“Chosen people”: few expressions have been quoted, mocked and twisted as often. To some, it sounds like a claim to superiority. What do the Torah, the Talmud and the great Jewish teachers actually say? Chosen by whom, to do what, and at what price? Let us start from the beginning, with the texts in hand.
In short: in Judaism, the chosenness of Israel refers neither to a superior race nor to a privilege. It refers to a covenant (brit): G-d chose Avraham and his descendants to receive the Torah, to live by it and to bear witness to it before the world. The Torah itself says so: this choice is not due to numbers or to any natural merit, but to G-d’s love and to the oath He swore to the Patriarchs (Devarim [Deuteronomy] 7:7-8). The role is defined at Sinai: to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Shemot [Exodus] 19:6), that is, a people in the service of humanity. This chosenness is first and foremost a burden and a responsibility: “You alone have I known […] therefore I will hold you to account for all your iniquities” (Amos 3:2). It is open to anyone who sincerely chooses to join it, and it takes nothing away from the dignity of other nations, whose righteous have a share in the World to Come.
What the Torah says: the verses of chosenness
The Hebrew word for “to choose” is bachar. It appears in several verses of the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy), which are the main source of the idea of a “chosen people”. The best known reads: “For you are a holy people to the L-rd your G-d; the L-rd your G-d has chosen you to be His treasured people (am segula) out of all the peoples on the face of the earth” (Devarim 7:6). The same wording is repeated almost word for word further on (Devarim 14:2).
The next verse answers the question “why us?” in advance and shuts the door on any pride: “It is not because you are more numerous than all the peoples that the L-rd set His desire upon you and chose you, for you are the fewest of all the peoples; but because the L-rd loves you, and because He keeps the oath He swore to your fathers” (Devarim 7:7-8). Not strength, not intelligence, not superior virtue: love, and faithfulness to a promise.
A few chapters later, the Torah insists again, almost harshly: “Know that it is not because of your righteousness that the L-rd your G-d is giving you this good land to inherit, for you are a stiff-necked people” (Devarim 9:6). The chosen people is not perfect: it is loved, and much is asked of it.
Segula: a treasure, not an exclusive possession
The word segula, translated as “treasure” or “special possession”, appears for the first time at the foot of Mount Sinai: “And now, if you will truly listen to My voice and keep My covenant, you shall be a treasure (segula) to Me out of all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Shemot 19:5-6).
Three details are crucial. The verse is conditional: “if you will listen”; chosenness is an offer that awaits an answer. It specifies: “for all the earth is Mine”; Israel is not chosen against the other nations, and G-d remains the Creator of all. Finally, the function is defined: a kingdom of priests. And a priest, a kohen, does not exist for himself: he serves, he teaches, he blesses others.
A covenant that begins with Avraham
Chosenness does not begin at Sinai but with Avraham, the first of the Patriarchs. G-d tells him: “Go for yourself: leave your land, your family and your father’s house […] I will make you a great nation, I will bless you […] and you shall be a blessing […] and through you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Bereshit [Genesis] 12:1-3). From the very beginning, the choice of one man is directed toward all of humanity.
The Torah also says why Avraham was singled out: “For I have known him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the L-rd, doing righteousness (tzedaka) and justice (mishpat)” (Bereshit 18:19). The covenant (brit) is then sealed in the flesh through circumcision (Bereshit 17:7-10), and confirmed to Yitzchak and to Yaakov. When Moshe goes before Pharaoh, G-d has him say: “Thus says the L-rd: Israel is My son, My firstborn” (Shemot 4:22). In the Bible, the eldest is not the only child: he is the one who bears responsibility for the family.
A two-way covenant: G-d chooses Israel, Israel chooses G-d
The Torah describes chosenness as a mutual commitment: “You have affirmed the L-rd this day to be your G-d […] and the L-rd has affirmed you this day to be His treasured people” (Devarim 26:17-18). From these verses the Talmud (Berakhot 6a) draws a surprising image. Jews wear tefillin in which is written “Hear, O Israel, the L-rd is our G-d, the L-rd is One”; and G-d, says the Talmud, also wears tefillin, so to speak, in which is written: “Who is like Your people Israel, a unique nation on earth?” (Divrei Hayamim I [I Chronicles] 17:21). “You have made Me a unique entity in the world, and I will make you a unique entity in the world.”
