I take my text from Deuteronomy, chapter 14, verse 2.
In case you did not win a Scripture knowledge prize at school (I didn’t, Bertie Wooster did) Deuteronomy, the fifth book in the Bible, means “words” in Hebrew. A pretty silly name for a book as most of them have words so it doesn’t give much clue about what it’s about. However, to be fair, there were less books on the shelves when Moses penned his envoi before the Israelites entered Canaan (The Promised Land).
“For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.” (Deuteronomy 14:2, King James Version)
So that’s how it started – an atavistic longing to belong, to be chosen. So it’s ironic that Jews have been excluded for centuries from almost everything, including membership of Country Clubs in America, perhaps until recently. I was seldom chosen, even when Blackberry Chase teams were picked at Castle Park. Now, sixty years later, I have withdrawn my candidature for a club that has had at least seven years to elect me but hasn’t.
Am I discouraged? No, I’m too big a fish for such a small pond, the other side of which recognises my importance.
No doubt the Selections Committee will be swayed by my military service in Belize in 1973 and my services to oil futures in New York a decade later; it is most gratifying. Disappointing that I will be among over fifteen million other accomplished individuals – Moses only took 600,000 across the Red Sea.
”And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children.” (Exodus 12:37, King James Version)
Of course only the men counted as in so many clubs today.
Liddell and Scott say of δευτερονόμιον, “second or repeated Law, the fifth book of the Pentateuch.”
The two cities I know best in the US both have predominately Jewish country clubs from the days of exclusion. I have to think that this sort of thing is harder to get away with now. For that matter, I believe that justices of the Supreme Court are ex officio members of Burning Tree Country Club in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, which should mean that it has had Jewish members for more than a century now. (Not that I know whether Justice Brandeis golfed.) Burning Tree is in general pretty exclusive.
(Or so I understand–I don’t play golf, and haven’t the money for country club memberships.)
Love this post! It’s always interesting to learn about the origins of biblical texts and their meanings. Plus, who doesn’t love a good Bertie Wooster reference? Keep up the great work!