What Makes Us Great?

We think the great things we do in life make us great. We think we’re good people because of all the amazing things we’ve accomplished or succeeded in. While this might be true by western culture, this is not how God attributes greatness.

Let’s look at some truly great people and where they started from.

Yitro was a pagan priest – he was worshiping all the different idols of his time – including some pretty debased ones. When we think of the definition of holiness – closeness to God, Yitro was pretty far from it.

And yet, the very Torah portion when God gives the Jewish people the Torah – the purpose for all of creation -is named after Yitro! Why couldn’t that Parsha been named more aptly, “Matan Torah - the giving of the Torah” or at least “Moses” who actually climbed Mt. Sinai to receive it?

However, God names one of the most important events in all of the history of the world ‘Yitro’. And Moses, the greatest prophet of all time, married Yitro’s daughter. Isn’t this interesting? Weren’t there nice Jewish girls from nice Jewish families that Moses could have married?

Let’s look at another example with Moses’ successor, Joshua. Joshua sent two spies, Calev and Pinchas to scout out the land of Israel before conquering it. To hide themselves, they went to a woman of ill repute’s house named Rachav. Rachav was famous throughout the land for what she did. When she saw that these two Jewish men were going to conquer the land, she said that she would help them escape if they would save her and her family. They agreed and she helped them escape and they subsequently saved her and her family. Later on, she ends up converting and marries the greatest leader of the generation – Joshua. Again, weren’t there nice Jewish girls from nice Jewish backgrounds Joshua could have married? He had to marry a woman who came from such a low and debased past?

Herein lies the beauty of Teshuvah, repentance. God allows us to be co-creators in our own reality. We get to choose based on our own actions how great we get to become. But ironically, it's not based on what we think our strengths are.

The things that we think are keeping us from greatness – whether it be a situation, character trait, relationship, etc, are actually the key to our greatness. Oftentimes we think we’d be so much better, so much greater if not for ‘this thing, this person, this part of myself, etc.’. However, that thing that you think keeps you low, is actually the key to propel you to unparalleled heights.

Yitro could have stayed a famous pagan priest and relegated his future based on his past. However, both Yitro and Rachav, used the thing that kept them low and turned it around which propelled them to be leaders of the Jewish people!

With God's help, if we’re able to identify those things in our lives which we think keep us small, and instead of ignoring or blaming, but rather use that very thing as a form of fixing, then we can become greater than we could have ever imagined, just like Yitro and Rachav.