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distinction between Israel and the nations , but also by introducing gradations within the Jewish people , as , for example , between the kohanim of the priestly caste and other Jews )“ Israelites” ( , or between men and women . This volume takes a comprehensive look at the concept of the holiness and election of the People of Israel as God’s “ chosen people" and at its implications for the doctrine of human rights . It begins by elucidating the nature of the relationship between the Jewish people and the nations of the world . At one extreme , we find pronouncements that express scorn and revulsion about the nations of the world in general and about idol worshipers in particular ; at the other extreme are statements about the value of human beings as such , which ground the very existence of humanity . Here too , the role of Halakhah is to chart a balanced course between the poles of this tension . But another element , which is historically important , enters . into any discussion of the relations between Israel and the nations The debate is not purely theoretical and theological , with no cultural , social , and historical contexts . The bloody history of anti- Semitism over the ages has left its mark on Jewish thought and Halakhah and has deeply impaired the Jews ’ trust in the humanity of the descendants of Noah . Many of the conceptual and halakhic positions that distinguish and limit the Jews to their own domain , while expressing fierce antipathy to the nations around them , are the result of the bitter historical experience and not of the ideal theory propounded by the Torah . In other circumstances , peering out between the lines of Halakhah we can see an approach that preserves the humanistic side of relations to humanity at large . The discussion of the “ kingdom of priests and a holy nation” goes on to examine the challenges that the awareness of holiness
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