We Jews have never looked at the speedometer.
What do I mean?
In Parshat Lech Lecha, G‑d promises Abraham (who was still childless at the time) that he will go on to father a great nation.
“And He took him outside and said, “Gaze now toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.”
G‑d was promising Abraham that not only would he bear a son, but that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. Can you count the stars? Of course, as kids we always tried to. But we know it’s actually impossible.
Now, Abraham did of course become the founding father of our nation, but are we really as numerous as the stars? It is believed that there are 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (200 billion trillion) stars in the universe. Just a single galaxy has some 100 billion stars. Even if you add up every Jew that ever existed in our 3000-year history, we’ve never even come close to that number! So how did G‑d make a promise that seems so wildly exaggerated?
G‑d’s message to Abraham was not that we would be greater than others numerically, but that, like the sun, we would outshine others, regardless of our numbers. All the stars in the universe cannot compete with the great luminary.
To us, quality has always been more important than quantity. We see today quite empirically how smaller is stronger. A little drone can accomplish what a big fighter jet may not be able to do. A smartphone is small enough to fit in your pocket, but it’s got an entire office inside.
We Jews have never been into numbers. For us, quality is much more valuable than quantity. We represent no more than 1% of the world’s population, but when it comes to Nobel Prize winners, we can claim over 22% as our own. Israel is a tiny country but has become a global leader in medical and technological advances, shining brightly in the darkness.
So don’t worry about numbers. We’re not into numbers. Never feel depressed about being outnumbered. We have never taken the speedometer of life too seriously. Statistically, we shouldn’t even exist at all.
We will continue to march to our own beat as we have since the days of Abraham. May we continue to shine in the heavens and on earth. Please G‑d, we will stand out and sparkle materially, spiritually, academically, morally, ethically, and Jewishly, an eternal source of pride to G‑d and to ourselves.
-adapted from www.chabad.org
