The Chosen Question

A Street Interview

A college student with a phone camera spots a Jewish man on the sidewalk and approaches him.

Anthony: Hey man, you got a minute? I’m doing street interviews for my YouTube channel. I’m just gonna be straight with you — I’ve met a few Jewish people who have this vibe like they think they’re better than everyone else. There’s this whole “chosen people” thing, and some of them have been pretty condescending about it. Is that actually a Jewish belief, or am I just running into jerks who happen to be Jewish?

Yehuda: There’s no reason for anyone to feel superior because they’re chosen. Chosen just means that God chose us for a job. You have a job too. Both jobs are important.

Anthony: Okay, so it’s different roles, not different rankings. But if it’s just “you have your job, we have our job,” why does it come across so elitist? And be real with me — when you say “both jobs are important,” do you actually believe that? Because the Jews who’ve been condescending to me definitely didn’t act like my role was equally important. What even is the Jewish job?

Yehuda: The answer to all of those questions is actually the real reason why a Jew might consider himself better than anyone else.

Anthony: (eyebrows up) Now we’re getting somewhere. So there is a reason some Jews think they’re better — it’s connected to something real in the belief system. What is it?

Yehuda: It’s a secret.

Anthony: (laughs) Come on, man. You can’t say “here’s the real reason” and then hit me with “it’s a secret.” That’s exactly the kind of thing that makes people suspicious. Is it actually a secret, or are you messing with me?

Yehuda: No, I mean it literally. What makes a Jew potentially better than a gentile is, by its nature, a secret.

You see, the real reason a Jew might act like he’s better than you is that we believe we have a soul that is something beyond special — it’s compared to being a son of God. But a Jew also has a regular soul, like everyone else. And being elitist, walking around with ego and arrogance — that’s compared to idolatry. There are plenty of other sins a person can be committing, too, and all of that degrades his regular soul until it’s no different from anyone else’s.

So he has this super-special soul, but that’s not who he is anymore. It’s like the sun — if you go into a windowless basement. The sun still exists, still shining. But it’s been almost completely removed from your reality. You’re just living in shadow.

A Jew is supposed to be like the sun and light up the world with goodness and kindness and holiness. But instead he can just be… a shadow.

How can anyone — Jew or gentile — know if a particular Jew is truly better? How can you tell if he’s a son, or a shadow? You can’t. Like Moses says in the Bible: “The hidden things are to the Lord your God, and the revealed things are to us and our children, forever.” The revealed things are what we do. The hidden things are who we are. No one can ever truly know who anyone really is. Dickens said something like that, right? A Tale of Two Cities? They still do that in college?

Anthony: (grins) Yeah — “every human heart is a profound secret,” something like that. Read it sophomore year. And okay, I get it — you can’t tell from the outside whether some specific Jew is living up to his potential or just a shadow in a basement. But you’re dodging my actual question. You told me Jews have this extra soul. I’m not asking whether you can judge an individual. I’m asking: do I have that special soul, or is it only for Jews?

Because either only Jews have it — which means you do believe you’re inherently better, even if you might waste it — or everyone has it and Jews just know about it. Which is it?

Yehuda: Before I answer that, let me frame it even more harshly than you did. “Having potential” sounds too gentle — like, oh, he’s a nice kid with a lot of potential. But it’s not just squandering potential. It’s subverting identity.

The kabbalists give this analogy: a Jew who sins is taking the head of the king and putting it in a chamber pot — full of what a chamber pot is full of. So a Jew who “doesn’t live up to his potential” isn’t just some nice kid who could do better. He’s a… well, college kids have more colorful words for it.

So let’s deal with that case first. Do you think he can claim in any way to be better than you?

Anthony: (low whistle) No. If that’s what he’s doing — taking divinity and dunking it in filth — he can’t claim anything. That sounds worse than being a regular person who’s kind of a jerk. At least I’m not defiling something holy.

But you’ve only told me what happens when a Jew screws up. What about a Jew who isn’t putting the king’s head in a chamber pot? One who’s actually living according to this special soul — does he have something I don’t?

