We are all familiar with this week’s Torah portion. We sing part of it at the beginning of every service, “Mah tovu, ohalecah Ya’akov… How goodly are your tents O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel.” (Numbers 24:5) King Balak hires the itinerant prophet Bila’am to curse the Israelites, but instead, when he sees their encampment, how they live in the world, he is moved to bless them. But a few verses earlier there is a more ambiguous stanza, “As I see them from the mountain tops, gave on them from the heights, there is a people that dwells apart, not reckoned among the nations.” (Numbers 23:9) This verse seems to describe a unique characteristic of the Jewish people: always scattered among the nations of the earth, Jews have chosen to retain a distinct identity and kinship. Whether based on a sense of being a chosen people, or having a unique covenanted relationship with God, or particular religious mission, or ethnicity, or culture, Jews to this day cling fiercely to a sense of uniqueness. Even when Jews want to assimilate and disappear, we have not always been given that opportunity by the rest of the world. Israel is judged by a higher standard than other nations. Whether that is fair or not, one reason is that we claim to a special nation and as the nation-state of the Jewish people, others take our claim seriously.  The question is not whether we are chosen or whether Jews are unique, for all peoples are unique. The question is rather whether we choose to live lives that meet the challenge of our claim.