Hashem determined the nations of the world and their place on the map based on the future of the Jewish people. This concept is beautifully expressed by Shirat Ha’azinu, the Torah’s song of praise and prophecy, which begins its description of world history by making this point: “When the Most High (Hashem) gave nations their homes and set the divisions of humanity, He fixed the boundaries of peoples in relation to Israel’s numbers.”^[1]

Where Our Relationship Began

Sefer Shemot recounts how Hashem established His special relationship with us. The first step was Yetziat Mitzrayim. The exodus not only liberated us from servitude to the Egyptians; it also generated our personal relationship with Hashem.

The fourth of the four languages that describe the stages of redemption makes this point. After Hashem mentioned the first three languages briefly in one pasuk, he devoted a full pasuk to the fourth: “And I will take you to Me as My people, and I will be your God, and you will know that I am Hashem, your God, who removes you from under the suffering in Egypt.”^[2]

After liberating the Jewish people, Hashem formally offered them the choice to opt into a special relationship with Him at Har Sinai: “You saw what I did to Mitzrayim and how I carried you on the wings of eagles and brought you to Me. And now, if you heed My voice and abide by My covenant, you will be My chosen nation… And you will be My kingdom of priests and holy nation.”^[3] After the Jews consented, Hashem addressed them personally and gave them the luchot that embodied the covenant.

The luchot were housed in the Aron HaBrit (ark of the covenant), which stood in the holiest inner chamber of the Mishkan Ha’Eidut — the sanctuary that bore testimony to the covenant. As part of the covenant, Hashem placed “His presence” above the Aron in the Mishkan. Though Hashem relates to the entire world, His presence resides uniquely among the Jewish people.

Hashem continued showing His special love for the Jewish people by leading us through the desert and caring for our every need.^[4] His many requests to count the Jewish people also reflect our belovedness.^[5] Like people who constantly count and review what is most precious to them, Hashem's love for us is personal and profound.

Father-Son Relationship

Hashem equated His relationship with us to that of a father and son. This comparison was the basis of Makat Bechorot. Hashem sees all Jews as His firstborn children. Because Pharaoh refused to release His firstborns, Hashem exterminated all of Mitzrayim’s.^[6]

This father-son relationship has halachic ramifications as well. The Torah prohibits slashing ourselves or tearing out patches of hair in mourning because we are Hashem’s sons — “banim atem laHashem Elokeichem.”^[7] As Hashem’s children, we need to carry ourselves with dignity.^[8] Appreciating His love for us should also deter extreme reactions to personal loss because we know that Hashem, our loving father, has our best interests in mind.^[9]

Rebbe Akiva and his talmidim further emphasized the significance of our father-son relationship with Hashem.

Rebbe Akiva saw it as the source of the Jewish people’s distinctive belovedness. Though Hashem created all humans in His image, He chose the Jewish people as His own children.^[10] We do not just resemble G-d. We also have a personal relationship with Him.

Rebbe Akiva also saw this personal relationship as a basis for prayer. When the prayers of others failed to evoke Hashem’s mercy during a drought, Rebbe Akiva addressed Him as “Avinu Malkeinu (our father, our king),” and it immediately began raining.^[11] This invocation of “Avinu Malkeinu” reflects the intimate relationship between Hashem and the Jewish people, akin to a father's response to his children’s cries. No matter how desperate our situation, we can always turn to Hashem, our father, to ask for forgiveness and assistance.^[12] 

Children can also ask their father for help with their personal growth. Rebbe Akiva used this point to inspire belief in the potency of Yom Kippur even after the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash. Though we no longer have the Avodat Yom HaKippurim and the Sa’ir HaMishtalei’ach to atone for our sins, our “Father in heaven” is still available to purify us.^[13]

One of Rebbe Akiva’s central talmidim, Rebbe Meir, used Hashem’s description of us as His children as proof of the eternal nature of our special relationship with Him. Just as a son always maintains that distinction, we too remain Hashem’s people — even if we sin.^[14] Even a rebellious child remains one’s child.

Hashem Himself made this point to Hoshei’a when He commanded him to marry and have children with a harlot.^[15] The Gemara^[16] explains the backdrop to this perplexing command. After Hoshei’a responded to Hashem’s complaint about the sinful Jewish people by suggesting that He exchange them for another nation, Hashem helped him appreciate His relationship with the Jewish people by challenging him to separate himself from his own disloyal wife and her children. Hashem’s relationship with us, like the relationship of all parents with their children, is natural and (thus) eternal. No sin — no matter how severe — can sever it.^[17]

Lovers

Chazal saw our relationship with Hashem as even more intimate. They compared it to the relationship between husband and wife. The source for this is the fashioning of the keruvim, which stood on top of the Aron and from between which Hashem addressed Moshe and the Jewish people, in the forms of a man and woman. This teaches us to view our relationship with Hashem as similar to that of a husband and wife.

