Parshas Vayechi: Rav Shlomo Volbe - The Entire Shevet Gad Is Worth One Superstar?
The
Ramban says that in Yaakov's bracha to Gad, he is alluding to Yiftach
who will win a dramatic battle against Amon. Rav Shlomo Volbe asks why
is it that when Yaakov gives a bracha to an entire Shevet that should
encapsulate all the generations, he focuses on a single individual. We
see this by Gad, Dun with Shimshon, Binyomin with Mordechai and Esther,
Ephraim with Yehoshua. What about the thousands and millions of other
people that the future will produce?
Rav Volbe answers that
indeed the whole purpose of society is to produce a single superstar.
It is always a lone person who changes the world. Looking through
history he brings the example of Alexander and Napoleon. The Alter of
Slabodka said that the entire Slabodka Yeshiva was founded to create a
single [Rav] Aharon Kotler.
Yaakov saw the future clearly and he
understood that the greatness of these Shevatim hinged on the shoulders
of one person who would live for but a moment in time. The impact of
that special moment is so great and so precious that it can change the
world forever. Such is the power of the individual!
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