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"The idea of Israel as God's chosen people ... is a key concept in rabbinic Judaism. Yet it is particularly problematic for many Jews today, in that it seems to fly in the face of monotheistic belief that all humanity is created in the divine image—and hence, all humanity is equally loved and valued by God. ...
In Judaism, "chosenness" is the belief that the Jews, via descent from the ancient Israelites, are the chosen people, i.e., chosen to be in a covenant with God.The idea of the Israelites being chosen by God is found most directly in the Book of Deuteronomy, [4] where it is applied to Israel at Mount Sinai upon the condition of their acceptance of the Mosaic covenant between themselves and God.
The majority of modern biblical scholars believe that the Torah (the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, written in Classical Hebrew) reached its present form in the post-Exilic period (i.e., after c. 520 BCE), based on pre-existing written and oral traditions, as well as contemporary geographical and political realities.
P divides history into four epochs from Creation to Moses by means of covenants between God and Noah, Abraham and Moses. [71] The Israelites are God's chosen people, his relationship with them is governed by the covenants, and P's God is concerned that Israel should preserve its identity by avoiding intermarriage with non-Israelites. [68]
The Hebrew Bible makes reference to a number of covenants (Hebrew: בְּרִיתוֹת) with God ().These include the Noahic Covenant set out in Genesis 9, which is decreed between God and all living creatures, as well as a number of more specific covenants with Abraham, the whole Israelite people, the Israelite priesthood, and the Davidic lineage of kings.
The ancestral history (chapters 12–50) tells of the prehistory of Israel, God's chosen people. [7] At God's command, Noah's descendant Abraham journeys from his birthplace (described as Ur of the Chaldeans and whose identification with Sumerian Ur is tentative in modern scholarship) into the God-given land of Canaan, where he dwells as a ...
The Ancestral history (chapters 12–50) tells of the prehistory of Israel, God's chosen people. [28] At God's command Noah's descendant Abraham journeys from his home into the God-given land of Canaan, where he dwells as a sojourner, as does his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob.
God chose the Jewish people to be in a unique covenant with God; the description of this covenant is the Torah itself. God further declared in the Torah through prophecy to Moses that his "firstborn" is the Israelites. However, closeness and being chosen does not imply exclusivity as anyone can join and convert.