This is why the medrash compared the Jewish people’s commitment and “meeting” with Hashem at Har Sinai to a bride at her wedding canopy,^[18] why Rebbe Akiva saw Shir HaShirim as a homily for the love between G-d and the Jewish people,^[19] and the Rambam^[20] used the lovesickness of a man for a woman as a model for Ahavat Hashem.^[21]

This intimate comparison helps us understand and feel the depth of our relationship with Hashem.

Making Life Meaningful

Being Jewish means being a member of Hashem’s chosen people — the people He cares for as His precious children and loves personally.

Being Jewish adds meaning to our lives. We express this appreciation in one of the first prayers we recite upon awakening — L’Olam Y’hei Adam. We begin the tefilah by reminding ourselves that most of man’s attributes and accomplishments are insignificant because they end when we die. What, then, makes our lives meaningful? We answer this question by emphasizing that we are Hashem’s chosen people, part of His covenant. Our special peoplehood predates the world and continues beyond our own lives. It connects us to something truly and eternally meaningful.^[22]  

May reminding ourselves of this help us appreciate and maximize the great zechut of being Jewish.

^[1] Devarim 32:7–9.

^[2] Shemot 6:6-7. We express our recognition of this in the berachah of Ve’emunah Kol Zot after Keriyat Shema at night, when we respond to our mention of Yetziat MItzrayim (at the end of Keriyat Shema) by expressing our faith that “Hashem is our God, and we are His people.”

^[3] Shemot 19:4-6. See Rashi to 19:5, who understood the distinction between the Jewish people and others as very significant.

^[4] Devarim 32:9-11.

^[5] Rashi, Bamidbar 1:1.

^[6] Shemot 4:22.

^[7] Devarim 14:1.

^[8] Rashi, ibid., 14:1.

^[9] Ibn Ezra and Ohr HaChayim, ibid., 14:1.

^[10] Avot 3:17.

^[11] Taanit 25b.

^[12] See Tur (Orach Chayim 115) who uses this idea to explain why we refer to Hashem as “Avinu” in Shemoneh Esreh’s Selach Lanu berachah about forgiveness. The Tur also explains our usage of the similar term in the Hashiveinu berachah about teshuvah. See also Rashi to Devarim 6:7.

^[13] Yoma 85b.

^[14] Kiddushin 36a. See how this idea expresses itself in both halachic (Shu”t Rashba 1:194 and Shulchan Aruch Y”D 159:2),  and hashkafic (Maharal, Netzach Yisrael 11) contexts.

^[15] Hoshei’a 1:2.

^[16] Pesachim 87a.

^[17] See Maharal (Netzach Yisrael 11).

The Gemara (Shabbat 89b) describes a similar conversation between Hashem and Yitzchak Avinu. At the End of Days, Hashem notifies each of the Avot that “their children” have sinned. After Avraham and Yaakov accept the Jews’ deserved punishment, Yitzchak responds by “reminding” Hashem that the Jews are (still) His children. At that point, the Jews show their appreciation to Yitzchak by identifying him as their Av. Yitzchak directs their attention to Hashem, our eternal Father.

^[18] Mechilta Bachodesh 3, Vayikra Rabbah 20:10, Shemot Rabbah 43:1, Rashi Shemot 19:17. See Rashi Bamidbar 7:1, who presents the day of the inauguration of the Mishkan this way as well.

^[19] This is how many explain Rebbe Akiva’s characterization of Shir HaShirim as “kodesh kodoshim (Yadayim 3:5) and his prohibition to sing it in bars (Tosefta, Sanhedrin 12:10).

^[20] Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Teshuvah 10:3.

^[21] Interestingly, the Torah uses the term “d’veikut” to describe both the relationship between man and woman and the relationship between man and god.

Many Rishonim (Kuzari 1:95, Ma’aseh Hashem, Chelek Ma’aseh Bereishit 17), Achronim (Derushei HaTzlach [Derush 25 L’Yom Aleph DeSelichot], Migdal Oz L’Ya’avetz [Beit Midot, Aliyat Habitachon], Sefer HaBerit [1:13], Alshich [Shemot 16:31 and 19:1], and Tanya [1:2]), and particularly Kabbalists, saw Jews as special in another important way — our having a uniquely godly soul.

Though the basis of this idea, the pasuk which describes Hashem as “breathing” man’s soul into him (Bereishit 2:7), refers to mankind as a whole, they understood this to apply on a higher level to Jews. We are not only created in Hashem’s image and are not only Hashem’s children. We also have a semblance (see the Mishnah Berurah 46:3) of Godliness inside ourselves. See the Nusach Sefard version of the tefilah L’olam Y’hei Adam which emphasizes this point.

Rav Kook (Orot HaTorah 11:2) stressed the importance of embracing the fact that we have a Godly soul, recognizing the value and significance it gives us.

^[22] See Orot Hatechiyah 5, where Rav Kook emphasizes the importance of maintaining our appreciation of the greatness of being Jewish.