We are known as the "Chosen People". Ask the people at your Shabbat table what they think "chosen" means. Does it mean that the Jewish people are better than other people? Does it mean that we have been chosen to suffer?

The Torah commentators tell us that we were "chosen" to be an example to other nations. We were chosen to teach the world about G-d, values and morality. This is the meaning of the commandment that we should be an "ohr goyim" -"a light unto the nations".

Simple task, right? All we have to do is keep all of the commandments and act as role models for the entire world! This sounds like an impossible mission! How can we do it?

The father of the Jewish people, Avraham Avinu, was the first person to be chosen by Hashem. He, in fact, chose to believe in Hashem, so Hashem, in return, chose Avraham to be the father of the Jewish people. And Hashem gives Avraham the mission of being the "chosen" people by saying: "And I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing." Ramban says that the meaning of "v'heyeh bracha" -"and you shall be a blessing" means that the Jewish people will be the example and standard that all nations shall look up to and "bless themselves".

Since Avraham was given this great task, Hashem had to give him -and us, his descendants -the strength to be this "light unto the nations". And he did. When Hashem made the covenant with Avraham, the Torah says: "Vayotzei osoh hachutzah" -"He (Hashem) took him (Avraham) outsideÉ" Rashi says Avraham knew, as an astrologer, that based on his reading of the stars, he and Sarah could not have children. But G-d "took him outside" -- outside the stars and beyond the normal laws of nature and rules of the astrological signs. Hashem told Avraham: "The stars may indicate that you won't have children. But I created the stars and the 12 star signs -and I am now taking you outside the rules. You will have a child, and you will be the leader of a great nation."

Hashem was, in effect, saying to Avraham -the normal rules of nature don't apply to you. If you are My servant, then I will bring you into the world of the "impossible". You will be able to do supernatural things -because I am your G-d. Your people will be a light unto the nations --a seemingly impossible task for a people who are destined to remain "few in number". You shall be a blessing to the world, because you will bring justice, morality, charity, and education to the world. You have to survive because your mission must succeed.

We, as the descendants of Avraham Avinu, can be successful teachers to the world, if we adhere to our contract with G-d. G-d promises us that we will be an eternal nation, because our mission to teach the nations morality is the foundation of the world. We have miraculously survived for 3,700 years, against the normal rules of history, because we have kept our loyalty to the Torah covenant that Hashem made with Avraham. Nothing is impossible for the people who are guided by the One who created the rules of the "possible". And we live in the realm of the "impossible" when we keep our part of Hashem-s covenant with Avraham, our father.