ABSTRACT
The early modern period witnesses a transition of the Jewish people from a closed and homogenous (traditional) outlook to an open and divergent (modern) one. This transition is of particular importance for the purpose of the book, as it indicates the beginning of a shift in the Jewish understanding of chosenness from holiness to mission, from particularity to universality. Put briefly, in the pre-modern period a fairly straightforward understanding of the idea of chosenness, as a taken-for-granted fact, was retained by the majority of Jews. Jewish isolation from the outside world was a direct consequence of an internal demand, which can be attributed to Jewish belief in being the holy people of God. Such a belief, in turn, provided the Jews with an explanation for their current socially inferior status and a reason to endure it. So, despite a feeling of inferiority, which was the product of both social and theological factors, the Jews had confidence that they were superior in a religious sense, and that their full reward was preserved in the world to come. What is meant by social and theological factors is the structure of society (the status society), which was based on religious affiliation and required a strict hierarchy between Christians and Jews, and the Christian rhetoric of the true Israel and rejection of the Jews. This rhetoric, coupled with the social inferiority of the Jews, gave an impetus to an increasing Jewish hold on the idea of chosenness. Thus, the idea of chosenness rendered the Jewish people with a more otherworldly outlook and a sense of religious superiority at one and the same time. Besides, when the structure of society was based on the authority of the religious system, the Jewish communities could naturally enjoy, under a single religious authority, a homogeneous and, to a certain extent, an autonomous existence. As a result, Jews, at least those who were from the same region, could understand and practise their religion in the same way. This was the case notwithstanding some geographical (Ashkenazi and Sephardic) and theological (Rabbinic and Karaite) divisions.
