Our Gemara on Amud Aleph discusses the preparatory and cooking process of the Turmusa (lupine) bean, and how this affects its halachic status if cooked by a gentile. Apparently, for this bean to become edible, it requires an extensive process of cooking and re-cooking.

A different Gemara (Beitzah 25b) uses the metaphor of the cooking process of the Turmusa to describe the stubbornness of the Jewish people:

The lupine [turmus], an extremely bitter legume edible only after an extensive process, acts as an indictment of the Jewish people.

As it is stated: “And the children of Israel continued to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, and served the Baalim and the Ashtaroth, and the gods of Aram and the gods of Zidon and the gods of Moab and the gods of the children of Ammon and the gods of the Philistines, and they forsook the Lord and did not serve Him” (Shoftim 10:6)….

Rabbi Elazar said: The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: My children did not treat Me even like this lupine, which, because it is inedible as it is, must be cooked in water seven times in order to temper its bitter taste and is eventually made so sweet that one eats it as a dessert after a meal.

But the Jews worshipped all seven types of idolatry listed in the verse, and even after I punished them for each one, they still refused to repent. Instead, they remained rebellious and did not serve Me.

It is taught in a baraisa in the name of Rabbi Meir: For what reason was the Torah given to the Jewish people? Because they are impudent and stubborn, and Torah study will weaken and humble them.

A Sage of the school of Rabbi Yishmael taught regarding the verse: “From His right hand went a fiery law for them” (Devarim 33:2); the ways and nature of these people, the Jews, are like fire. Were it not for the fact that the Torah was given to the Jewish people, whose study and observance restrains them, no nation or tongue could withstand them.

This is the same as Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: There are three impudent ones: The Jewish people among the nations; the dog among animals; and the rooster among birds. Some add the goat among small cattle, or the caper bush among trees.

The quality of stubbornness is a double-edged sword that makes Jewish people great and strong. Not only have we lasted thousands of years, but Jews have always affected the culture—whether for better or worse—far beyond our numbers compared to other nations. This is not just intellectual achievement; it is also a training in questioning everything, ourselves and others.

Though not politically correct, ample empirical evidence supports the Jewish nation’s extensive and wide-ranging influence and creativity in nearly every area of civilization. Richard Lynn et al. cite bold statistics: (Lynn, Richard & Kanazawa, Satoshi. (2008). How to explain high Jewish achievement: The role of intelligence and values. Personality and Individual Differences. 44. 801-808.

10.1016/j.paid.2007.10.019.)

and Possony (1963, p. 142) calculated that between 1901 and 1962, 16% of Nobel Prize winners for science were Jewish. They estimated the world Jewish population in 1938 at 18 million and the European gentile population at 718 million, calculating Jews were over-represented by a factor of approximately 6.6.

Jews have comprised about half of the world’s top-rated chess grandmasters from 1851 to 2000 (Rubinstein, 2004) and champion American bridge players and theoreticians (Storfer, 1990).

In the 20th century, Jews were greatly over-represented among intellectual elites and higher socio-economic status occupations in various countries. In Austria between the World Wars, Jews were about 3.5% of the population but 27.3% of university professors (Fraenkel, 1967). In Germany (1918–1933), Jews were 0.78% of the population but 16% of doctors, 15% of dentists, 25% of lawyers, 50% of theatre directors, and held 80% of leading positions in the Berlin stock exchange (Gordon, 1984; Slezkine, 2004). Similar over-representations existed in Poland and Russia (Slezkine, 2004).

In Britain (1809–1939), Rubinstein (2000) found Jews were 14.1% of the very wealthy (28 out of 199), while averaging only 0.4% of the population—28.4 times over-represented among the wealthy. Prais and Schmool (1975) found Jews over-represented 2.5 times in higher professions in 1961.

Tropp (1991) found Jews over-represented across professions in 1985, with ratios up to 13 times (e.g., ophthalmic opticians). The Jewish population in the UK at that time was 0.6%.

The largest Jewish population outside Israel in the 20th century has been in the United States, where Jews excelled academically and economically. By 1919, Jews comprised about 20% of students at Harvard, Yale, Brown, Pennsylvania, and 40% at Columbia (Slezkine, 2004).

From 1957 to 1990, Jewish men earned on average about 130% of white gentiles (Chiswick, 1985; Kosmin & Lachman, 1993). By the 1990s, Jews were vastly over-represented among the very wealthy, making up over a quarter of Forbes Magazine’s richest 400 Americans, 45% of the top 40 richest, and one-third of multimillionaires (Silbiger, 2000).

Weyl (1966) calculated Jews were over-represented by a factor of 4.48 in seven reference books of the eminent in the U.S., and McDermott (2002) found the factor increased to 16.62 by 1994–95.

Likkutei Moharan (147) aptly describes the responsibility and challenge of this national trait of boldness verging on stubbornness versus arrogance:

“It is impossible to draw closer to holiness except through boldness. As it is written, ‘Be bold as a leopard.’ As explained above, so too have our Sages said (Beitzah 25b): ‘The Torah was only given to the Jewish people because they are bold.’

Likewise, a man who is lowly and abject, without any holy boldness, has no share in the Torah. As our Sages teach: Why was the Torah given to Israel? Because they are bold (Beitzah 25b). For it is necessary to possess holy boldness. As our Sages teach: Be bold as a leopard (Avos 5:20).

Through the holy Azus (boldness) which he possesses, he receives holy boldness from God. This corresponds to (Tehillim 68:35-36), ‘Give OZ (strength) to God… The God of Israel, He gives oz and might to the people.’

Yet a person must measure his ways, how best to behave with boldness so that it does not become brazenness, God forbid, which is a very evil trait. He should, nevertheless, possess holy boldness.”

Jews have been at the center of some of the greatest intellectual and scientific achievements, as well as artistic and cultural ones. At times, we have elevated culture; at other times, led it into deeper depravity.

From Avraham’s time until today, our ancestors and ourselves have either smashed idols or made idols—challenging society’s immoralities to produce positive reform and change, or being front and center in inventing new and awful ideologies.