Part of being a Jew means being a part of the chosen people, and this means that we are all special and unique. We all have a task that only we can accomplish and a set of tools that is unique to us. Each and every one of us is amazing and no one can match us. We are taught, “לכל אחד ואחד לומר, בשבילי נברא העולם – each and every person must say ‘the whole world was created for me’” (Sanhedrin 4:5). The goal of this mishna is to teach us the specialness of each and every one of us, we are all created in the image of God and this means that we are all awesome!
Judaism teaches us that we are all unique and awesome, so be awesome! But how?
Each summer we read two parshas back to back, Parshat Shlach and Parshat Korach,there is a reason they are juxtaposed. In Parshat Shlach we are told the story of the spies, the spies who entered the land of Israel to figure out a plan for capturing it, but instead returned with disastrous news, they claimed, “וְשָׁם רָאִינוּ, אֶת-הַנְּפִילִים בְּנֵי עֲנָק–מִן-הַנְּפִלִים; וַנְּהִי בְעֵינֵינוּ כַּחֲגָבִים, וְכֵן הָיִינוּ בְּעֵינֵיהֶם – in the land of Israel we saw giants, and we were like grasshoppers in their eyes” they told the people that they were all too small and insignificant to accomplish their goals, they were like grasshoppers. But we are not grasshoppers! We are awesome! We are created in the image of God!
Imagine if Ben Gurion would have thought himself to be a grasshopper, or Hertzel or Begin. What kind of world would we be living in if we looked at ourselves as grasshoppers? What kind of nation would we be? What kind of people?
So today’s Jewish mission is to be awesome! Go out into the world and be a giant, not a grasshopper, do something today that shows yourself that you are created in the image of God, you are unique and amazing and that you are not a grasshopper.
Now, of course, this parsha is juxtaposed with the Parshat Korach in which we see flip side of the coin, but that is for tomorrow…