Analysis Of The Chosen People Concept In Judaism

As one of the main concepts cherished among the three so called revelation religions, the Chosen People concept received countless interpretations and comments, especially in Judaism. But none of them can be regarded as the standard one by the Jews. What does Chosen People mean in the Jewish World? How do they think about it? What are the effects and results this doctrine brings about? About these questions varied opinions are held, such as some consider that this concept serves the purpose of Promoting the Jewish will to survive and service the human as a whole. But the others maintain that the concept leads to the misunderstanding and even hatred towards the Jews, and some even equal it to racism, therefore some suggest to cast off this concept completely.As what we said above, because the absence of a dogma like definition and prescription of this concept, all kinds of opinions seem to find some evidence from the Jewish tradition and writings to support their arguments. It is impossible for us to analyses all the ideas here. But it is well-known that all kinds of Jewish traditions and interpretation can be traced back to the Hebrew Bible, thus we at lest can distinguish firstly the main factors and concepts which relate to this doctrine and later serves as the foundation with which the latter interpretations were based on. And then, according to the attitudes and reflection to these traditional factors, we can categorize the ideas about the chosen people into the positive and the negative groups. For the convenience of the analysis, here I choose the two extremes among them as the representatives, as for the rest between the two extremes can be inferred.One of the extreme approaches to the chosen people concept we analyses here was Judah Halevi's. Because his particularistic and qualitative interpretation of this concept, he always is the example of the 'narrow minded arrogant Jew' who believes that the Jewish soul is inherently superior than others'. He even was charged by some as a racist because of his interpretation. In the article, we will find out that that is not the case. The reason why he held the interpretation not only due to the concrete historical and social background and his personal experience. But also has something to do with the purpose and the framework of his writing which expresses his chosen people idea in detail. We will analyses the differences between his interpretation and the modern racism which could not have been known to him as well.The other extreme approach to the traditional Jewish chosen people concept came from Mordecai Kaplan the founder of the Reconstruction Movement in America. Though he admitted that the concept did contribute a great deal to the survival of the Jewish people in the old days, but as the times changed and the choices which modern Jews can select from and the challenges that Judaism faced were quiet different from the Jewish generations before. Therefore under his functionalistic insights and backed by his naturalistic philosophical framework, he criticized all kinds of chosen people ideas, no matter the traditional version or the modern reinterpretations from his contemporaries. Instead he replaced it with a Reconstructionist' ideology especially with the calling concept. In the article we will demonstrate the specific reasons why he objected to the chosen people concept and evaluate the actual effects or results of his replacement.This article includes three sections, in the first section we will analyze the bases of the traditional chosen people concept in the Torah and the Talmud, and in the next section we are going to analyze the two extreme approaches to the concept, in the last section we will give our conclusions and comments on their interpretations, and analyze its shortcomings and the contributions they made to Judaism and the Jewish people's history.