The Cosmic Jew

Yehonatan Elazar-DeMota

Miami, Florida, USA

27 Kisleu 5781

    In his essay, La Raza Cósmica (1925), Mexican writer José Vasconcelos exhorts Latin Americans to look into their past and utilize this in order to project a future which will serve as a model for all of humanity. A product of his time, Vasconcelos divides humanity into four races. He speaks about the red man, the black man, the yellow man, and the white man. He explains how geological studies prove that the red man in the Andes is of a much older society than the Europeans that came to the Western Hemisphere. The red man shared his ideas and technologies with the Egyptians.

    He then argues that the European “discovery” of the Americas is a fiction which needs to be dismantled. He asks, “how can we begin anew when for 5,000 years peoples from other places marveled at our technologies?” His main argument is that Spanish conquistadores knew how to be great captains and serve Spain well, whereas Latin American politicians only take power for themselves, to the detriment of the people. This is due to a disconnect with their glorious past. Individualism and nationalism became the defeat of the Latinos, instead of continuing Simon Bolivar’s vision for an entire continent. 

    Vasconcelos puts forward that “we have an unprecedented mission at this moment with new rights and hopes, being that we assimilated various cultures, while the European destroyed North American native cultures.” Therefore, he claims that “the advantage of our tradition is that it possesses great facility in sympathizing with foreigners. This implies that our great civilization, with all of its defects, could be chosen to assimilate and create a new type for all humans.” He maintains that the new and old continent’s predestination obeys the design of fomenting the crib for a fifth race, where all of peoples will intermingle, replacing the fourth [White], which has been shaping history. The end of the dispersion will take place on American soil, wherein unity will be consummated through the triumph of love, and the betterment of all lineages. 

    He calls this race, the cosmic race. In his final argumentation, he states that the mixing of races must be promoted through love and art, not by religion, nor social pressure. Indeed, the most illustrious time periods for humanity have been precisely those in which various dissimilar peoples have made contact with each and have mixed. India, Greece, Alexandria, and Rome are a few examples that a universal geography and ethnicity is capable of birthing fruits of civilization. 

    Every race that uplifts itself must construct its own philosophy, i.e, the deus ex machina of its success. Latin Americans have been taught to believe in the inferiority of the mestizo, the irrecoverable Indian, the condemnation of the Black, and the irreparable decadence of the Oriental. For that matter, Vasconcelos holds that a new historical epoch requires the construction of “our ideology,” according to a new ethnic doctrine which includes the entire South American continent. If the spirit is not liberated first, neither will the physical redemption take place. Humanity continues to repeat history in constructing theories of ethnic superiority. Vasconcelos puts forward that the cosmic race will intertwine Mendelism, socialism, and sympathy for all. This race will fill the entire planet with the successes of the first universal and cosmic race. 

    As I read this essay, I kept wondering how the Jewish People could benefit from it. I do believe that at this time, the Jewish People suffer from the same individualism and issues of nationalism which are detrimental to ourselves and undermine our mission as a people. Sepharadim, Mizrahim, Ashkenazim, Italkim, Romaniote, Ethiopians, Mountain Jews, etc. This list is long. Instead of fighting each other over particularities, this should be our greatest asset to humanity. Population genetic studies demonstrate that the Jewish People are connected to each other mainly through the y-chromosome. This attests to the fact that the seed of Abraham has spread to all parts of the world, introducing x-chromosomes from non-Israelite populations. Genetic studies further show that those peoples who are inbred for various generations corrupt their DNA, yielding to genetic sickness and disorders.

    Another issue which is preventing the Jewish People from fulfilling their role is the uncompromising nationalism that many Jews hold, where retaining the Land becomes more important than retaining values. A large impediment to biblical Zionism is the problem of denying Jews from Islamic countries to identify with their Arabness. Before the emergence of Islam and Christianity, Jews had been living in the Arab regions of the Middle East. When the Arab identity was equated with Islam, Zionists constructed an identity which antagonized all things Arab, including Jews from the region. In constructing a new national identity, Arabic-speaking Jews were barred from speaking their native language and culture. All of this was done as a political tool to delegitimize an Arab claim to the Holy Land. Consequently, Arab Muslims, Christians, and Jews were subject to self-denial and sacrifice if they wanted to live within the border of the State of Israel. Staunch Zionists ignored the biblical and Talmudic narratives which portray the Arab as family. Currently, politics are changing in favor of Israel in the Middle-East. It behooves Israeli Jews to learn Arabic and to study the history of the entire region. It is not acceptable to kill the Arab in the name of Israelite conquest or the supremacy of the Jewish tradition. 

    In the Kuzari (11th century Spain), Yehudah Halevy portrays the Jewish People as a “dead man walking, in need of rejuvenation to vivify him.” Halevy felt that without prophecy, the idea of the Treasured/Chosen Nation was hindered. Without the prophetic dimension of the Jewish tradition, only ritual and law remain as reminders of who we ought to be. The Cosmic Jew, standing on the Exodus, the Solomonic Monarchy, the Maccabean Revolt, and the numerous contributions to human development on a global level, will usher the vision of the Prophets. The Prophet Isaiah envisioned, “and the knowledge of the Torah will fill the Earth as the waters cover the seas.” Daniel saw that the beginning of this era would be identified by an increase in knowledge [da’ath]. Is this knowledge not the experience of four thousand years of humanity? Da’ath requires not theoretical knowledge, but experience through interaction. Abarbanel also explains the prophecy of Hoshea, wherein the Israelites would be dispersed to all parts of the Earth, “this is necessary so that many peoples would come to the knowledge of the Torah.” If so, then it behooves the Jewish People to intermingle with the nations, without losing the Sinaitic injunction of being a kingdom of priests to them.

    The Cosmic Jew in the Holy Land has the potential to make a difference not only in the Middle-East, but the entire world. It is common to find an Israeli with four grandparents from different places. This rich melting pot of cultures should serve as a model for all of humanity, that distinctions of skin color, language, and ethnicity are social constructs which are obsolete in the twenty-first century. We need a new ideology, one that will serve all of humanity. It is no longer acceptable that someone with “Arab” or “Negroid” features be treated inferior to those with Greek or Latin phenotypes. After all, our genetics are much more complex than what we perceive externally. After having experienced thousands of years of migrations due to persecution, we the Jewish People have the greatest capacity to sympathize and empathize with everyone oppressed, marginalized, and disenfranchised. What has been our curse should now be used as humanity’s blessing. Only then will love and art rule supreme.