At Sinai, the people first answer: “All that the L-rd has spoken, we will do” (Shemot 19:8), and then, when the covenant is concluded: “We will do and we will hear” (naaseh venishma, Shemot 24:7). Chosenness thus becomes an accepted pact.
The Torah offered to all nations
A famous midrash, recorded in the Sifrei (Sifrei Devarim 343) and in the Talmud (Avoda Zara 2b), tells that before giving the Torah to Israel, G-d offered it to the other nations. The descendants of Esav ask what is written in it; they are told “you shall not murder”, and they refuse, because their way of life is the sword. The descendants of Yishmael hear “you shall not steal” and refuse in turn. Israel alone accepts, without even asking what it contains.
This midrash does not look down on the other nations: it says that chosenness is not arbitrary favoritism. The Torah was offered to all, and Israel said yes. The Talmud itself qualifies this “yes”: it relates that G-d held the mountain over the people “like an overturned barrel”, and that the people only fully accepted the Torah, out of love, in the time of Purim (Shabbat 88a). The covenant is lived out over time; it is never acquired once and for all.
Avraham sought G-d first
Even before the divine call, Avraham was searching. The Midrash compares him to a traveler who sees a palace in flames and wonders: “Could it be that this palace has no master?” The master then looks out and says to him: “I am the master of the palace” (Bereshit Rabba 39:1). The Rambam describes the same path: as a child, Avraham reflected on his own until he recognized the one Creator, and then set out to teach others about Him (Hilkhot Avoda Zara 1:3). Chosenness answers a human quest.
Why Israel? The explanations of the Sages
The commentators themselves asked the question “why this particular people?”. Their answers complement one another; that of the Maharal of Prague, on the unearned nature of the choice, is presented further down together with the teaching of Rav Benizri.
Because they make themselves small
The verse says: “it is not because you are more numerous”. The Talmud (Chullin 89a), quoted by Rashi on Devarim 7:7, reads this verse as follows: “I love you because, even when I grant you greatness, you make yourselves small before Me.” Avraham says: “I am but dust and ashes” (Bereshit 18:27); Moshe and Aharon say: “What are we?” (Shemot 16:7). From its very source, chosenness is bound up with humility, the exact opposite of the pride attributed to it.
Because a witness people was needed
The prophet Yeshayahu (Isaiah) sets out the mission: “You are My witnesses, says the L-rd” (Yeshayahu 43:10); “I will make you a light to the nations (or goyim), so that My salvation may reach the ends of the earth” (Yeshayahu 49:6; see also 42:6). A witness is no better than those in the room: he carries a message that is not his own, here the one G-d and His moral law.
Rabbi Yehuda Halevi, in the Kuzari, offers an image that has left a deep mark: Israel among the nations is like the heart among the organs (Kuzari II, 36). The heart does not look down on the other organs; it keeps them alive. But it is also the most sensitive, the first to suffer from the body’s illnesses.
Chosen means responsible
Perhaps the clearest verse is that of the prophet Amos: “You alone have I known out of all the families of the earth; therefore I will hold you to account for all your iniquities” (Amos 3:2). Not “I will protect you from everything”, but: I will demand more of you.
The 613 commandments (mitzvot) are binding only on the Jewish people: Shabbat, kashrut, tefillin and the laws of purity are all additional obligations, not privileges. When someone comes forward to convert, the Talmud requires that he first be told: “Do you not know that Israel, in our time, is afflicted, oppressed, persecuted and overwhelmed with suffering?” (Yevamot 47a). He is not promised an advantageous status; he is warned of a burden.
History has borne out this weight. The seer Bilam, who came to curse Israel, describes it in spite of himself: “It is a people that dwells alone and is not reckoned among the nations” (Bamidbar [Numbers] 23:9). This distinctiveness has often come at a heavy price: exiles, expulsions, persecutions, up to the Shoah. Chosenness has never guaranteed a quiet life; tradition promises the people’s survival, not its comfort: it will not disappear as long as the laws of the sun and the moon endure (Yirmeyahu [Jeremiah] 31:34-35). As early as 1899, Mark Twain was already marveling, in “Concerning the Jews”, that this small people had outlived all the empires that had ruled over it.
