Almost every penitent (returnee to Judaism) complains often, at least initially, how can that we even dare to think that maybe we are a people of virtue, better than the Gentiles. How is a Jew different from the non-Jew? What is the nation of the Jews? Is the non-Jew not a person? He walks on two legs? He has no feelings? He has no soul?
The fact that we are born to a Jewish mother makes us different? Are we racists?
If we understand the logic of this, we understand also that being a chosen people is not just some sort of tribute, but also a very big undertaking, and the question is whether we are willing to take it. And understand what others have built there. Rav Ashlag says that all wisdom in the world, its value lies in what it allows us to achieve. Most of the wisdom of the Torah is to understand the methods of the supervision of God Almighty over His creatures and to devote ourselves to those characteristics, that God's attributes are reflected in our deeds.
We pereived the non-Jew's purposeas being external and the Jewish purpose as internal, and as much as he wishes to do so, he can correct his inside.
As the Zohar records: "All good deed achieved is for themselves accomplished" (see the Preface to the Ten Spheres). Any benefit they are doing - for themselves they are doing, and if I believe in the doctrine I have to believe it. There is a fundamental difference between Jew and Gentile: thye gentile concentrates on the selfish purpose, and the Jews wants to cause satisfaction for the Creator.
This means that in every Jew there are also the element of the gentile, internal and external aspects: internal ones are the righteous and the external ones are those who hate Jews and want to just chase them and eradicate them from the world. (It's up to us. If a Jew overcomes his internal character, by doing so he aids the non-Jewish nations to do good).
Israel has a certain special point in his heart and we must raise it up to a higher level. This should be the only thing one cares about.
Only through one's intellectual soul (which is the same place where a man who cares only for the truth, more than self-pleasure more than even himself) in the sense of: "In my remembering of it, it does not let me sleep" - just the thought of it coming from the Creator is what keeps me awake. I can not think of going to bed and not do the work to sustain the point of this truth. It should be felt: Our pleasure comes from the truth and not from another source. And: "gifts of flesh and blood, but next to you full and broad, rich and open" (from the Grace After Meals text). And why? To overcome the shame: "So that we will in this world not be ashamed nor embarrassed in the next world". To overcome the shame.
Israel was built only from the second-stage - when malchut (the kingdom) arose and integrated with binah (intelligence). This was the spiritual location from where the Jew was created, from where he can gain the desire to affect and influence. The Nations are from the sphere of malchut that has not gained integration with binah, and therefore can not be repaired at this stage of reality. They lack, as we perceive, the root for the desire to influence, they have no such point, and therefore there is nothing to expect or what to develop.
I applaud the creator for making me a Jew, a virtuous people that can call on Him and serve Him with truth from the heart and not out of selfishness.
Source.
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