The unusual structure of Judaism - its belief in a universal G-d but a particular (Sinaitic) covenant - means that the Hebrew Bible takes it for granted that G-d appears to non-Jews (Laban, Avimelekh), that He is served by non-Jews (Malkizedek), that non-Jews can have profound religious experiences (Job), that there are non-Jewish prophets (Bilaam), and that a Jewish prophet (Jeremiah) can be described as "a prophet to the nations"13. The burden of the book of Jonah is that G-d can send a Hebrew prophet even to one of Israel's traditional enemies (Nineveh, in Assyria) to call on its people to repent and thus be spared catastrophe. Jonah objects and tries to run away. G-d has to teach him that His compassion is universal.
Solomon, in his great prayer at the inauguration of the Temple, included a special request for G-d to hear the prayers of non-Jews who come there:
As for the foreigner who does not belong to Your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name - for men will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm - when he comes and prays towards this Temple, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house bears your name. [6] 14
Naaman, commander of the army of Aram, another of Israel's traditional adversaries, comes to the prophet Elisha to be cured from leprosy. At the end of the narrative, cured of leprosy and scepticism alike, Naaman confesses his belief in the G-d of Israel:
Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of G-d. He stood before him and said, "Now I know that there is no G-d in all the world except in Israel. Please accept now a gift from your servant." The prophet answered, "As surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept a thing." And even though Naaman urged him, he refused. "If you will not", said Naaman, "please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make sacrifices to any other god but the Lord. But may the Lord forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I bow there also - when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord forgive your servant for this." "Go in peace," Elisha said. [7] 15
Naaman does not convert, but he does abandon idolatry and undertake to worship the one G-d alone.
The prophet Amos speaks of G-d being involved in the history of other nations:
"Are not the Israelites to me as the Cushites?" declares the Lord. "Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?" [8] 16
Isaiah delivers a magnificent vision of a time when the two great historical enemies of Israel's past - Egypt and Assyria - will one day become God's chosen alongside Israel itself:
In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the Lord at its border. It will be a sign and witness to the Lord Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the Lord because of their oppressors, He will send them a saviour and defender, and He will rescue them . . .
In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on earth. The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, 'Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.' [9] 17
Malachi, the last of the literary prophets, makes the astonishing claim that other nations seem to recognize G-d more than do His own people:
From the rising to the setting of the sun [i.e. from east to west] my name is great among the nations. Everywhere incense and pure offerings are offered in my name, for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of Hosts. But you profane it . . . [10] 18
Perhaps the most remarkable thing in the narrative of the covenant is the way in which, stylistically and substantively, the Book of Genesis signals G-d's love and concern for those of Abraham's family who are not chosen: Ishmael and Esau. Two scenes - the one in which Hagar and Ishmael are sent away into the desert and Hagar turns away from seeing her son about to die of thirst, the other in which Esau comes in to his blind father and both realise the deception Jacob has practised against them - are among the most emotionally intense in the whole Torah. Our sympathies are drawn to Ishmael and Esau, even as we realise that neither of them (both hunters) is in any way suited to the spiritual discipline of the life of the covenant. So subtle and complex is biblical narrative at these points that, as R. Zvi Hirsch Chajes points out 19, rabbinic midrash reread these and other passages in more black-and-white terms for didactic purposes. Yet the facts are unmistakable: G-d blesses Ishmael; Isaac blesses Esau; and G-d commands the Israelites not to forget that the Edomites (Esau's descendants) are their kin:
"As for Ishmael" [G-d said to Abraham], "I have heard you: I will bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation." [11] 20
Give the people these orders: "You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful. Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put a foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own." [12] 21
Do not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother . . .[13] 22
There is great generosity of imagination in these sources. G-d cares for, and is accessible to, humanity as a whole. He demands two things: first, the rejection of idolatry, and second, a basic framework of justice. His relationship with Israel is unique in its demands (especially those of holiness) and in the intimate connection between Israel's religious vocation and its historical fate. But it is not exclusive. The G-d of Israel is also the G-d of all mankind.
Scholars often speak as if there were a tension in Judaism - even an historical evolution - between particularism and universalism, the former an early feature of Israel, the latter a discovery of the prophets, especially Isaiah who gave it its most famous expression: "I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the nations." [14-15] 23 This is a mistake, a failure to understand the peculiar nature of the faith of Israel. G-d is the G-d of all humanity, but He does not call on all humanity to embrace the covenant of Israel. Thus, a non-Jew can pray to G-d at Solomon's temple; he or she can worship Him as did Naaman. There is plentiful evidence that, during the Second Temple era, a significant number of people within the Roman Empire had adopted some of the practices and faith of Israel without undergoing full conversion or acceptance of all 613 commands (they were known generically as "G-d-fearers" and many subsequently became Christians). There is, in short, a path to the Divine presence that does not require full conversion to Judaism.
13. Jeremiah 1:5
14. I Kings 8: 41-43
15. 2 Kings 5: 15-19
16. Amos 9:7.
17. Isaiah 19: 19-25.
18. Malachi 1: 11-12.
19. R. Zvi Hirsch Chajes, Mavo ha-Aggadot, printed at the beginning of standard editions of Ein Yaakov.
Contents | Chapter: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 |