Chosenness is not a race: it is open to all
Understanding “chosen people” as a racial notion would be a serious misreading. Judaism welcomes converts (gerim) of every origin and regards them as fully Jewish. According to the Talmud, the Torah warns thirty-six times (forty-six according to another version) against wronging the ger, the stranger who has come to join the people (Bava Metzia 59b). Ruth the Moabite, who declares “your people shall be my people and your G-d my G-d” (Ruth 1:16), becomes the great-grandmother of King David, and therefore the ancestor of the Messiah.
The Rambam wrote to a convert, Ovadia, who had asked him whether he was allowed to say in his prayers “our G-d and G-d of our fathers” and “who has chosen us”. His answer leaves no room for doubt: yes, because Avraham is the father of all who come under the wings of the Divine Presence, and the convert is fully part of the chosen people (Letter of the Rambam to Ovadia the Convert).
The Rambam goes further. After describing the tribe of Levi, set apart to serve G-d, he adds: not only the tribe of Levi, but any human being, among all who come into the world, whose spirit moves him to stand before G-d to serve Him and to know Him, is sanctified as the holy of holies (Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Shemita veYovel 13:13).
Other nations in Jewish thought
If Israel is chosen, what becomes of everyone else? All human beings are created in the image of G-d (Bereshit 1:27). The Mishna teaches that Adam was created alone “for the sake of peace among people, so that no one could say to another: my father is greater than your father” (Mishna Sanhedrin 4:5).
Rabbi Akiva says it in two steps in the Ethics of the Fathers: “Beloved is man, for he was created in the image of G-d […] Beloved are Israel, for they were called children of G-d […] and a precious instrument was given to them”, the Torah (Pirkei Avot 3:14). The order matters: first the dignity of every human being, then the particular love for Israel, tied to the Torah.
Judaism does not ask non-Jews to become Jewish. It offers them the seven laws of the children of Noach (the prohibitions of murder, theft, idolatry, blasphemy, incest and cruelty to animals, and the obligation to establish just courts). According to the Tosefta and the Rambam, the righteous of the nations have a share in the World to Come (Tosefta Sanhedrin 13:2; Rambam, Hilkhot Melakhim 8:11). One therefore does not need to be Jewish to be “saved”.
In prayer: “You who have chosen us”
The idea of chosenness comes back every day in prayer, always linked to the Torah. In the morning, before studying, one recites: “Blessed are You […] who has chosen us from among all the peoples and given us His Torah” (Talmud, Berakhot 11b). The choice is immediately explained by the gift: chosen to receive the Torah, not to dominate.
On the festivals, the Amida (the central prayer) says: “You have chosen us from among all the peoples, You have loved us and taken pleasure in us” (Ata vechartanu). The Friday night Kiddush says “for You have chosen us and You have sanctified us”. And the Aleinu prayer, which closes every service, thanks G-d for giving us a particular destiny, before ending with a universal hope: “On that day the L-rd will be One and His Name will be One” (Zekharia [Zechariah] 14:9), for all of humanity.
What Rav Raphaël Benizri teaches
In several of his lectures, Rav Benizri returns to the meaning of Israel’s chosenness, always in the same direction: to be chosen is to carry a responsibility turned toward the world.
An unearned choice, and the merit of accepting it
In his lecture Pesach: Peh-Sach, the mouth that speaks, the Rav cites the teaching of the Maharal of Prague: the choice of the Jewish people is unearned; it is G-d who decided it. It is not only because Avraham was an ancestor of exceptional kindness, since he is also the father of Yishmael, just as Yitzchak is the father of Esav. Israel is called bekhor, firstborn. “But this choice carries a heavy responsibility,” says the Rav: if you are made head of the family at a very young age, it is not a gift, it is a burden.
Israel’s merit, he explains, is to have embraced this choice and agreed to be mamlekhet kohanim vegoy kadosh, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, when one would naturally be inclined to refuse it: “Why should I be persecuted by everyone, criticized by everyone, envied by petty minds? […] I want to live like everybody else.” And, the Rav acknowledges, there is a tendency within the Jewish people that thinks this way.
