FEBRUARY 1 • 2024 | 43
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We believe that God is universal. He 
created the Universe. He set in motion 
the processes that led to stars, planets, 
life and humanity. His concern is not 
limited to Israel. As we say in the prayer 
of Ashrei, “His tender mercies are on 
all His works.” You do not need to be 
Jewish to have a sense of reverence 
for the Creator or recognize, as Yitro 
did, His hand in miraculous events. It 
would be hard to find another religious 
literature that confers such dignity on 
figures who stand outside its borders.
This is true not only of the three 
notable figures who said Baruch 
Hashem. The Torah calls Avraham’s 
contemporary, Malkizedek, King of 
Shalem, a “Priest to God Most High.” 
He, too, blessed God: “Blessed be 
Avram by God Most High, Creator of 
heaven and earth. And blessed be God 
Most High who delivered your enemies 
into your hand” (Gen. 14:19-20).
Consider also, the fact that the title 
of our own parshah this week, which 
contains the Ten Commandments as 
well as the most significant event in 
all of Jewish history, the covenant at 
Sinai, carries the name of a non-Jew. 
What is more, immediately prior to the 
revelation at Sinai, the Torah tells us 
how it was Yitro, the Midianite Priest 
who taught Moshe how to organize the 
leadership of the people.
These are remarkable expressions of 
spiritual generosity to those outside the 
covenant.
Or consider Tishrei, the holiest 
month of the Jewish year. On the 
first day of Rosh Hashanah, as well as 
reading about the birth of Yitzchak, 
we read of how an angel came to the 
aid of Hagar and Yishmael. “What is 
the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid. 
God has heard the boy crying as he lies 
there. Lift the boy up and take him by 
the hand, for I will make him into a 
great nation” (Gen. 21:17-18). Yishmael 
was not destined to be a carrier of 
the covenant, yet he was rescued and 
blessed.
On Yom Kippur, in the afternoon, 
after we have spent most of the day 

fasting and making confession, we 
read the book of Yonah, in which we 
discover that the Prophet uttered a 
mere five Hebrew words (“In forty days 
Nineveh will be destroyed”) and then 
the entire population — Assyrians, 
Israel’s enemies — repented. Tradition 
takes this as the model of collective 
repentance.
On Sukkot, we read Zechariah’s 
prophecy that in days to come all the 
nations will come to Jerusalem to 
celebrate the festival of rain (Zech. 
14:16-19).
These are three stunning examples of 
universalism. They do not imply that 
in the fullness of time everyone will 
convert to Judaism. Rather, that in the 
fullness of time everyone will recognize 
the one God, Creator and Sovereign of 
the Universe. That is quite a different 
thing.
This idea that you can stand outside 
the faith and still be acknowledged by 
people within the faith as someone who 
recognizes God, is very rare indeed. 
Far more common is the approach of 
one God, one truth, one way. Whoever 
stands outside that way is Godless, 
unsaved, the infidel, unredeemed, a 
lower class of humanity.

RECOGNIZING THE OTHER
Why then does Judaism distinguish 
between the universality of God and 
the particularity of our relationship 
with Him? Answer: because this helps 
us solve the single greatest problem 
humanity has faced since earliest 
times. How can I recognize the dignity 

and integrity of the “other?” History and 
biology have written into the human 
mind a capacity for altruism toward the 
people like us, and aggression toward 
the people not like us. We are good, 
they are bad. We are innocent, they are 
guilty. We have truth, they have lies. 
We have God on our side, they do not. 
Many crimes of nation against nation 
are due to this propensity.
Which is why Tanach teaches 
otherwise. Noach, Eliezer and Yitro 
were people of God without being 
members of Israel. Even the people of 
Nineveh became an example of how to 
heed a Prophet and repent. God blessed 
Yishmael as well as Yitzchak. These are 
powerful lessons.
It is hard to think of a more 
compelling principle for the 21st 
century. The great problems humanity 
faces — climate change, economic 
inequality, cyberwarfare, artificial 
intelligence — are global, but our 
most effective political agencies are 
at most national. There is a mismatch 
between our problems and the available 
solutions. We need to find a way of 
combining our universal humanity with 
our cultural and religious particularity.
That is what the Torah is doing when 
it tells us that Noach, Eliezer and Yitro 
said Baruch Hashem. They thanked 
God, just as we, today, thank God. 
God is universal. Therefore humanity, 
created in His image, is universal. But 
the revelation and covenant at Mount 
Sinai were particular. They belong to 
our story, not the universal story of 
humankind.
I believe this ability to be both 
particular in our identity and universal 
in our commitment to the human 
future is one of the most important 
messages we, as Jews, have to deliver in 
the 21st century. We are different, but 
we are human. Therefore, let us work 
together to solve the problems that can 
only be solved together. 

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks served as the 

chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of 

the Commonwealth, 1991-2013. His teachings have 

been made available to all at rabbisacks.org. 

CONVERSATIONS
• What is Judaism’s approach to 
non-Jews?
• If Judaism is Divine Truth, 
why isn’t it the religion of all 
humankind?
• How does Judaism teach us 
to recognize the dignity and 
integrity in the “other?”