Yehuda: Yes. This is the real question. And the answer is — yes, it’s only for Jews. And he is better than you.

I mean, technically anyone can become a Jew. But it’s really hard, and we discourage it.

Anthony: (camera steady, nods slowly) Okay. So we’re finally at the actual belief. Jews have a divine soul that gentiles don’t. A Jew who’s actually living right — not being a hypocrite, not sinning — that person literally is better than me in some fundamental, spiritual way. And I can’t get that unless I go through a difficult conversion you actively discourage.

I appreciate the honesty. That’s way more straightforward than the “different jobs” answer you started with.

So here’s my follow-up: why? What did Jews do to earn this extra soul? And if you really are spiritually superior when you’re living right, why dance around it? Why not just say that up front?

Because honestly — if that’s what you believe, then the arrogant Jews I’ve met aren’t wrong about the theology. They’re just being lousy representatives of it.

Yehuda: To your question about why I didn’t say it up front — it’s important to build up the framework before jumping to conclusions. There’s a huge body of tradition I’m condensing here, and there’s a lot we won’t get to.

And about the jobs — you brought up being chosen. Chosen does just mean a job. The reason it also means more than that is the soul thing we’ve been discussing. But the base meaning of “chosen” that we started with — that’s a job.

Now, your follow-up is a great question, and it gets to the why. What’s the point? You asked earlier: why wouldn’t God just give this super-soul to everyone?

But first — I have a question for you.

Anthony: Alright, shoot.

Yehuda: Is it bad if a group believes they’re better than everyone else?

Anthony: (pauses) Huh. My gut says yeah, obviously — that’s textbook bigotry. Thinking you’re superior based on what group you were born into.

But… I guess it depends on what you mean by “better” and what you do with it. If it means you can treat people like garbage — obviously wrong. But if it means you have certain capabilities others don’t, and that makes you more obligated to serve, to carry a heavier burden… then I don’t know yet. Depends on what the belief requires you to do.

Yehuda: Exactly. But let’s establish the “betterness” first — because if having an extra soul made Jews believe they were worse, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

Anthony: (laughs) Fair point.

Yehuda: So let me ask: who is the mascot of “feelings of superiority are bad” in the twentieth century?

Anthony: The Nazis. Hitler, the Third Reich, the whole master race thing. That’s the example of a superiority belief leading to catastrophic evil.

So you’re about to tell me how Jewish “betterness” is different from Nazi “betterness.” But don’t just say “we’re not Nazis” — tell me what actually makes it different.

Yehuda: We’ll get to the Jews in a moment. First, imagine this scenario:

The German Wehrmacht zooms past the Maginot Line. The French army falls back, desperately trying to stop the flood pouring toward the major cities. And then… nothing happens. They go looking for the Wehrmacht and find them on French farms.

A French officer walks up to a German officer who’s working with a shovel. “Pardon — what’s going on here?”

And the Nazi says, “Well, we Germans are Übermenschen — we’re the best at everything. We heard you had a bad crop last year, so we’re here to teach your farmers some modern methods our top scientists just developed. We tried to call ahead but couldn’t get through. Sorry if we worried anyone.”

Anthony: (laughs despite himself) Okay, I see what you’re doing. In this bizarro world, the Nazis believe they’re the master race, but instead of conquering and exterminating, they’re helping. Using their supposed superiority to serve.

Yeah — if that’s what they’d done, we wouldn’t call them the ultimate example of evil. Arrogant, maybe. Paternalistic. But not monsters.

So the belief itself — “we’re better” — isn’t automatically the problem. It’s what you do with it. The Nazis used theirs to justify domination and murder. You’re saying Jews are supposed to use theirs to serve.

Yehuda: Yes. You’re really getting this. Maybe you should be answering the questions.

Anthony: Nah, man — you’re the one with the secret divine soul. I’m just the guy with the camera trying to figure out if I should be offended.

(laughs)

But okay — Jews believe this extra soul makes them better in some spiritual sense, and that “betterness” comes with obligations, not privileges. You’re not better so you can dominate. You’re better so you can… what, exactly?

