A Gift of the Jews
Thomas Cahill (3) states in the first page of The Gifts of the Jews that "the Jews started it all û and by 'it' I mean so many of the things we care about, the underlying values that make all of us, Jew and Gentile, believer and atheist, tick." Throughout his text Cahill (3) identifies a number of "gifts" given to Western civilization by the Jews, including the very idea of "vocation, of a personal destiny" as well as what may well be the most important "gift" of all û monotheism. This essay will identify the importance of monotheism, Cahill's linkage of that concept to the Bible, the benefits to Western civilization of monotheism, and the impact of monotheism on my own life.
Cahill (71) identifies the God of Abram as a single God distinct from all other gods that existed or were believed in at the time. This God is "God Shaddai" which Cahill (71) says may have originally referred to "Mountain God" or "God of the High Place." Thus, early in the Book of Genesis, this singular God made a covenant with the Jewish people which would ensure forever. This particular gift was selected for this report because monotheism is the primary characteristic distinguishing Judaism from other religions of the region and of the time.
Cahill (85) notes that in the story of Avram (later called Avraham), the Book of Genesis reveals that "the God" gradually revealed himself as God û "not just a divinity, but the only God that counts." Whereas the Jews may have given the world the concept of vocation or personal destiny, it is only by means of the relationship between this creator-God that this gift was revealed. As Cahill (85) has stated, the God of the Jews is "the God beyond the mountain, even beyond the sky, the unknowable God, whose purposes are hidden from human intelligence, who cannot be manipulated."
Thus, monotheism and the existence of a single God who made the universe (144) is ...