Despite
sweltering heat, Chicagoans and their international guests were out in force. It was erev Lollapalooza and the city was
gearing up for the big event. The freshly minted parks were eager to accept
swarms of children and exhausted adults.
And as we strolled around throughout the day I noticed one other tzitzi
and kippah clad gentleman which made two of us, or rather, five of us if we
include family. I felt the weight of the
verse in this week parsha: ‘Hashem will scatter you among the peoples and you
will be left few in number among the nations where Hashem will lead you’.
Due to the fact that Jews often stick together
in tight knit communities, it can feel like the opposite. And if we took the amount of media coverage as
any indication of size it would appear that we made up at least a billion
people. But the reality is we like to
trumpet our 3,500 of existence and if we grew naturally like any other
civilization, again the numbers should be staggering. But we remain, ‘few in number’ only recently climbing
to even keel from pre holocaust days.
So what is this statement, ‘few in
number’? Is it a threat or a statement of fact; why does it have to be? And if our mission in life is to be a light
unto the nations then it would seem that the more Jews to do the job the
better. To gain a foothold into the
problem we have to view the role of the Jew a bit differently and it will also
illuminate some of the issues we’ve had in exile.
The Talmud states the following: Says
R’ Abba, it is better to be pursued than to be a pursuer, as there is no bird
that is pursued more than the turtledoves and they are brought up to the alter.
Babba Kamma 93a. What is the meaning
of this? It means that things that have
a natural spiritual quality to them will feature less prominently in the physical
world. And those animals that dominate
the physical world, the hunters, are not kosher or brought to the temple. They
are too entrenched in ruling this world that they can’t connect to the next
world. This goes the same with sheep,
cows, and goats- they are the hunted and therefore get a place on the Alter. This principle applies to the Jewish people.
We have constantly been pursued and kept physically weak and it is no accident.
While
we can enjoy the physical world and strive to do well, the message is
clear. That is not where we are supposed
to thrive and channel all our energies. There is no need for a Jewish empire
and we shouldn’t be looking to dominate through physical means alone. We are small in number for a reason, we are
supposed to float above the confines of material success. From that perch, though, small in number we
are able to maintain spiritual leadership. [1]