You said earlier something about lighting up the world with goodness and holiness. So the divine soul isn’t about special treatment — it’s about working harder, serving more, carrying more responsibility. And when some Jew is being arrogant, he’s literally inverting the whole point of having that soul — taking something meant for service and using it for ego.

What’s the actual job?

Yehuda: I’ve got another example for you. Do you ever use AI to roleplay? Like, Dungeons & Dragons style?

Anthony: (caught off guard, laughs) Uh — yeah, I’ve messed around with it. Not gonna lie. Why?

Yehuda: When you’re creating a scenario, do you make a world where everything is perfect and everyone perfectly aligns with your values?

Anthony: No, that would be boring. You need conflict, obstacles, characters who disagree. That’s what makes it worth playing.

(pauses, looks at him)

Oh. So you’re saying God created a world that’s not aligned with His values on purpose. He wants there to be challenge. And the Jewish soul — the special one — that’s tied to this. Jews are the ones tasked with bringing God’s values into a world that doesn’t naturally have them.

God made an imperfect world intentionally, and Jews are supposed to be the ones who fix it?

Yehuda: Everything in the world needs fixing. That’s from the Talmud. The Greek philosophers — who are the archetype for accepting the world at face value and rejecting a deeper reality — disagreed.

But getting back to the RPG: the world is full of residents, and they’re important. Without them, there wouldn’t be a world. With their help and growth, it can become something better. But for that to happen, there needs to be someone in the RPG world who is also connected to the higher reality. And he still has to be a normal character — otherwise he wouldn’t be able to interact with anyone else.

In the AI-generated RPG, that’s you, the player. In the world, that’s the Jew.

And actually — I never thought about it this way before — isn’t it extraordinary that Jews accept converts? Imagine telling an AI character, “You’re just like me now. You are one hundred percent part of this.” The very possibility of conversion is a remarkable statement about the worth of gentiles.

Anthony: (stops) Wait. Yeah, that is kind of wild. If I’m the player character and everyone else is an NPC, the idea that an NPC could become a player character — that’s actually radical. Most systems with this kind of hierarchy would just say you’re born what you’re born.

So: Jews are like the player character. In the world, interacting with everyone, but also connected to the higher reality. The job is to fix the broken parts, bring everyone closer to God’s vision.

When you say Jews are “better,” you don’t mean better at being happy or successful. You mean better equipped — or more obligated — to do the work of repairing things.

But if the whole point is to fix the world and help everyone, why keep it a secret? Why not tell everyone how reality works?

Yehuda: For most of history, that would have gotten us killed, and old habits die hard. But more recently, the Rebbe — Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson — made a historic push to spread the Seven Laws of Noah. These are God’s framework for how people who aren’t Jewish can help build a world that aligns with His vision. It’s actually growing. You can read about it on asknoah.org, and I’ll send you a link to my blog.

Our job is to reveal God in the world. The most powerful tool for that is to fulfill His will by being careful with the details of the 613 mitzvot — commonly translated as “commandments,” but it’s more than that. It’s His will, connected to Him Himself. What could be more radical than physical people down here doing His will and studying His wisdom? That inherently has an impact on the world.

Anthony: So there’s a framework for non-Jews too — the Noahide Laws. Everyone has a role, just different levels of involvement. And the 613 commandments for Jews — it’s not just following rules for the sake of rules. It’s like executing God’s code in the physical world. When a Jew performs these mitzvot with all the specific details, it’s actually changing reality.

That’s kind of a trip. It’s not “be a good person and God rewards you later.” It’s “do these specific things and you’re literally rewiring how the world works.”

But I gotta push back on one thing. You said the secrecy was partly because it was dangerous historically. Fair enough. But you started this conversation by saying “it’s a secret” in this mysterious way, and that does come across as elitist. If the goal is to fix the world, why the mystique?

Yehuda: You’re mixing up two different secrets. The first isn’t really a secret at all — the Seven Laws of Noah are published in accessible Jewish books. We just couldn’t talk about them openly because it was dangerous. Now we can, and we are.

