Submitted by Ephraim, Aug 8, 2007 16:12

Totalitarian monotheistic religions such as Christianity and Islam solve the problem of particularity by insisting that everyone must be like them. If not, they are damned to hell for eternity and deserve nothing but death and enslavement at the hands of believers. While Christianity has outgrown its crusading youth, any true Christian is required to believe that those not saved through belief in Jesus are damned to hell. Islam is still a crusading religion and believes that it is perfectly kosher to make war upon infidels to bring them under the rule of Islam, where they can be treated as dhimmis. In both cases, Christians and Muslims believe that they are first in line for G-d's favor and that everyone else is out of the loop.

And people claim that Jewish particularity is a scandal?

Just as Judaism does, Christianity and Islam make a division in humanity between those who have a particular relationship with G-d's and those who don't. Unlike Christianity and Islam, however, Judaism does not believe that Jews have the right to force their religion on those who do not share it, nor does it believe people who do not share their beliefs are cut off from a relationship with G-d, as Christianity and Islam do.

The Jewish idea is that G-d made a covenant with the descendants of Noah, that is, all of humanity, that imposes certain moral obligations on them. These are the Seven Laws of the Sons of Noah, what most people would call a kind of "natural" religion (no murder, no stealing, no sexual immorality, the requirement to set up a fair legal system, etc.). Jews are also descendants of Noah, but G-d chose Abraham and his descendents for a particular covenant (Shabbat, keeping kosher, circumcision, etc.). It is a covenant within a covenant. In this system, gentiles do not need to be Jews in order to fulfill their obligations to G-d, there is a full and complete way for them to do it. Jews simply have more mitzvot (commandments).

Not only that, but Mr. Halkin correctly observes that any gentile, should he or she wish to do so, can convert and become a Jew. So how, exactly, is this "particular" in the sense of "discriminatory", as most people would understand this term? Yes, Jews believe that we have a special relationship with G-d. What of it? Christians and Muslims believe the same. The difference is that Christians and Muslims cannot tolerate any deviation from what they see as the truth and feel that it is their right and duty to impose their version of the truth on everyone, no matter how unwilling they might be. Even if this is no longer practiced, at least by Christians, the structure of their religion requires that they believe that they are justified before G-d while those who do not share their faith are not. This is totalitarianism, plain and simple.

In any case, it is possible to convert to Judaism as Mr. Halkin points out. Abraham was the first convert, and the Jewish people has always been full of converts, such as Onkelos, the nephew of the Roman emperor Nero, who authored the Targum Onkelos, the most authoritative Aramaic translation of the Bible, which can be found in any Bible in any Orthdox synagogue down to this day. Jewish particularity is certainly not racial, since anyone can join if they wish. So what is the problem? Complaining about this is like complaining about the entrance requirements of a club you want to join. It is nothing but a chutzpah. If you don't like the rules, don't join. It's no skin off of anyone's nose.

The only reason people complain about Jewish "particularity" is because our continued existence gives the lie to the claims of particularity made by Christianity and Islam, which have no basis for their claims unless they can disprove ours. They simply want our "particularity" for themselves and so are compelled to war against anyone who disputes their totalitarian claims to be the sole possessors of the "truth".

Frankly, I think our version of particularity is better. At the very least, it is a lot less dangerous for others.

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.