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| Praised are You O Lord Who
has chosen the people of Israel with love. |
Barukh ata adonai HaBocher b'amo yisrael
b'ahava. |
Page 111 in Siddur Sim Shalom
Much has been written about the idea of being chosen.
Many philosophers and thinkers have spent time trying to explain
selectivity in the face of universalism. We live in a modern era
in which we are uncomfortable with the thought that there are
certain groups of people who are favored by God. We live in an
age of equality and of pluralism, concepts that reject a particularistic
approach to existence. We struggle with the idea that all people
were created in the image of God yet, somehow as Jews we have
been selected for a higher calling. We hold dear the idea that
all of humanity came from the first human beings, Adam and Eve,
yet our lineage of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, Rachel
and Leah are for some reason special.
This bracha like the bracha recited when having
an aliyah, speaks of our chosen nature. With the word Bocher the
idea of exclusivity is referenced and we immediately recoil to
our "internal memo" of being special. It is a thought we play
down in the outside world while we make it central to our worship
make allusion to it many times throughout our liturgy. We know
it, some us even feel it. We recognize the value of feeling special
even if it runs contrary to our ecumenical approach to community.
The last word of the bracha is B'hava and it is
that word that is the most significant. The word B'ahava means
with love. It reminds us the relationship we have with God is
based on love. We are commanded to love God while we feel God's
love for us. Though the relationship between God and the people
of Israel has been compared to lovers as portrayed in Shir HaShirim,
Song of Songs, the love expressed in this prayer can be best understood
as the love between parent and child. God as parent provides us
with unconditional love and hopes we will do the same in return.
A parent has a child. That parent loves that child
with all of their being. They watch them, feed them, bathe them
and watch them grow. Their entire world is wrapped up in its care.
The parent worries about the future and the parent makes plans
for what will be. They can't imagine there is anything that could
compare to the depth of feelings they have for that child. First,
there was a heart that had enough room just for a spouse now it
has been stretched to include a child. The family unit filled
with so much love now must make room for another child. The parent
wonder will there be enough room I their new home for this addition.
They speculate about whether there will be enough love to go around.
The child is born and the love increases, the heart grows in its
capacity to give.
That is the nature of God and God's love for humanity.
God can make us all feel chosen, while God confers God's love
unconditional to all human beings. God loves us. Once we recognize
that we can feel special without having a negative reaction to
others we will be truly blessed. Maybe we are all chosen. Surely
there is enough love to go around.
Copyright © 2001 Rabbi
Yohanan Stein. All rights reserved.
New Jersey Region United Synagogue
of Conservative Judaism
PO Box 390; 1025 St. Georges
Ave
Linden, NJ 07036-0390
Phone: 908-925-USCJ (8725)
/ Fax: 908-486-USCJ (8725)
E-mail: njersey@uscj.org
Copyright © 2000 -
2003 New Jersey USCJ. All rights reserved.
Last Updated: July 2003
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