The phenomenon that Jews are exceptionally successful in their fields of expertise, beyond their percentage points, is something that has piqued the interest of academics, angered anti-Semites, and given pride to Jews over the years. However, we do have to ask the question, is this just a fluke of nature? Or is it many years of nurturing? Perhaps it is more than that—a blessing from G-d.
In this week’s Torah portion, Toldot, G-d’s blessing for Isaac is that together with Rebekah, they should be fruitful and multiply. The simple interpretation of the verse is that they should have many children. They only had two, Jacob and Esau. What then, does the verse mean? The Aramaic translation of the verse is that they should “expand” (as a deer expands its body when it runs). Rashi, the classic commentator, picks up on this translation and says that we don’t count our offspring by numbers only, but by their accomplishments.
The lesson for us is that we are not limited by just being “one person”—we can expand our influence by what we accomplish in this world. The more positive things we do with our time, the more influence we can have. Think about the deer—not only does it move quickly and expand its body as it does so, it can also cover a lot of ground. Similarly, if we just stretch ourselves a little bit more, maybe even out of our comfort zone, then we, too, can accomplish so much more.
So G-d’s blessing to Isaac that he would expand his offspring meant not only in quantity but in quality, taught us that all we have to do is put in more effort. The more we put in, the more we get out of it.