The Few

Israel and the Jewish people are outnumbered on every front: on the battlefields, in international forums, and on social media. Understandably, this feels daunting. Practically, can Israel survive against so many enemies? Ideologically, being so in the minority causes many to question the validity of our beliefs.

How can we be confident about the Jewish future if we are such a minuscule minority constantly demonized by most of the world?

The answer lies in our past.

We should remind ourselves that we have generally been outnumbered and isolated—throughout the seventy-seven years of the state, as well as for most of the thousands of years of our history. In fact, our minority status and differentness began with the first Jew, Avraham Avinu. Chazal (B”R 42:8) explain that he was called Avraham Ha’Ivri (Ber. 14:13) because he lived apart from the rest of the world. Like our father Avraham, the Jews became known as “Ivrim” (Ber. 39:14) because historically, we, too, lived as a minority, who were different from the rest of the world.

This resilience and ability to thrive despite being a minority should inspire us. Our history should give us confidence in our future. Just as we have survived and thrived as a minority for millennia, we can trust that we will continue to do so in the future.

Our small numbers are not accidental. Hashem chooses to keep our numbers small. Moshe told the Jewish people that Hashem calls us the “smallest of the nations.”

Why does Hashem keep our numbers small?

Chazal explain that our small numbers are meant to instill humility. If we were numerous, we might see that as the source of our success. As a small nation, we are more aware that Hashem is responsible for our survival and success.

Our tefillot on Chanukah express this idea. The Al Hanissim prayer recognizes Hashem’s “hand” behind our miraculous victory over the Greeks. To help us appreciate Hashem’s role, the tefillah describes how Hashem delivered the “strong into the hand of the weak and the many into the hand of the few.”

The Maccabean struggle was an excellent example of Jewish triumph over overwhelming odds. The Maccabees were a minority both militarily and culturally. They were a small group fighting the mighty Greek army, and most of civilization was either pagan or Hellenist.

Still, they were confident because they knew that victory does not depend on the size of one’s army. Yehudah Hamaccabi explained it this way: “Victory in battle emanates not from the multitude of numbers, but in the strength given from Heaven… whatever the will of Heaven be, so shall it transpire” (Mac. I 3:18-19).

The small size of the Jewish people may intend to teach us more than just lessons about survival. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks suggested that Hashem made the Jewish people small to show that a nation’s greatness and significance do not depend on its size.

Nations are not judged by their size but by their contribution to the human heritage. Of this, the most compelling proof is that a nation as small as the Jews could produce an ever-renewed flow of prophets, priests, poets, philosophers, sages, saints, halachists, aggadists, codifiers, commentators, rebbes, and roshei yeshivot; that they could also yield some of the world’s greatest writers, artists, musicians, film-makers, academics, intellectuals, doctors, lawyers, businesspeople, and technological innovators.

Out of all proportion to their numbers, Jews could and can be found working as lawyers fighting injustice, economists fighting poverty, doctors fighting disease, and teachers fighting ignorance. You do not need numbers to enlarge the spiritual and moral horizons of humankind (“A Tiny, Treasured People,” Covenant and Conversation, Va’etchanan 5772). 

Rabbi Sacks continued by applying this to the state of Israel.

“Nowhere is this more in evidence today than among the people of Israel in the state of Israel: traduced in the media and pilloried by much of the world, yet still, year after year, producing human miracles in medicine, agriculture, technology, and the arts, as if the word “impossible” did not exist in the Hebrew language.

When, therefore, we feel fearful and depressed about Israel’s plight, it is worth returning to Moses’ words: “The Lord did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you are the fewest of all peoples.” Small? Yes. Still surrounded, as the Israelites were then, by “nations larger and stronger than you.” But that small people, defying the laws of history, outlived all the world’s great empires, and still has a message of hope for humanity. You don’t have to be large to be great. If you are open to a power greater than yourself, you will become greater than yourself. Israel today still carries that message to the world.

Though Rabbi Sacks wrote this thirteen years ago, his words ring even truer today. The continued survival and disproportionate success of the State of Israel over the past eight decades—and especially over the past two years—remind us of Hashem’s role in our lives and the blessed nature of the Jewish people.

May this realization strengthen our pride and reinforce our confidence in our people, in our state, and in the One behind both of their successes. n

Rav Reuven Taragin is the Dean of Overseas Students at Yeshivat Hakotel and the Educational Director of World Mizrachi and the RZA.

His book, Essentials of Judaism, is available at RabbiReuvenTaragin.com.