There is a lot of hate going around the Torah world that passes for righteousness. One often hears the frummest of Jews talking about non-Jews in a most appalling manner. In many cases these are otherwise fine and upstanding people – some even communal leaders – yet they think nothing of using the most disparaging of terms when referring to fellow human beings. I have even heard non-Jews referred to as subhuman – beheimos, animals, etc.
This attitude may be attributable in part to a leftover bias against non-Jews brought over from Europe where Jews had been singled out for pogroms and general abuse. Though perhaps understandable from a historical perspective, it nevertheless is an attitude that is both unfair and counterproductive in a country that has been called a medina shel chesed by no less an authority than Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l. And it’s an attitude that must be overcome.
It is particularly troubling that some of this attitude may stem from the belief that the Torah says we are an am hanivchar – a people chosen by God Himself. In my view, it is a gross misunderstanding of the concept to say that being a chosen people makes us inherently superior. The status, rights, and privileges a Jew derives from his being chosen by God require greater obligations than are imposed on a non-Jew. A Jew is not superior because of inherent traits. We are an am hanivchar – not an am hanolad.
Certainly we Jews can say we have inherited some traits from our forefathers, such as the chesed of Avraham. But this trait is not found exclusively among Jews. What exactly is it that makes us better? Is it our genetic composition? I don’t think so. Our “superiority” derives from our elevation through Torah and mitzvos.
What should our behavior be toward non-Jews? As my rebbe, Rabbi Aaron Soloveichik, zt”l, wrote in his book Logic of the Heart, Logic of the Mind, the concept of kavod habriyos, the dignity of Man, is a halachic imperative that constitutes the basis of human rights, and the basis of all civilized jurisprudence.
As the Rambam says in Hilchos Sanhedrin (24:8-10), these rights apply even to pagans. “Tzedek tzedek tirdof.” Why should the Torah repeat the word tzedek? Rabbenu Bachaye interprets it to mean that the same standard of righteousness should be applied toward all non-Jews.
As an example of this attitude, Rabbi Soloveichik related the following story from the Talmud Yerushalmi (Bava Metzia):
Shimon Ben Shetach worked in the flax business. His students advised him to give up that business and buy a donkey which would provide a better income. Shimon Ben Shetach agreed. So his students went to a pagan Arab and bought a donkey for him. After the purchase they discovered a large diamond tied to it. They brought the animal and the jewel to their rebbe who thereupon asked them, “Did the Arab know that there was a diamond tied to the donkey?” They answered, “No.” Shimon Ben Shetach told his students to immediately go back and return the diamond. But the students knew the laws regarding returning lost objects to idolaters. They knew that they were not required by halacha to do so. Why, they asked their rebbe, did he ask them to return it? He answered, Do you think that I am a barbarian? I am more interested in hearing the exclamation, “Blessed be the God of the Jews” from pagans than I am in earning a living.
There was a book written in Hebrew a few years ago that claimed an inherent superiority of Jews to non-Jews and was given approbation by Rav Malkiel Kotler, rosh hayeshiva of Lakewood. When the book’s contents were exposed in the secular media, Rav Kotler quickly removed his haskama and said he had not realized the book stated this; that he did not believe this way himself; and that he’d mistakenly given approbation based on the character of the author, one of the brighter students in his school. Or so he thought. He apologized and then followed the apology up by stating that the Torah view is that all mankind is created b’tzelem Elokim, in the image of God.