Seforno: "Though humanity in its entirety is more precious to Me than the rest of base existence, for when the Sages say: 'Man who was created in His image was especially favored as it says "He made Man in the image of G-d"', they refer only to humanity'". _{(Ethics of the Fathers 3:18)}

"The Almighty gave the Torah to Israel so that they might enable all the nations to benefit by it" (Midrash Tanhuma, Devarim 3)

The Giving of the Torah is recorded in the Torah section bearing the name of Yithro (Jethro) who was a non-Jew at that time, converting to Judaism only afterwards. Similarly, the Torah portion of Balak in which matters concerning the End of Days are written contains the Messianic prophecy, and also bears the name of a non-Jew, one of whose descendants was Ruth, the mother of the Davidic royal dynasty, from whom the Mashiach (Messiah) shall be born. This teaches us that if the wife of the recipient of the Torah was a proselyte, and the mother of the Messiah was a proselyte as well, this is no chance occurrence. Rabbi Akiva, who was the progenitor of the Oral Law - for while an unnamed mishna is attributed to Rabbi Meir, and an unnamed tosefta is attributed to Rabbi Nehemiah, an unnamed quotation from Sifri is ascribed to Rabbi Shim'on, an unnamed extract from Safra is ascribed to Rabbi Yehuda, an unnamed extract from Seder 'Olam - to Rabbi Yosse, the entire body of the Oral Law passed through the hands of Rabbi Akiva, who himself was the child of proselytes. Even the unnamed sections of the Mishnah, the very basis of the Oral Law, are ascribed to Rabbi Meir, who himself was a descendant of the Roman Emperor Nero, thus demonstrating the role played in this world by converts to Judaism. Our Sages said (Tractate Pesahim 87b): The only purpose for which the Almighty exiled the Jewish people from their Land was to multiply converts, as stated by the prophet Hosea (chapter 2): "And I have sown it" - and no one sows a handful of seeds unless he intends to reap a number of bushels.

Rabbi Yohanan said (Tractate Shabbat 88b) that each of the Ten Commandments divided up into seventy languages, despite the fact that the Jewish nation in that generation did not speak in seventy languages. Now Moshe our Teacher explained (at the beginning of the Book of Deuteronomy) the Torah ba'er heitev - literally, thoroughly - and Rashi brings in his commentary to this verse the explanation of those words according to our Sages: ba'er heitev - in seventy languages. Further along in the Book of Deuteronomy (27:8), we find concerning the great altar to be constructed on Mount Eval: "You shall inscribe on the stones [of the altar] all the words of this Torah ba'er heitev", and our Sages explain (Rashi to Sota 35) that this means "in seventy languages". The Talmud, commenting on this, explains that the copyists of the nations came and copied it. Our Sages noted as well, regarding the trial undergone by Abraham the Patriarch in binding Isaac on the altar, that Abraham took both his "lads" with him, Ishmael and Eliezer, indicating that it is the function of the Jewish Nation to lead all the other peoples together with itself, but that the others did not attain the level of the Binding, which is why Abraham said to them "Sit yourselves down here with the donkey, while I and the boy climb further and bow down (and worship), and then return to you". In a parallel fashion, before the Giving of the Torah we meet Jethro, but, according to the old Midrash Tanhuma (Yithro 11) and a midrash aggada, at the actual Giving of the Torah Jethro was no longer present, as we find in Proverbs (14:10): "The heart knows its own bitterness, and with its joy no stranger can intermeddle". Said the Almighty: "My children were enslaved with clay and bricks, while Jethro sat at home calmly and securely, and now he comes to partake of the rejoicing of the Torah together with My children?" Thus "Then Moshe sent his father-in-law away". Afterwards "in the third month" etc. came the Giving of the Torah. It was given after Jethro had returned to his own land.

Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi's book, The Kuzari (Section 2), explains that the Nation of Israel amongst the other nations is like the heart amongst the limbs of the body. Just as the limbs have need of the heart - for without it they cannot survive - so, too, the heart has need of the limbs. In the future, according to the prophet Zephaniah (ch. 3), "I shall then turn to the nations so that they shall all call upon the name of the Lord and worship Him altogether". In those days there were be full cooperation between Israel and the nations of the world. The Nation of Israel will be a Kingdom of Priests, the teachers of the faith and of the Torah needed for the Noahide peoples. As written by the prophet Isaiah (2:2), "All the peoples shall stream to Him; and many nations shall go and say: Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the House of the God of Jacob, so that He may teach us of His ways, for the Torah shall go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem". Isaiah said further (60:3): "And nations shall walk in Your light, and kings - in the shining of Your sun". Furthermore (ibid., 10): "The children of non-Jews shall build Your walls and their kings will serve You… and they will open Your gates at all times, by day and by night they will not be closed, in order to bring to You a host of nations and their kings being led. For any nation or kingdom that does not serve You shall perish, and the nations will surely be destroyed".