J7: Chosen People

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The name game

At the beginning of the modern literary masterpiece "Mr Happy", we are told that the eponymous hero of the book is "happy by name and happy by nature". This coincidental connection between name and nature is a feature of all the other books in the series. However, finding a link between ones name and personality is pretty easy if your name happens to be "Mr Happy", "Mr. Strong" or "Little Miss Unhappy but Somewhat Extrovert After a Drink at Parties". Other names may prove a little more difficult.

The Rabbis of the Talmud go to great lengths to work out what the names of Biblical characters tell us about their personalities. Take the name "Avraham", for example. The Talmud derives this name from the phrase "Av Hamon Goyim", literally meaning the father of many nations. This highlights a crucial aspect of the legacy of Avraham; his message was universal - it applied to anyone and everyone irrelevant of nation or creed. The medieval philosopher Maimonides takes us through the biography of Avraham's early life and relates how Avraham alone discovered G-d through philosophical speculation and revolted against the idolatry of his peers.

"Avraham then went from city to city, calling and gathering together the inhabitants and proclaimed his message, as it is said: "And he called there in he name of the Lord, God of the Universe". When the people flocked to him and questioned him, he would instruct each according to their capacity, till he had brought them all to the way of truth."

His message of monotheism is universal. We are all created in the image of God and everyone, be they Jew or gentile, can draw near to Him. Even the Temple in Jerusalem would eventually be proclaimed as a place in which everyone can come and pray and draw near to G-d, "for my house is a house of prayer for all nations". Avraham by name and the father of many nations by nature.

Yet Avraham is not the complete title given to the first of our forefathers. He is also known as "The Hebrew" or "HaIvri". In explaining the source of this term, the Rabbis of the Midrash point to the root, meaning separate or distinct. "The whole world was on one side and he was on the other". Avraham is the first Jew, the founding father of a nation through a special message that would be passed on to his children. This message is not universal but particular it applies to a specific group of people. Avraham's message is transmitted to his children, who are to be distinguished by a unique set of laws that belong exclusively to them. Indeed, the rest of the Bible highlights this distinct nature of the message, as it describes the story of this particular nation and its unique relationship with God. The children of Israel constituted a distinct entity in Egypt and witnessed a particular covenant at Sinai. HaIvri by name and separate by nature.

If Avraham is the archetypal Jew, this ambivalence is one that lies at the very heart of Judaism. Is our message universal and applying to everyone or particular and special to us?

The Nobel Prize

Alfred Nobel left the world two legacies: dynamite and the yearly awards named after him that celebrate world wide excellence in various fields of endeavour. Whilst the latter may have not been as damaging as the former, the awarding of these prizes has often been a rather explosive affair. One of the most difficult categories must be the prize for literature. What criterion would you use to judge this prize? Would you judge it by the number of copies of the book that have been sold? This may be an objective measure but it means that we penalise someone who writes in a language that is not spoken by many people. This would mean that there is a greater chance of the winner being a book in written in Chinese or English, than Icelandic or Hebrew. The criterion must be the ability to write a book that expresses something entirely profound about the human condition, irrelevant of whichever language the book is written. However, whatever book is chosen, it will be written in a particular language with all the idiosyncrasies and cultural baggage that lies inherent in that language. The language of chemistry and maths may be universal, but the language of literature is not. No one actually speaks Esperanto!

We have here the same paradox again. On the one hand we live in a particular culture and speak a particular language. There are many differences between people of different cultures and languages, that cannot simply be translated. Yet within that language we try and articulate universal features of the human condition. If the Nobel prize is to be a truly universal prize celebrating the best literature, then in judging any book, it must compare books on a universal plane, whilst respecting the integrity of the language in which the book was written. Universal and particular come together.

Particularist Monotheism

Avraham may have taught the world the nature of Monotheism, but what exactly does this mean? Well, unlike the polytheists or idolaters who believed that there were a variety of gods, often speaking to individual nations or people and sometimes coming into conflict, monotheism means that there is One God that rules everyone. However Avraham's legacy was not just Monotheism, but a particular brand of it.

Universal Monotheism believes in one God and one truth for everyone. There is therefore only one way to serve God, and those who do it in another way are wrong. This was NOT Avraham's message and often leads to forced conversions and torture, as people are persuaded to follow the one way.

Particularist monotheism differs from this. There is one God; God is the God of all humanity. However there are many different faiths. Together they all combine in the service of God, each in their own unique way. In the film named after her the heroine, Pollyanna takes a beam of white light and shines it through a prism to discover that the one light is made up of a whole spectrum of different colours. When she shines these refracted colours back through the prism, once again there is the white light. If one of these refracted colours is prevented from going through the second prism, there is no white light at the end. There is a universalistic legacy (the 'white light of humanism'), a common message to all mankind: G-d is one. And there is a particularistic message (the refracted colours of the prism); Humanity is diverse.

"When human beings mint coins in a press, they all emerge the same. When God makes creatures in his image, they all emerge different" (Midrash)

This implies the need for true tolerance; we must recognise God's image even in those who are different from us. Judaism does not pursue converts or make people Jewish. This is the legacy of Avraham Haivri, both particular and universal by name and nature.

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