“Be a blessing”: a responsibility, not a reward
In Bereshit Rabba 39, part 7: be a blessing, the Rav reads the verse addressed to Avraham, “be a blessing” (Bereshit 12:2), not as a reward but as a command. Whoever receives the covenant is first of all committed toward the nations. The blessing is that the Jewish people should live up to its responsibilities toward all of humanity: one cannot see things only from within one’s own community or people.
The Rav draws two consequences from this. On the one hand, no proselytizing: the point is not to go out and recruit people, but for them to draw closer little by little on their own, having seen how we behave. On the other hand, the nations are not “extras”: “without non-Jews, there would be no Jews”. Halakha, Jewish law, concerns only us; of others, nothing is expected but the seven Noahide laws, and those who want to lecture others on morality have the wrong target. What is passed on is behavior, the way children learn from their parents by watching them live.
“I will make you a great nation”: a people always in the making
In Bereshit Rabba 39, part 6: goy gadol, the Rav notes that the verse says “I will make you a great nation”, and not “I will give you”. To make is to create, to maintain a state of continuous creation: Israel is never a finished state, it becomes one day after day, and that is how it endures through every crisis.
Little kohanim for humanity
In Pirkei Avot 5: ten generations from Adam, the Rav explains “kingdom of priests”: the kohen guards himself from impurity and watches over holiness, and “we are little kohanim for humanity”.
The challah of humanity
In Yom Kippur: the book of Yonah and teshuva, he uses another image. Challah is the small portion of dough that is set aside and that consecrates the whole dough. “We can be the challah of the world, but we are only the challah; there is the rest of the dough.” And he warns: this blessing is deserved only if we continue to allow that dough to feed its world.
Against pride
In his lecture on Tu BiShvat, the Rav asks us not to sink “into the pride of a chosen people that would alone enjoy Divine Providence, which would be withdrawn from the other nations”. The other nations, he recalls, quoting the Rambam, also benefit from a providence suited to them; each has its riches and its missions, and the world needs this variety. And in Hanukkah: each person’s light, he adds: “If we are the chosen people, we are chosen from among peoples with whom we must live together.” Our role is not to condemn them, but to be the point of reference, by living with dignity.
Common misconceptions
“Jews think they are superior”
The texts say the opposite: Israel is chosen “although it is the fewest of the peoples” (Devarim 7:7), it is called a “stiff-necked people” (Devarim 9:6), and chosenness brings stricter judgment (Amos 3:2). The superiority, if one insists on using the word, is one of responsibility, not of human worth. Every human being is created in the image of G-d (Bereshit 1:27).
“The chosen people must convert the world”
Judaism is not a missionary religion. It welcomes those who come, without seeking followers; it expects the nations to keep the Noahide laws and hopes for a world in which humanity will recognize G-d, without everyone becoming Jewish.
A word of history: an expression often twisted
The expression has often been turned against Jews. In the early twentieth century, the antisemitic forgery known as the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, fabricated in Russia, fed the myth of a people seeking to dominate the world. On November 27, 1967, General de Gaulle spoke of “an elite people, self-assured and domineering”; Raymond Aron answered him in De Gaulle, Israël et les Juifs (1968). Within the Jewish world itself, the American rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, founder of the Reconstructionist movement, rejected the notion and removed it from his liturgy. Traditional Judaism has always upheld it, as a covenant and a mission.
Frequently asked questions about the chosen people
Why did G-d choose the Jewish people?
Out of love and faithfulness to the oath sworn to the Patriarchs, not because of numbers or any natural merit (Devarim 7:7-8). The Sages add the humility of Avraham and his descendants (Chullin 89a), and the fact that Israel accepted the Torah when it was offered (Avoda Zara 2b). Others, such as the Maharal, stress that the choice was unearned.
Chosen to do what?
To receive the Torah, live by it and bear witness to it: to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Shemot 19:6), “a light to the nations” (Yeshayahu 49:6) and a blessing for “all the families of the earth” (Bereshit 12:3).
Does G-d love non-Jews less?
No. Every human being is created in the image of G-d, and Rabbi Akiva begins by saying “beloved is man” before speaking of Israel (Pirkei Avot 3:14). The righteous of the nations have a share in the World to Come (Rambam, Hilkhot Melakhim 8:11).
