A people that dwells alone.

One of the most profound and influential comments ever made about Jewish identity was made

by the pagan prophet Bilam in this week's Parashah.

As I see them from mountaintops, gaze on them from the heights, behold, it is Amla

Vadadjishkan, a people that dwells alone, not reckoned among the

nations. To many, Jews and non-Jews admirers and critics alike, that has seemed to epitomize the Jewish

situation, a people that stands outside history and the normal laws governing the fate of nations.

For Jews it was a source of pride.

For non-Jews it was all too often a source of resentment and hate.

For centuries Jews in Christian Europe were treated, in Max Weber's phrase, as a pariah people.

All agreed though that Jews were different. The question is, how and why?

The biblical answer is surprising and profound. It isn't that Jews alone knew God. That's manifestly not

the case. Bilam, the very prophet who uttered these words, was not an Israelite, nor were Avimellech, or

Lavan, to whom God appears in the book of Genesis. Abraham's contemporary Malkid

Sedec, Melech Shalem, the city that later became Jerusalem, is described as Cahenlae-Elel, a priest

of the most high God. Yisra, Moses' father-in-law, was a Midianite high priest.

Yet the parasha that contains the supreme moment of Jewish history, the revelation at Mount Sinai

bears his name. Even Pharaoh, who ruled Egypt in the days of Joseph, said of him, can we find

anyone like this man, one in whom is the

spirit of God? God doesn't appear only to Jews, members of the covenantal nation, nor does

he answer only Jewish prayers. At the dedication of the temple, King Solomon made the following

request, as for the foreigner who does not belong

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