"LIGHT UNTO THE NATIONS"
The prophet Isaiah said in the 8th century BCE: “I the Lord have called to you in righteousness, and will take hold of your hand and keep you and present you as the people of the covenant , a light unto the nations. ” (42:6) “It is too light a thing for you to be My servant, to establish the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the scions of Israel, and I shall submit you as a light unto the nations , to be My salvation until the end of the earth”. (49:6) In his writings and speeches, Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973) emphasized his vision of the state of Israel as a moral and social beacon to the whole world, thereby implementing the vision of the prophets. The selection of the Menorah (candelabra) as the Emblem of Israel was derived from the image of the state of Israel as a Light Unto the Nations . The present Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has referred, more than once to th...