Is a convert part of the chosen people?
Yes, fully. He too says “who has chosen us”, as the Rambam wrote to Ovadia the convert. Ruth, a convert, is the ancestor of King David.
Does a non-observant Jew remain in the covenant?
Yes. According to the Talmud, “a Jew, even if he has sinned, remains Israel” (Sanhedrin 44a). The covenant of Sinai binds the whole people and its descendants (Devarim 29:13-14); one can drift away from it, but one never stops being part of it.
Do Christians and Muslims also speak of being chosen?
Each in its own way, these traditions have taken up or reinterpreted the idea of a divine choice. Judaism holds that the covenant with Israel is eternal, without denying the dignity of other believers or their share in the World to Come when they are righteous.
Further reading
In Judaism, being chosen does not mean standing above others: it means being called to be, like Avraham, a blessing.
- Pesach: Peh-Sach, the mouth that speaks (the choice of Israel according to the Maharal)
- Bereshit Rabba 39, part 7: be a blessing
- Bereshit Rabba 39, part 6: goy gadol
- Yom Kippur: the book of Yonah and teshuva
- The 3 Patriarchs: Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov
- What is the Torah?
- Who is a Jew? And how does one become Jewish?
- The Ten Commandments: text, meaning and place in Judaism
Sources and references
- Bereshit (Genesis) 1:27; 12:1-3; 17:7-10; 18:19; 18:27
- Shemot (Exodus) 4:22; 16:7; 19:5-6; 19:8; 24:7
- Bamidbar (Numbers) 23:9
- Devarim (Deuteronomy) 7:6-8; 9:6; 14:2; 26:17-18; 29:13-14
- Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 42:6; 43:10; 49:6
- Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 31:34-35
- Amos 3:2
- Zekharia (Zechariah) 14:9
- Ruth 1:16
- Divrei Hayamim I (I Chronicles) 17:21
- Mishna Sanhedrin 4:5
- Pirkei Avot 3:14
- Tosefta Sanhedrin 13:2
- Babylonian Talmud: Berakhot 6a and 11b; Shabbat 88a; Yevamot 47a; Bava Metzia 59b; Sanhedrin 44a; Avoda Zara 2b; Chullin 89a
- Sifrei Devarim 343
- Bereshit Rabba 39:1
- Rashi on Devarim 7:7
- Rambam, Mishneh Torah: Hilkhot Avoda Zara 1:3; Hilkhot Shemita veYovel 13:13; Hilkhot Melakhim 8:11
- Rambam, Letter to Ovadia the Convert
- Rabbi Yehuda Halevi, Kuzari II, 36
- Maharal of Prague, on the unearned nature of chosenness (cited by Rav Benizri)
- Mark Twain, “Concerning the Jews”, Harper’s Magazine, 1899
- Raymond Aron, De Gaulle, Israël et les Juifs, Plon, 1968
- Press conference of General de Gaulle, November 27, 1967
- Rav Raphaël Benizri, Pesach: Peh-Sach, the mouth that speaks — https://penseesjuives.com/pessah/la-hagada-et-la-liberation-de-la-parole/
- Rav Raphaël Benizri, Bereshit Rabba 39, part 7: be a blessing — https://penseesjuives.com/bereshit-raba/chapitre-39-7eme-partie/
- Rav Raphaël Benizri, Bereshit Rabba 39, part 6: goy gadol — https://penseesjuives.com/bereshit-raba/chapitre-39-6eme-partie/
- Rav Raphaël Benizri, Pirkei Avot 5: ten generations from Adam — https://penseesjuives.com/pirkey-avot-les-maximes-des-peres/pirkey-avot-chapitre-5-2eme-partie/
- Rav Raphaël Benizri, Yom Kippur: the book of Yonah and teshuva — https://penseesjuives.com/yom-kippour/le-livre-de-yona/
- Rav Raphaël Benizri, Tu BiShvat — https://penseesjuives.com/tou-bichvat/
- Rav Raphaël Benizri, Hanukkah: each person’s light — https://penseesjuives.com/hanoucca/la-lumiere-de-hanoucca/
Article by the Pensées Juives editorial team. Passages attributed to Rav Raphaël Benizri are taken from his lectures published on this site.