Whether we like the moniker or not, we as the Jewish nation are often called “the chosen people.” But what is it exactly that we are chosen for?

Why are Jewish people the chosen people?

Rabbi Ryan Bauer of Congregation Emanu-El says the mission of the Jewish people is to make the world a better place. “Being called ‘the chosen people’ means you’re chosen to do something in the world,” Bauer said from the stage of the National Convening on Jewish Poverty just last month. “You’re chosen to react to the world, to make it safer.” 1

In Judaism, this social-justice-driven mission is often summed up in the Hebrew phrase tikkun olam or “repairing the world.” According to classical and rabbinic sources, “repair” becomes the mission and mandate of Torah Jews to be as the prophet Isaiah proclaimed, a “light for the nations,” that is, to illuminate darkness and extinguish evil through the performance of religious acts prescribed by the Creator, known as mitzvot. 2

It’s as if it is encoded in our very DNA.

Whether religious or not, many Jewish people feel compelled to do acts of tikkun olam. It’s as if it is encoded in our very DNA.

The Linguistic Root: What Does it Mean to be “Bachar”?

To understand why the Jewish people are chosen, we must look at the Hebrew word for “chosen,” which is bachar (בָּחַר). In the Tanakh, bachar does not imply a random selection, like a lottery. Rather, it suggests a careful, deliberate examination followed by a selection for a specific purpose. When a goldsmith “chooses” a metal, he does so because of its ability to withstand the fire.

In Deuteronomy 7:7–8, Moses clarifies the motive behind this selection: “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people… but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers.” The “why” is rooted in a divine, sovereign love and a promise made to the patriarchs. We were chosen to be a “peculiar treasure” (segullah), a term used for a king’s private collection of jewels. We are not the king’s only possession, so to speak, but we are God’s personal priority for the sake of His global agenda.

Liturgy as a Daily Reminder: The Birkat HaTorah

This sense of distinctiveness is not just a theological concept; it is a daily confession in our prayer life. Every morning, and every time a member of our community is called up to the Torah for an aliyah, we recite the Birkat HaTorah (The Blessing over the Torah).

The blessing says: “Asher bachar-banu mikol ha-ammim, v’natan-lanu et-Torato”—”Who has chosen us from all the peoples and given us His Torah.“

In this prayer, the “chosenness” is directly linked to the “giving.” We are not chosen for the sake of being “better,” but for the sake of being the custodians of the Revelation. For the Messianic Jew, this takes on a heightened significance. If we were chosen to receive the written Word (Torah), we were also chosen to be the vehicle for the Living Word (the Messiah). The honor of the calling is inseparable from the responsibility of the message. We hold the Torah in our hands so that we might eventually hold the truth of the Messiah in our hearts and share it with the world.

Jewish People Chosen to Bless

In Genesis, God told Abraham that “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). Centuries later, the prophet Isaiah echoed this notion, telling Israel that they were to be the aforementioned “light for the nations” (Isaiah 42:6). And in Isaiah 49:6, this exact same phrase is also used in reference to a messianic individual within the nation.

At one point, Jesus says, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12), and simultaneously tells his followers, “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). And why not? If our sacred texts are the source of Jewish calling as a light to the nations, then someone claiming to be the Jewish Messiah would naturally exemplify that calling.

The Mystery of the Remnant and the Irrevocable Call

Throughout our long, often painful history, the question of why are the Jewish people chosen has often been asked through tears. If we are chosen, why the Diaspora? Why the Pogroms? Why the Shoah? The prophet Amos records God saying, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities” (Amos 3:2).

Chosenness carries a weight of accountability. Yet, there is a recurring theme in both the Tanakh and the New Testament: the “Remnant.” Even when the nation as a whole faltered, God preserved a core—a faithful few through whom the promise would continue. Paul, the first-century Pharisee and follower of Yeshua, wrestled with this in his letter to the Romans. He argued that God has not rejected His people, for “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29).

Covenant as Survival

We are chosen for a longevity that defies the laws of history. We are the “ever-dying people” who somehow never die, because the One who chose us is eternal. This preservation is a miracle in itself, serving as a “witness” to the nations that God’s Word is reliable. If God could break His covenant with Israel, no nation or individual could ever trust Him. Our survival is the world’s guarantee of God’s faithfulness.

