The Secret of Jewish Eternity: How a Small Nation Defied Empires and History

If we examine the history of the Jewish people, we discover that many nations and mighty empires attempted to destroy them, from the Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks, to the Romans, Byzantines, and others. And yet, all of these civilizations collapsed and disappeared.

In contrast, and in a truly astonishing way, the Jewish people are still alive and enduring.

There is no other nation in the world that lived in exile for two thousand years without being absorbed or assimilated into the cultures among which it lived. There is certainly no nation that endured so many forms of suffering and calamity and survived for such an extended period of time.

This raises an inevitable question: what is the secret of Jewish eternity?

Voices of Wonder from the Nations of the World

Great philosophers, historians, and writers from other nations have stood in awe before this extraordinary phenomenon. Following is a selection of their words.

Jean Paul Sartre, the French philosopher:
“I cannot judge the Jewish people by the ordinary rules of human history. The Jewish people are something beyond time. Their existence is unlike that of any other nation. It is a fact, a fundamental premise.”

Nikolai Berdyaev, the Russian philosopher:
“The destiny of the Jews is too deeply stamped with a metaphysical seal to be explained in materialistic or positivist historical terms. I remember how, when I tried to verify the materialistic conception of history by applying it to the fate of nations, it shattered against the Jewish question. From a materialistic point of view, their destiny appears completely inexplicable. Indeed, by materialistic criteria this nation should have disappeared long ago. Its existence is a mysterious and wondrous phenomenon, testifying that the life of this nation is governed by an ancient decree that stands above historical adaptation.”

Blaise Pascal, the French philosopher and mathematician:
“It is astonishing to see this people survive for so many years while constantly subjected to torment. It is a phenomenon that contradicts itself, for they endure despite their poverty.”

Arnold Toynbee, one of the greatest historians of the twentieth century:
“The preservation of national identity by a people without political independence, without a unified spoken language, not concentrated in one place but scattered across the globe, and under continuous and terrible persecution is a phenomenon so irrational that it leaves every historian astonished.”

Professor Georges Friedman, French sociologist and historian:
“The Jewish people have a history unlike that of any other nation. I once wrote that the Jews are an accident of history, something that does not conform to the accepted rules of historical development.”

Dr. Arthur Ruppin, economist and sociologist:
“The legend of the eternal Jew who cannot die and wanders, troubled and cursed from land to land, expresses the great astonishment of medieval Christians that the Jews continued to exist despite the destruction of their political life and despite all persecutions.”

Herman Wouk, American novelist:
“This people overcame an astonishing series of disasters and afflictions that by natural standards should have been unbearable. Their prolonged survival in defiance of historical logic is the most wondrous phenomenon and one that demands explanation.”

Mark Twain, American writer:
“The Egyptians, Babylonians, and Persians rose, filled the world with splendor and glory, then faded and passed away. The Greeks and Romans followed them. They made a great noise and vanished. Other peoples appeared, carried their torch for a time, but it burned itself out. Now they sit in twilight or have disappeared entirely. The Jew saw them all, defeated them all, and is today what he always was. He shows no sign of decline, no infirmity of age, no dulling of intellect or energy. All things are mortal except the Jew. All other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”

Leo Tolstoy, writer and thinker:
“What is a Jew? This question is not as strange as it may first appear. Let us see what kind of remarkable being this is, whom all the rulers of the world and all nations insulted, oppressed, expelled, trampled, persecuted, burned, and drowned, and who, in spite of everything, continues to live and exist. What is a Jew, whom no worldly temptations could ever induce to renounce his faith and abandon the religion of his ancestors? A Jew is a symbol of eternity. He is the one whom neither slaughter nor torture could destroy. Fire and sword of the Inquisition failed to annihilate him. He was the first to proclaim the word of God, and for so long preserved prophecy and transmitted it to all humanity. Such a people cannot disappear. The Jew is eternal, he is the embodiment of eternity.”

A Supernatural Phenomenon Foretold in the Torah

This phenomenon is astonishing in itself. Even more remarkable is the fact that it was promised in the Torah more than three thousand years ago.

As stated in the portion of Bechukotai: “Yet even then, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them nor abhor them to destroy them, to annul My covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God.”

God promises the Jewish people that there will never be a situation in which they are annihilated, despite a long exile among the nations and despite all the suffering they will endure.

Prophecy in the Shadow of Empire

At the height of Babylonian rule, when the Jewish people were crushed under its domination, the Temple destroyed, leaders killed, and the rest scattered, the prophet Yirmiyahu declared with confidence in God’s name that Babylon would be destroyed and never rebuilt, while the small and battered Jewish people would exist forever:

“Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day, the laws of the moon and stars for light by night… If these laws were to depart from before Me, says the Lord, then the seed of Israel would cease from being a nation before Me forever.”

Only if the laws of nature themselves were to cease, would Israel cease to exist.

In contrast, regarding Babylon, once the glory of empires, the prophet Yeshayahu declared: “Babylon, the glory of kingdoms… shall never again be inhabited, nor dwelt in from generation to generation.”

The likelihood of such a prophecy coming true was extremely low, especially in ancient times. Even today, with advanced technology, cities that are destroyed are often rebuilt in the same place. Hiroshima itself was rebuilt despite deadly radiation. All the more so in ancient times, when rebuilding on existing infrastructure was the natural and practical choice. Archaeology repeatedly shows cities destroyed and rebuilt on the same site.

Yet Babylon, the heart of an empire, desired by conquerors and kings, was never rebuilt.

Three Miraculous Outcomes Foretold in Advance

The Torah foretold three conditions that would naturally lead to national extinction:

1. The Jewish people would remain small in number.
2. They would be scattered across the entire world.
3. They would suffer relentless persecution, fear, and torment.

Each of these conditions alone should have guaranteed disappearance. Together, survival should have been impossible.

And yet the prophecy was fulfilled in full. The Jewish people remained few in number, scattered across nearly every corner of the world, and endured suffering beyond imagination including persecutions, pogroms, expulsions, crusades, inquisitions, blood libels, and the Holocaust.

Against all logic, the Jewish people are the only ancient nation to survive intact in identity and culture until today.

The Meaning of Jewish Eternity

As Maimonides wrote in his Epistle to Yemen: “Just as the existence of God cannot be annulled, so too it is impossible that we should be annihilated from the world.”

Jewish history, the Torah’s prophecies, and their precise fulfillment testify to a reality beyond natural explanation. The existence of the Jewish people defies historical probability and points to a destiny guided by divine decree.

This is not merely survival. It is eternity.