Men trample it underfoot

From A Treasury of Jewish Folklore by Nathan Ausubel.

The Virtue of the Commonplace

A rabbi once had a dispute with a Jew-baiting theologian. Said the latter, “You Jews brag about your world-mission and are proud of the fact that you are God’s Chosen People — yet everybody tramples you underfoot! Aren’t you deceiving yourselves?”

The rabbi replied, “When our Father Jacob fled before the wrath of Esau, God appeared to him in a dream and said: ‘And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth.’ What, may I ask, brings greater use to man than the earth? Just the same — men trample it underfoot. . . .”