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Share(1) ביום הזה THE SAME (lit., this) DAY — on the day of the New Moon. (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:1:3; Shabbat 86b). It ought not to write ביום הזה, but ביום ההוא, “on that day”; what, then, is the force of the words “on this day”? Since they refer to the day when the Israelites came to Sinai to receive the Torah they imply that the commands of the Torah should be to you each day as something new (not antiquated and something of which you have become tired), as though He had only given them to you for the first time on the day in question (Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 273; cf. Berakhot 63b).
(ה) וְעַתָּ֗ה אִם־שָׁמ֤וֹעַ תִּשְׁמְעוּ֙ בְּקֹלִ֔י וּשְׁמַרְתֶּ֖ם אֶת־בְּרִיתִ֑י וִהְיִ֨יתֶם לִ֤י סְגֻלָּה֙ מִכָּל־הָ֣עַמִּ֔ים כִּי־לִ֖י כָּל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃ (ו) וְאַתֶּ֧ם תִּהְיוּ־לִ֛י מַמְלֶ֥כֶת כֹּהֲנִ֖ים וְג֣וֹי קָד֑וֹשׁ אֵ֚לֶּה הַדְּבָרִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר תְּדַבֵּ֖ר אֶל־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
(6) For you are a people consecrated to the LORD your God: of all the peoples on earth the LORD your God chose you to be His treasured people. (7) It is not because you are the most numerous of peoples that the LORD set His heart on you and chose you—indeed, you are the smallest of peoples; (8) but it was because the LORD favored you and kept the oath He made to your fathers that the LORD freed you with a mighty hand and rescued you from the house of bondage, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (9) Know, therefore, that only the LORD your God is God, the steadfast God who keeps His covenant faithfully to the thousandth generation of those who love Him and keep His commandments, (10) but who instantly requites with destruction those who reject Him—never slow with those who reject Him, but requiting them instantly. (11) Therefore, observe faithfully the Instruction—the laws and the rules—with which I charge you today.
Quoted by Shalom Rosenberg
The role of the Jewish people is to educate and lead "all people towards the worship of God, and to publicize His name in the world through its very life and destiny" Other nations do their part with contributions in the fields of art and science, conquest and trade. The Jewish people takes the world, such as it is, and attempts to open its eyes to God.
We Jews have been burdened with a twofold task: we have to cope with the problem of a double confrontation. We think of ourselves as human beings, sharing the destiny of Adam in his general encounter with nature, and as members of a covenantal community which has preserved its identity under most unfavorable conditions, confronted by another faith community. We believe we are the bearers of a double charismatic load, that of the dignity of man, and that of the sanctity of the covenantal community. In this difficult role, we are summoned by God, who revealed himself at both the level of universal creation and that of the private covenant, to undertake a double mission - the universal human and the exclusive covenantal confrontation.
There is a price to be paid by the Jew. He has to be more exalted in order to be normal. In order to be a man, he has to be more than a man. To be a people, the Jews have to be more than a people.
Ultimately, what matters is our differentness, our knowledge that we are not interchangeable with everyone else on the planet. Our differences and our uniqueness not only provide pride and purposes but actually lead us to resist others who would seek to rule us, control us, and erase our distinctiveness. It is our differences, not sameness, that relentlessly spur our drive to be free of oppression and ultimately free to express the identities we’ve inherited.
The Power of Why (Va’etchanan 5776)
God is concerned with all humanity. Therefore what we do as Jews makes a difference to humanity, not just in a mystical sense, but as exemplars of what it means to love and be loved by God. Other nations would look at Jews and sense that some larger power was at work in their history. As the late Milton Himmelfarb put it:
"Each Jew knows how thoroughly ordinary he is; yet taken together, we seem caught up in things great and inexplicable . . . " The number of Jews in the world is smaller than a small statistical error in the Chinese census. Yet we remain bigger than our numbers. Big things seem to happen around us and to us.
We were not called on to convert the world. We were called on to inspire the world. As the prophet Zechariah put it, a time will come when “Ten people from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you’” (Zech. 8:23). Our vocation is to be God’s ambassadors to the world, giving testimony through the way we live that it is possible for a small people to survive and thrive under the most adverse conditions, to construct a society of law-governed liberty for which we all bear collective responsibility, and to “act justly, love mercy and walk humbly” with our God.