50 years from now a baby will be born with a rare heart disorder. The Chosen People Accept An Obligation RABBI IRWIN GRONER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS T Thanks to your bequest today, Hadassah will be there io help. When you put Hadassah in your will, you're helping people in need for generations to come. We've always been on the forefront of healing, research, teaching and youth rescue in Israel. Withyour bequest our future will be as glorious as our past. Please write today for our free brochure " Legacy for Tomorrow." Or call 1-800-880-WILL HADASSAH When there's a will there's a way. HADASSAH, WILLS & BEQUESTS DEPARTMENT, 50 WEST 58TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10019 The Council of Orthodox Rabbis of Greater Detroit Wants To Inform The Public That: Some boxes of Cocoa Puffs Cereal made by General Mills do not have the OU symbol on the box. This is due to the fact that they have, as free gift, special Cocoa Puff cookies which are not made under Kosher supervision. This does not affect the Kashrus of the cereal itself in any way. The Cookies are NOT Kosher. Presidents Choice Diced Tomatoes and Crushed Tomatoes now carry a Hechsher on the can. Atlas Sodas are no longer Kosher certified. Savings Plus Drink Mix are OK certified, including Grape Flavor. When buying Tabachnik soups one must read the writing carefully right next to the Chof K kosher symbol. Some of the soups are Meat, some are Dairy, and some are Pareve. In each case it is stated what its status if. Chocolate Chip Animal Cookies in the 12 oz. Noah's Ark box carries an OK. The product is dairy, and should be marked OKD. w 17071 West 10 Mile Road • Southfield, MI 48075 • 559-5005/06 Getting A Get w }-• CC LLJ LU 1-- 5 0 The Council of Orthodox Rabbis of Greater Detroit wishes to inform the Jewish public that a Civil Divorce without a Jewish Get is worth- less according to Jewish law. A couple may not remarry in Jewish law until after a Get. You can arrange to have a Get by calling our office at Tel. 559-5005. COUNCIL OF ORTHODOX RABBIS • MERKAZ 17071 West 10 Mile Rd. • Southfield, MI 48075 • 559-5005/06 he belief that the Jewish people has been especial- ly chosen by God to carry out His purposes is promi- nent in the Bible and in subse- quent Jewish teaching. This concept of the "Chosen People" permeates much of Jewish ob- servance, literature and litur- gy. When a Jew is called to the Torah, he recites the praise of God who has "chosen us from among all other nations and given us His Torah." This conception has been challenged. Some Protestant theologians refer disparaging- ly to the God of Judaism as a tribal deity, interested only in protecting His own people and not a God who is concerned with the whole of mankind. Enemies of the Jews have long attempted to portray the chosen people belief as a Jew- ish claim to innate national su- periority. In the mid 1930s, at the very same time the Nazis were pass- ing anti-Semitic laws against the Jews of Germany, George Bernard Shaw said that the Nazis with their doctrines of racial superiority were merely imitating the Jewish doctrine of chosenness. Our response issues from the depth of our commitment to our unique heritage. What distin- guishes the Jew from all other people is embodied in the idea of the "Covenant" or Brit. This is the agreement between God and Israel by which Israel ac- cepts the Torah. The agreement is bilateral; if God selected Is- rael, Israel consented to be se- lected. God chose Israel; Israel, in turn, chose God. The terms of Covenant are contained in the words of Torah, the accep- tance and affirmation of God's design for man's life. The Covenant is the consciousness of what the Torah demands of man. It is man's response of "Hi- neni" — "Here I am" to the voice of Sinai, the collective accep- tance of obligation. The most definitive expres- sion of the Covenant is found in our sedrah "If you will hearken into my voice indeed, then you shall mine own treasure from among all peoples ... and you shall be unto me a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy nation." Election is not a divine favor, but a task imposed. It is not a prerogative, but an ethical charge; not a divine title of Irwin Groner is senior rabbi of Congregation Shaarey Zedek. rights, but a divine mandate of duties. The duties are to live in ac- cordance with the word and spirit of Sinai; to serve God in thought and deed, to sanctify life, to overcome evil, to be the prophet of mankind, the ser- vant of mankind and even sometimes, the suffering ser- vant of the Lord. With the Covenant, Jews enter the are- na of history as prophets of the ideal society, as legislators of the sanctified life, as challengers of evil and singers of hope. The Church took over the concept of divine election from the Jews. The early church leaders did not deny Jewish chosenness, rather they sought to appropriate it for themselves. Islam did the same. Christian- ity and Islam had a love-hate relationship with the Jewish idea of chosenness. They loved the idea, but they hated the Jews for continuing to claim it for themselves. Jewish chosenness could nev- er be understood as a doctrine Shabbat Yitro: Exodus 18:1-20:23 Isaiah 6:1-7:6, 9:5-6. of racial superiority. Jews are a people defined by religion, not a race. Whoever assumes the Jewish task, regardless of race or nationality, becomes a mem- ber of the Jewish people. Jewish chosenness has al- ways meant that Jews have be- lieved themselves chosen by God to spread ethical monothe- ism to the world and to live as a moral "light unto the nations." All other meanings imputed to Jewish chosenness are non- Jewish and false. The Torah nowhere states that chosenness means superi- ority or privilege. The Jews were not chosen because of any intrinsically positive qualities. God chose the Jews "not be- cause you are the most numer- ous of peoples ... indeed, you are the smallest of peoples." They were chosen because they are the offspring of our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. With regard to Jewish cho- senness, we are not considering a dogma incapable of verifica- tion, but the recognition of his- torical fact. The world owes the