The phrase “a light unto the nations”—אור גויים—comes from the prophet Isaiah. G-d tells His servant that restoring the tribes of Jacob is “too small a thing” on its own: “I will also make you a light of nations, that My salvation may reach the ends of the earth.” The calling is therefore presented as something larger than Jewish survival or national restoration. The Jewish people are expected to bring something of value to humanity.

We invoke this idea often, particularly when speaking about Israel, but rarely ask what it would require of us in practice. We tend to use it as an aspiration, a description of Jewish accomplishments or even a compliment we give ourselves. I think we should treat it more seriously.

Being a light unto the nations does not mean assuming that Jews are inherently better than other peoples, or that we have already created the society the world should emulate. It means accepting a mission to build a Jewish society and cultivate a Jewish people whose conduct reflects the deepest wisdom of our tradition.

The relevant question is not whether Jews have made exceptional contributions to medicine, science, business, culture and philanthropy. We clearly have. The harder question is whether Jewish life, taken as a whole, offers an example of how individuals, families, communities and nations should live.

That is a test we have never seriously attempted to define or measure.

Before we can determine whether we are becoming a light unto the nations, we must decide what one would look like.

This should become a broad Jewish communal project involving Torah scholars, rabbis, educators, historians, economists, statisticians, legal experts, social scientists and representatives of Jewish communities across the religious and political spectrum. The objective would be to develop a framework that a substantial majority of Jews could examine and say: Yes, this is a fair description of the people and society we are called upon to become.

It would not be easy. Jews disagree about nearly everything, including how Jewish law and values should apply to modern life. But we are not beginning with an empty page. We possess a remarkably durable moral vocabulary built around justice, honesty, charity, family, responsibility, learning, protection of life, care for the vulnerable, restraint in the use of power and the obligation to confront evil.

Our definition should come from within Judaism. We can use modern social science to measure our performance, but we should not outsource our understanding of goodness to institutions whose values change with political fashion. A people claiming a moral mission must be confident enough to define that mission through its own texts, traditions and historical experience.

What would we measure?

We would examine whether courts are fair, public officials are honest, laws are applied........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)