The Nations

Rabbinic sources about Israel and the nations exhibit diverse perspectives with respect to the idea of Israel’s chosenness and its particularist claims. Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, Baḥodesh 1, sounds a universalistic note when it states that God made the Torah available to all the nations. In contrast, Sifra Aḥare Mot depicts the laws of the Torah, particularly the nonrational laws (ḥukkim), as singling out and differentiating Israel from the nations and marking Israel as God’s chosen people. The rabbis are aware, however, that history has not always favored the Jewish people and wonder if God has abandoned the Jews as the nations claim. In Lamentations Rabbah 3:21, it is the Torah that sustains Israel against the taunts of the nations, just as a wife is sustained by the promises contained in the marriage contract granted to her by her absentee husband.

The dialectical tension between universalist and particularist impulses is illustrated in b. Avodah Zarah 2a–3b. The core narrative relates God’s final judgment against the nations and the elevation of Israel. It is interrupted by anonymous editorial glosses that question the justice and mercy of the proceedings. The result is a dialogical text in which the main themes of the underlying eschatological drama are contested or subverted.