In chapter 19 of the biblical book of Exodus, the Israelite people are preparing for the revelation at Mount Sinai. God is giving Moses instructions about how it’s all going to happen. Here is the first instruction Moses gets:
“Say this to the people: You yourselves saw what I did… and how I carried you on the wings of eagles and I brought you to me. And now, if you will really listen to my voice and keep my covenant, you will become for me a treasure among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine….”
You will become for me a treasure among all the peoples. The standard understanding of this biblical verse is that the Jewish people will be somehow special, or privileged, or “chosen.”
The Chosen People. What does it mean to say that we’re the Chosen People? Oy, Jews (and non-Jews) have been arguing about that for the past two thousand years! So instead of going in that direction, I would like to share another interpretation of this verse – an interpretation which I think is relevant to us regardless of religious identity.
Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Leiner, a chasidic master who lived in Poland in the early 1800s, suggests that the Hebrew word for treasure – segulah – should be understood in the sense of treasure box – a vessel or container capable of receiving and holding treasure. Read the verse this way, he says: If you will really listen to my voice and keep my covenant, I am going to make you like a treasure box, capable of receiving the good things and blessings that I am going to give you.
What can this mean for us? And how can this be relevant to those of us who don’t believe in a God who is a Someone who talks and gives instructions? Here is where I think this interpretation is pointing us:
If we really pay attention to Reality, to everything that IS (which is another way of saying God) – if we strive to be mindful, curious, paying attention to what is really happening around us and inside us, seeing Reality and not just the projections of our own minds… then we indeed become like a treasure box, open to receiving the blessings that life has to offer.
“Say this to the people: You yourselves saw what I did… and how I carried you on the wings of eagles and I brought you to me. And now, if you will really listen to my voice and keep my covenant, you will become for me a treasure among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine….”
You will become for me a treasure among all the peoples. The standard understanding of this biblical verse is that the Jewish people will be somehow special, or privileged, or “chosen.”
The Chosen People. What does it mean to say that we’re the Chosen People? Oy, Jews (and non-Jews) have been arguing about that for the past two thousand years! So instead of going in that direction, I would like to share another interpretation of this verse – an interpretation which I think is relevant to us regardless of religious identity.
Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Leiner, a chasidic master who lived in Poland in the early 1800s, suggests that the Hebrew word for treasure – segulah – should be understood in the sense of treasure box – a vessel or container capable of receiving and holding treasure. Read the verse this way, he says: If you will really listen to my voice and keep my covenant, I am going to make you like a treasure box, capable of receiving the good things and blessings that I am going to give you.
What can this mean for us? And how can this be relevant to those of us who don’t believe in a God who is a Someone who talks and gives instructions? Here is where I think this interpretation is pointing us:
If we really pay attention to Reality, to everything that IS (which is another way of saying God) – if we strive to be mindful, curious, paying attention to what is really happening around us and inside us, seeing Reality and not just the projections of our own minds… then we indeed become like a treasure box, open to receiving the blessings that life has to offer.