Being a Light to the Nations

The traditional understanding of how to live out this calling to be a light is to obey Torah. The website of the Israeli embassy itself, on a page about the Jewish religion, exemplifies this, stating, “The Jewish people serve God by study, prayer and by the observance of the commandments set forth in the Torah. This faithfulness to the biblical covenant can be understood as the ‘vocation,’ ‘witness’ and ‘mission’ of the Jewish people.”3

The Aleinu Prayer: The Goal of Our Distinction

Perhaps no prayer summarizes the “vocation” of our people better than the Aleinu, which concludes every synagogue service. It begins by praising God for our distinct identity: “It is our duty to praise the Master of all… who has not made us like the nations of the lands.”

To a modern ear, this can sound exclusionary. However, the second half of the prayer reveals the “why.” We acknowledge our difference so that we can work toward the day when “the world will be perfected under the sovereignty of the Almighty“ (L’takken Olam b’malkhut Shaddai).

The Aleinu teaches that our separation is for the sake of ultimate unification. We remain distinct so that we can point all of humanity toward the one true King. From a Messianic perspective, this is exactly what Yeshua does. He is the ultimate one who brings the “nations of the lands” into the worship of the God of Israel. When we pray the Aleinu, we are praying for the Messianic age—a time when our “chosenness” reaches its fulfillment because all people will recognize the Creator.

Repairing the World as a Jewish Calling

But what part of the biblical text has the power to repair the world? Many of the 613 commandments in Torah cannot even be carried out without the temple still standing.

Hillel the Great, living in the century before Jesus, offered to teach the entire Torah to a man while he stood on one foot. His lesson? “What is hateful to you, do not do to another. The rest is commentary. Go and learn.”

In keeping with this established Jewish way of thinking, Jesus summarized the 613 laws in two commandments: to love God and to love one’s neighbor. And the rest, as Hillel said, is commentary.

The “Internal” Tikkun and the New Covenant

If tikkun olam is about repairing the world, we must ask: where is the world broken? The biblical perspective is that the world is broken because the human heart is broken. The prophets spoke of a day when the Torah would not just be written on tablets of stone, but on the “fleshy tablets of the heart” (Jeremiah 31:33).

Chosen to Repair

This is where the messianic perspective offers a deeper layer to the question of why the Jewish people are chosen. We were chosen to demonstrate that human effort alone, even through the most beautiful of laws, cannot fully “repair” the soul. We needed a goel—a redeemer. Yeshua’s message was that tikkun olam begins with tikkun halev (repair of the heart). When a person is reconciled to God through the atonement provided by the messiah, they are finally empowered to love their neighbor not just as a duty, but as a transformed reflex.

This “New Covenant” promised in Jeremiah was specifically made with “the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” We were chosen to be the first recipients of this heart-repair, so that we could then model it for the rest of the world.

The Witness of the Mitzvot: A Visual Theology

Our chosenness is also expressed through the mitzvot (good deeds) that make practitioners of Judaism “visible.” Think of the tzitzit (fringes) or the mezuzah. Why were Jewish people given these specific commands? Numbers 15 tells us the fringes are so we “look at them and remember all the commandments of the Lord.“

But there is a secondary effect: the world sees them too. When a Jewish person follows the Torah, it can be a physical reminder that there is a lawgiver and that humanity is accountable to a higher standard. For those who keep kosher or observe Shabbat, they are testifying that the world does not belong to them—it belongs to the Almighty.

Chosen to Love

It was to love God and to love our neighbors that our people were chosen.

To love God and to love our neighbor—isn’t that what being a light to the nations is all about? In order to be the light that we were called to be, we need to integrate the two most essential commands of the Torah into who we are and how we live. It was to love God and to love our neighbors that our people were chosen. And it was for these very same reasons, many affirm, that the Jewish messiah came into the world.

The Final Redemption: When the “Why” is Fully Revealed

Ultimately, the reason why the Jewish people are chosen finds its climax in the hope of the Olam Ha-Ba (the World to Come). Our existence is a prophetic signpost. Every time we celebrate a Shabbat, every time we perform a mitzvah, and every time we speak the name of Yeshua, we are pointing toward a future where the “earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).

We were chosen to be the first fruits of a redeemed humanity. We are the evidence that God does not give up on His creation. By remaining a distinct, vibrant, and “chosen” people, we remind the world that there is a divine king who remembers his promises, and a messiah who is coming to complete the “repair” once and for all. When He returns, the “chosenness” of Israel will not be a source of debate or confusion, but a source of joy for all nations, as they “take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you'” (Zechariah 8:23).