The second secret is whether a particular Jew is actually shining God’s light in the world, or is just a sad nobody. And that is genuinely a secret — I can’t tell you, and I can’t tell you about myself either.

Anthony: (recalibrates) Oh — yeah, I was mixing those up.

Secret number one: the framework — the two souls, the mission, the Noahide Laws — that’s not secret, just historically dangerous to teach openly. Now it’s being spread.

Secret number two: whether any individual Jew is actually living up to their divine soul or dragging it through the mud — that’s genuinely unknowable.

So when I meet some arrogant Jew acting superior, I literally can’t know if he has any right to that attitude or if he’s a chamber pot situation. And neither can he.

That’s actually humbling. You can’t even use “I’m Jewish” as proof you’re doing your job. Whether you’re shining light or casting shadows — that’s between you and God. No one gets to coast on heritage.

Yehuda: Exactly. Jews are really into lineage — how many famous rabbis are you descended from? We call it yichus. And of course we have a joke about it: yichus is like an onion — the best part is in the ground.

Meaning: you’ve got all this impressive history behind you, but — who are you?

And in the Mishna — one of our core ancient texts — we’re exhorted: “Ready yourself to study God’s wisdom, because it isn’t inherited to you.” Everyone has to live their own life.

Anthony: (laughs) “The best part is in the ground.” That’s good.

So even in a tradition that’s all about lineage, there’s this core idea that none of it matters if you aren’t doing the work.

This whole conversation started because I was annoyed at Jews acting superior. What you’re telling me is: they might actually have something I don’t — this extra soul, this connection to higher reality — but that doesn’t mean they are better, because they might be completely failing at the mission. The framework allows for Jews to be “better” in potential, but you can’t know, I can’t know, and they can’t know if they’re living up to it.

Which brings me back to my original frustration. If it’s all unknowable, why act superior? Shouldn’t that uncertainty make Jews more humble?

Yehuda: I agree. A Jew should always be humble. It’s a terrible mistake that some — maybe many, though I don’t think it’s as widespread as you believe — act haughty. True humility comes from the awareness that God is everywhere, and that we are always in the presence of the King of Kings. Even the highest minister is quiet when he stands before the King.

Anthony: (nods slowly) Yeah. That makes sense.

(pauses, then grins)

You know, this has been way more interesting than I expected. I came up to you thinking I’d get either a defensive dodge or some supremacist nonsense, and instead I got actual theology that holds together.

So let me summarize: Jews believe they have an extra divine soul that connects them to a higher reality. That does make them different — maybe even “better” in some real sense. But the whole point of that soul is service, not dominance. It’s about fixing the world, revealing God, doing the harder work. And even with that soul, any individual Jew might be completely failing — so nobody gets to coast on heritage or act superior.

And the ones who do act haughty? They’re not just being jerks. They’re betraying the entire point of what they have.

(extends hand)

Thanks for answering the hard questions, man. Most people would’ve gotten defensive or given me PR answers. Where’s that blog link? I might actually look into this Noahide stuff.

Yehuda: (hands over the link) Here — blog.yehudardevelopment.com. And you know, now you can play a big part in this yourself. Next time a Jew starts giving you attitude, you can help him get back on track. He might not listen completely. But maybe he’ll start thinking.

Thank you for the thoughtful discussion.

Anthony: (typing the URL into his phone) That’s a pretty brilliant move — turning my frustration with arrogant Jews into a way to help them remember what they’re supposed to be about.

(laughs)

“Hey man, aren’t you supposed to be humble in front of the King of Kings?” I can already picture the confused looks.

(steps back, lifts camera, turns to the lens)

So there you have it, folks. The “chosen people” thing is way more complicated than I thought. It’s not about being better so you can look down on everyone else. It’s about having a harder job, more responsibility, and being held to a higher standard. And the kicker? Even Jews can’t tell if they’re actually doing their job right.

(glances back)

Respect for the honesty, man. Seriously.

(stops recording, lowers phone, walks off — still processing)

END