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For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him; lo, the people shall live alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. (Numbers 23:9)

Judaism's way to faith is for man to emphasize his uniqueness and be like no other man. Then he only resembles God and becomes a creature created in the image of God.

The fundamental principle of faith in Judaism is that the People of Israel is alone just as man is alone. Each man that has ever been born or whoever will be born is unique and so alone. This is essence of man is adopted by Judaism and made to apply to the People of Israel.

Just as each man is distinctive so the object of Judaism is that the Jewish People should be distinctive.

Just as man loses his humanity if he gives up his distinctiveness so the Jewish People loses its character as a nation if it gives up the laws and customs that make it distinctive among the nations.

The Torah's advice, expressed in the words of Balaam above is to follow the same difficult, lonely path of uniqueness that every man must follow if he's to survive as a man.

The path that looks like a curse is actually a blessing..

In his brilliant book "Man is not alone", the great 20th century Jewish religious philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel describes man's uniqueness as the motivating factor in Judaism. It is being alone which leads man to faith in God. Only as a man uniquely created in the image of God does man have the ability and need to have faith in God.

There have been many examples in history of Man attempting to eliminate the qualities that make him unique. The idea of a nation of uniform, identical people is found in archaeology in China; the army of identical soldiers.

Countries that emphasize militarism like Nazi Germany and North Korea try to make its entire people the same. Hitler's aim was to stamp out every distinctive characteristic of every individual in his 3rd Reich. He had to annihilate the Jews to prevent them from spreading the idea of uniqueness to others and so destroy his plan of a nation of identical people.

The attempt to wipe out distinctiveness in people has lead to the worst totalitarian societies the world has ever known.

Balaam saw uniqueness as a curse because his thinking was locked into the idea that only a nation of identical people could be strong. To this day there are many nations who cannot understand the stubborn determination of the Jews to be a distinctive and unique nation, made up of people who think for themselves and cannot

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