Being Chosen:
What does being chosen mean to you?
כִּ֣י תִשָּׂ֞א אֶת־רֹ֥אשׁ בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֮ לִפְקֻדֵיהֶם֒ וְנָ֨תְנ֜וּ אִ֣ישׁ כֹּ֧פֶר נַפְשׁ֛וֹ לַיהֹוָ֖ה בִּפְקֹ֣ד אֹתָ֑ם וְלֹא־יִהְיֶ֥ה בָהֶ֛ם נֶ֖גֶף בִּפְקֹ֥ד אֹתָֽם׃
When you take a census of the Israelite men according to their army enrollment, each shall pay יהוה a ransom for himself on being enrolled, that no plague may come upon them through their being enrolled.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks on Chosenness:
God, the creator of humanity, having made a covenant with all humanity, then turns to one people and commands it to be different in order to teach humanity the dignity of difference.
The Dignity of Difference, p. 53
To be chosen does not mean that others are unchosen. To be secure in one’s relationship with God does not depend on negating the possibility that others too may have a (different) relationship with Him.
Covenant & Conversation, Toldot: Chosenness and its Discontents
Do not think that God choosing one people means He rejects every other people. Absolutely not! That was never our way. And that why, again and again and again, God, the prophets say, is not our God only. There are other people who worship God.
Faith Lectures: Jewish Identity: The Concept of a Chosen People
God chooses those whom the world rejects. That is why He chose us. In the ancient world, power and position went to the firstborn. That is why God always chooses the younger rather than the elder. In the ancient world, power went to the strong and the many. The Jewish people always was a tiny people. God chooses whom the world rejects. He chooses the marginal, the nomads, the few, the young.
Faith Lectures: Jewish Identity: The Concept of a Chosen People
God, the creator of humanity, having made a covenant with all humanity, then turns to one people and commands it to be different in order to teach humanity the dignity of difference.
The Dignity of Difference, p. 53
To be chosen does not mean that others are unchosen. To be secure in one’s relationship with God does not depend on negating the possibility that others too may have a (different) relationship with Him.
Covenant & Conversation, Toldot: Chosenness and its Discontents
Do not think that God choosing one people means He rejects every other people. Absolutely not! That was never our way. And that why, again and again and again, God, the prophets say, is not our God only. There are other people who worship God.
Faith Lectures: Jewish Identity: The Concept of a Chosen People
God chooses those whom the world rejects. That is why He chose us. In the ancient world, power and position went to the firstborn. That is why God always chooses the younger rather than the elder. In the ancient world, power went to the strong and the many. The Jewish people always was a tiny people. God chooses whom the world rejects. He chooses the marginal, the nomads, the few, the young.
Faith Lectures: Jewish Identity: The Concept of a Chosen People
What are the positives of a religious belief in “chosenness”?
What are the dangers of a religious belief in “chosenness”?
Choose a favorite garment.
Why this one?
Underwear
BY LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI
I didn’t get much sleep last night
thinking about underwear
Have you ever stopped to consider
underwear in the abstract
When you really dig into it
some shocking problems are raised
Underwear is something
we all have to deal with
Everyone wears
some kind of underwear
The Pope wears underwear I hope
The Governor of Louisiana
wears underwear
I saw him on TV
He must have had tight underwear
He squirmed a lot
Underwear can really get you in a bind
You have seen the underwear ads
for men and women
so alike but so different
Women’s underwear holds things up
Men’s underwear holds things down
Underwear is one thing
men and women have in common
Underwear is all we have between us
You have seen the three-color pictures
with crotches encircled
to show the areas of extra strength
and three-way stretch
promising full freedom of action
Don’t be deceived
It’s all based on the two-party system
which doesn’t allow much freedom of choice
the way things are set up
America in its Underwear
struggles thru the night
Underwear controls everything in the end
Take foundation garments for instance
They are really fascist forms
of underground government
making people believe
something but the truth
telling you what you can or can’t do
Did you ever try to get around a girdle
Perhaps Non-Violent Action
is the only answer
Did Gandhi wear a girdle?
Did Lady Macbeth wear a girdle?
Was that why Macbeth murdered sleep?
And that spot she was always rubbing—
Was it really in her underwear?
Modern anglosaxon ladies
must have huge guilt complexes
always washing and washing and washing
Out damned spot
Underwear with spots very suspicious
Underwear with bulges very shocking
Underwear on clothesline a great flag of freedom
Someone has escaped his Underwear
May be naked somewhere
Help!
But don’t worry
Everybody’s still hung up in it
There won’t be no real revolution
And poetry still the underwear of the soul
And underwear still covering
a multitude of faults
in the geological sense—
strange sedimentary stones, inscrutable cracks!
