Covenant and Election

Throughout its long history, Judaism has thought of God’s relationship with the Jewish people as an intimate contractual relationship (rather like a marriage), freely granted by God and freely entered into by the biblical Israelites and all their remote descendants.

The Ten Commandments

1. I the Lord am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

2. You shall have no other gods besides Me. You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below.

3. You shall not swear falsely by the name of the Lord your God.

4. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

5. Honor your father and your mother.

6. You shall not commit murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet anything that is your neighbor’s.

In the Hebrew Bible, Israel’s covenant with God is often portrayed as a kind of treaty, with reciprocal obligations and expectations. On God’s side, an unconditional promise is given to the patriarch Abraham that his descendants would be numerous and that they would inhabit the land God had given Abraham as a legacy. The people of Israel, however, are expected to live up to all of God’s demands and to obey his mitzvot. The penalty for disobeying God is a temporary dissolution of the covenant connection, coupled with such punishments as famine, defeat in war, and ultimately exile from the very land first promised to Abraham and his heirs. Clearly, this later understanding of the covenant idea is conditional and even punitive in nature, and for many centuries it provided a theological rationale for the worldwide dispersion of Jews and their subsequent statelessness. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, contemporary Jewish theology has tended to de-emphasize that theme and to stress, instead, the bond of enduring love, trust, and forgiveness that exists between Israel and God.

Much more problematic than the covenant idea, however, is the accompanying belief in Israel’s election, or, as this idea is more commonly expressed, a belief that the Jewish people have been “chosen” by God to receive his laws and to live in his presence. No concept in Judaism has evoked more hostility and misunderstanding; yet, despite the controversy, it would be difficult to imagine a historically credible form of Judaism that completely lacked this concept. On one level, all that the idea of election in Judaism affirms—and all that the

Hebrew Bible attests to—is God’s decision to reveal himself to the people of Israel in a way that is qualitatively different from the way he has related to any other people on earth.

On yet another level of understanding, however, the covenant demands that Israel actively serve God’s purposes in history: first, by becoming a “holy nation,” completely obedient to his will, and, second, by representing God to the peoples of the world who have no knowledge of his existence. This latter understanding of the doctrine of election is what the biblical prophet Isaiah had in mind when he spoke of Israel becoming a “light to the nations,” and after long centuries of existence in a stateless Diaspora, Jews have come to see their “chosenness” as an obligation to serve both God and humanity, rather than as an assertion of moral or religious superiority.

Historically, Jews have thought of the covenant in ancestral terms, as most Jews are persons born to Jewish parents. Nevertheless, conversion to Judaism has long been open to any non­Jew who wishes to assume the responsibilities (and the hazards) that are part of membership in the covenant community. Those who enter Judaism by choice are required by tradition to prove their sincerity and to undertake a term of study to prepare for full participation in Jewish religious life. The final stage of conversion customarily entails circumcision for men who are not already circumcised and, for both men and women, immersion in a ritual pool (known as a mikveh in Hebrew). From that moment on, the convert is known as a “son” or “daughter” of Abraham, and no Jew by birth is permitted to treat such a convert as anything but a spiritual equal. Paradoxical as it may sound, therefore, it is possible for anyone to choose to become part of the “chosen people.” Nevertheless, because Jewish religious identity is traditionally traced through the mother’s line, the conversion of a prospective bride is critical to determining the Jewishness of her offspring. The Reform movement in the United States, however, has attempted to trace Jewish identity through the male line as well.