Jews As A Chosen People

Jews As A Chosen People

In Judaism, "chosenness" is the belief that the Jews are the chosen people, chosen to be in a covenant with God. This idea is first found in the Torah (the five books of Moses, which are also included in the Christian Bible) and is elaborated on in later books of the Hebrew Bible. Much is written about these topics in rabbinic literature. The three largest Jewish denominations—Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism—maintain the belief that the Jews have been chosen by God for a purpose.

Read more about Jews As A Chosen People:  Chosenness in The Bible, Rabbinic Jewish Views of Chosenness, Modern Orthodox Views, Conservative Judaism Views, Reform Judaism, Alternative Kabbalistic and Philosophical Views, Reconstructionist Criticism, Influence On Relations With Other Religions, Ethnocentrism and Racism

Famous quotes containing the words chosen people, jews, chosen and/or people:

    We Americans are the peculiar, chosen people—the Israel of our time; we bear the ark of the liberties of the world.
    Herman Melville (1819–1891)

    We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.
    Bible: New Testament, Galatians 2:15-16.

    Almost everybody in the neighborhood had “troubles,” frankly localized and specified; but only the chosen had “complications.” To have them was in itself a distinction, though it was also, in most cases, a death warrant. People struggled on for years with “troubles,” but they almost always succumbed to “complications.”
    Edith Wharton (1862–1937)

    It is not too much to say that next after the passion to learn there is no quality so indispensable to the successful prosecution of science as imagination. Find me a people whose early medicine is not mixed up with magic and incantations, and I will find you a people devoid of all scientific ability.
    Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)