If I were you I’d keep aside
an oversize pair of winter underwear
Do not go naked into that good night
And in the meantime
keep calm and warm and dry
No use stirring ourselves up prematurely
‘over Nothing’
Move forward with dignity
hand in vest
Don’t get emotional
And death shall have no dominion
There’s plenty of time my darling
Are we not still young and easy
Don’t shout
BY LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI
I didn’t get much sleep last night
thinking about underwear
Have you ever stopped to consider
underwear in the abstract
When you really dig into it
some shocking problems are raised
Underwear is something
we all have to deal with
Everyone wears
some kind of underwear
The Pope wears underwear I hope
The Governor of Louisiana
wears underwear
I saw him on TV
He must have had tight underwear
He squirmed a lot
Underwear can really get you in a bind
You have seen the underwear ads
for men and women
so alike but so different
Women’s underwear holds things up
Men’s underwear holds things down
Underwear is one thing
men and women have in common
Underwear is all we have between us
You have seen the three-color pictures
with crotches encircled
to show the areas of extra strength
and three-way stretch
promising full freedom of action
Don’t be deceived
It’s all based on the two-party system
which doesn’t allow much freedom of choice
the way things are set up
America in its Underwear
struggles thru the night
Underwear controls everything in the end
Take foundation garments for instance
They are really fascist forms
of underground government
making people believe
something but the truth
telling you what you can or can’t do
Did you ever try to get around a girdle
Perhaps Non-Violent Action
is the only answer
Did Gandhi wear a girdle?
Did Lady Macbeth wear a girdle?
Was that why Macbeth murdered sleep?
And that spot she was always rubbing—
Was it really in her underwear?
Modern anglosaxon ladies
must have huge guilt complexes
always washing and washing and washing
Out damned spot
Underwear with spots very suspicious
Underwear with bulges very shocking
Underwear on clothesline a great flag of freedom
Someone has escaped his Underwear
May be naked somewhere
Help!
But don’t worry
Everybody’s still hung up in it
There won’t be no real revolution
And poetry still the underwear of the soul
And underwear still covering
a multitude of faults
in the geological sense—
strange sedimentary stones, inscrutable cracks!
If I were you I’d keep aside
an oversize pair of winter underwear
Do not go naked into that good night
And in the meantime
keep calm and warm and dry
No use stirring ourselves up prematurely
‘over Nothing’
Move forward with dignity
hand in vest
Don’t get emotional
And death shall have no dominion
There’s plenty of time my darling
Are we not still young and easy
Don’t shout
Pesikta D’Rav Kahana on Parshat Ki Tisa
Why does God command a census? Rabbi Yudan said in the name of Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani: What is this comparable to? To a king who had a set of undergarments and who commanded his servant saying, “Lay them out. Fold them. Take care with them.” The servant said to the king, "My master, of all the undergarments you have, why have you only commanded me regarding this one?" The king responded, "These ones are stuck to my flesh."
Such is what Moses said to the Holy Blessed One, "Merciful One, of the 70 nations that exist in Your world, why are You only commanding me regarding Israel?” God responds, "Because they are cleaving to me." As is taught in Jeremiah 13:11 “For as the loincloth clings close to the loins of a man, so I brought close to Me the whole House of Israel and the whole House of Judah—declares the LORD—that they might be My people, for fame, and praise, and splendor.”
Another idea: Rabbi Avin said: What is this comparable to? To a king who had a crimson cloth and who commanded his servant saying, “Lay them out. Fold them. Take care with them.” The servant said to the king, "My master, of all the crimson garments you have, why have you only commanded me regarding this one?" The king responded, "These are the ones I wore when I first became sovereign.”
Such is what Moses said to the Holy Blessed One, "Merciful One, of the 70 mighty nations that exist in Your world, why are You only commanding me regarding Israel?” God responds, "These are the ones who crowned me first as they crossed the sea when they said, ‘God will reign forever’.”
Why does God command a census? Rabbi Yudan said in the name of Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani: What is this comparable to? To a king who had a set of undergarments and who commanded his servant saying, “Lay them out. Fold them. Take care with them.” The servant said to the king, "My master, of all the undergarments you have, why have you only commanded me regarding this one?" The king responded, "These ones are stuck to my flesh."
Such is what Moses said to the Holy Blessed One, "Merciful One, of the 70 nations that exist in Your world, why are You only commanding me regarding Israel?” God responds, "Because they are cleaving to me." As is taught in Jeremiah 13:11 “For as the loincloth clings close to the loins of a man, so I brought close to Me the whole House of Israel and the whole House of Judah—declares the LORD—that they might be My people, for fame, and praise, and splendor.”
Another idea: Rabbi Avin said: What is this comparable to? To a king who had a crimson cloth and who commanded his servant saying, “Lay them out. Fold them. Take care with them.” The servant said to the king, "My master, of all the crimson garments you have, why have you only commanded me regarding this one?" The king responded, "These are the ones I wore when I first became sovereign.”
Such is what Moses said to the Holy Blessed One, "Merciful One, of the 70 mighty nations that exist in Your world, why are You only commanding me regarding Israel?” God responds, "These are the ones who crowned me first as they crossed the sea when they said, ‘God will reign forever’.”
How do these midrashic comparisons to clothing influence your idea(s) of “chosenness”?