Page 3 - HaMizrachi #15 2019 Chanuka USA

TORAT HAMIZRACHI
THE IMPACT OF
SO FEW ON SO MANY
here are less Jews in the world
than a rounding error of a Chi-
Tnese population census.
I read a few years ago that an
acceptable mistake in such a census
is 30 million – double the number of
Jews in the world! Furthermore, there
are many more children in first grade
in China (approximately 20 million)
than there are Jews. Israel, one of the
smallest countries in the world, can
fit a whopping 460 times into China’s
landmass!
Despite these figures, the remarkable
fact remains that this tiny people, of
less than one fifth of one percent of
the world’s population, has impacted
the course of humanity’s moral and
spiritual history significantly more
than China and arguably more than
any other nation in history. Historian
Paul Johnson makes this point in the
closing chapter of his monumental
work, “A History of the Jews,” 1 which is a unique spiritual and deeply
when summing up the great Jewish
contribution to the world:
“To them we owe the idea of
equality before the law, both Divine
and human; of the sanctity of
life and the dignity of the human
person; of the individual conscience
and so of personal redemption; of
the collective conscience and so
of social responsibility; of peace
as an abstract ideal and love as the
foundation of justice, and many
other items which constitute the
basic moral furniture of the human
mind.
Rabbi Doron Perez
For me, one of the most profound belief in one G-d, a personal G-d who
lessons of Jewish history is this created us and the world for a purpose,
– so few can so deeply have an the book lays the moral foundations
impact on so many. That strength and spiritual building blocks for an
lies not in numbers but rather in entire nation.
the quality of spirit. 20th century
American anthropologist, Margaret The Book of Shemot is about how
Mead, made this point well when this family gave birth to a people and
she famously said, “Never doubt nation whose redemption from the
that a small group of thoughtful clutches of Egyptian oppression, its
committed citizens can change the experience of Divine revelation and
world; it is the only thing that ever acceptance of the Torah at Sinai,
has.” would eventually transform the moral
and spiritual course of all of human
This is perhaps the story of the Jewish history.
people in a nutshell.
So few impacting so profoundly on so
An explicit verse in the Torah many.
highlights this very point where it
states that we are the smallest of all
nations. The verse implies that the THE HASMONEANS
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basis for being singled out for a unique
Divine role is not a result of numerical Nowhere is this more obvious than
strength but is rather rooted in the in the Chanukah story. One man,
realm of the spirit. It is linked to being Matityahu the Priest, and his five sons:
an Am Segula – a treasured people, Yehudah, Shimon, Yochanan, Elazar
and Yonatan – one small family known
transformative metaphysical trait as the Hasmoneans, changed the
facilitating the ability to impact far course of Jewish history forever. An
event which took place 2,300 years ago
beyond a number quantum.
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continues to echo into eternity.
ONE FAMILY, ONE PEOPLE It was a time of Greek world
domination,
global
systematic
This fundamental idea of so few acculturation and the assimilation
people having so great an impact is at of the inhabitants of the conquered
the heart of Jewish living since time nations and minorities throughout the
immemorial. Indeed, the whole book Empire. Judea, the Jewish country at
of Bereishit is the story of one family. the time, was heavily influenced by the
Adam and Eve and their children, enticing hedonistic lure of Hellenistic
Noah and his wife and children and culture. The Jewish people were in
the family of Abraham and Sarah, our grave danger of losing their national
forefathers and mothers and their
children. Through their passionate Continued on page 4
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