Thursday afternoon, a Jew walking home from Tisha B’Av services was stabbed a few blocks from here. By itself, an act like that is so disturbing and infuriating. But more than that, there is the fact that it happened on a day already devoted to Jewish grief, and in the city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel. For months now, we have watched the Jewish community become the subject of political speeches, campaign ads, protests, social media videos, and endless online commentary. Israel, and by extension the Jewish people, gets discussed with an intensity that no other issue seems to generate. There is nothing new about this. Despite our miniscule population, everyone has an opinion about the Jews.

In his speech in Parashat Va’etchanan, Moshe told the people, כִּי מִי גוֹי גָּדוֹל אֲשֶׁר לוֹ אֱלֹהִים קְרֹבִים אֵלָיו – “For what great nation is there that has God so close to it” – וּמִי גוֹי גָּדוֹל אֲשֶׁר לוֹ חֻקִּים וּמִשְׁפָּטִים צַדִּיקִם, “and what great nation has laws and statutes as righteous as this Torah?”

How does Moshe get to calling us a goy gadol, a great nation? The question becomes even sharper because later in this very parashah Moshe says, לֹא מֵרֻבְּכֶם מִכָּל הָעַמִּים חָשַׁק ה׳ בָּכֶם… כִּי אַתֶּם הַמְעַט מִכָּל הָעַמִּים! God did not choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, “for you are the fewest of all the nations.” In the very same parashah,........

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