology. Even if the Bible and other texts are partially fiction, they still have a tremendous value to society, because they are a source of history that was designed to help people live better lives.
Religion should also never contradict with science and nature. It should adapt to our understanding of nature and the universe we live in. Evolution is no longer just someone’s idea; it’s a fact now that we understand how DNA changed over time, and it was God’s plan to create life and watch it evolve all along. The Earth and the Universe are much older than the Bible says, and God did not make things happen in a week. God is also not one being; it’s a community of advanced beings who are a lot further along than we are.
