Because we know who is greater in this week’s parasha: when Yaakov gives the Beracha (blessing) to Ephraim and Menashe, who does Yaakov say is greater, Ephraim or Menashe? Menashe? No, it’s Ephraim, right? But the question is: if you’re giving a Beracha, you’re saying, “How are you going to get the Beracha?” When you bless your children, you should say, “If you’re telling me Ephraim is going to be greater than Menashe, why am I giving my son the Beracha of Menashe?” Does that make sense? It’s a good question. The answer is that you must understand: there’s a famous Rambam that says everybody can be like Moshe Rabbeinu. You can’t be like Moshe Rabbeinu. I’ll tell you straight up: you’re not going to be like Moshe Rabbeinu. Nobody’s going to be like Moshe Rabbeinu. From now until who knows how many millions of years from now, you’re not going to be like—there’s not going to be another Moshe Rabbeinu. Then the Torah says, “That’s it, finished.” So what does the Rambam mean? The Rambam means in the tafkid (role), in the sechar (reward), in the obligation that you have towards HaKadosh Baruch Hu (the Holy One, Blessed be He)—that’s what it means. Everybody in this world has the mitzvot (commandments) that they have to keep, the Torah that they have to keep, but also their Avodat Hashem, their service of Hashem that they have, which nobody else can do except them. That’s it. You can’t do what this person can do. It’s impossible. You say, “Why not? Whatever you can do, I can do.” You can’t, because the kochot, the powers and the strength that Hashem gave him, are unique in a way that you don’t have. It’s the same vice versa.
So you could have the greatest of the greats, right? You’ll never reach. And wait, is he great? So wait, what are you going to tell him? What about the other person? Guys in the back, please. What about the other person? The answer is very simple. In your life, you have to fulfill—you are competing not against anybody else, but against yourself. How great can you become? You know? Yes, everybody else is great. Yes, they did. They maxed out their potential. In your life, you have to max out your potential. So when we say that, we’re not saying one is greater than the other in the sense of, “Oh, wait, he’s...” No, you could be as great as Ephraim, as Menashe. When we give the Beracha to our children, we’re saying that, in your potential, whether you have the gedulah (greatness) of Ephraim or the gedulah of Menashe, that’s how you should grow. Understand? Understand? A lot of times, a person can be like, “Oh, compare this, compare that.” You can’t compare two to two. You can strive for greatness by looking at somebody else and saying, “Yes, I want to be like that.” That’s what the gedolim (great Torah sages) did. That’s what they did. You have many stories where it’s, “Oh, I want to be like Rabbi Akiva Eiger. I want to be like—I want to be.” That’s great. It motivates you to pull out your potential.
You know, it says at the end of time, Amar Rabbi Elazar (Rabbi Elazar said), right? He says, at the end of Masechet (tractate) Ta’anit, that one day we’re going to be all around Hashem. And we’re going to point to Him and say, “This is our Hashem.” So really, the question is: how does one person point to Hashem and say, “This is our Hashem”? Why does everybody have to point to Hashem and say, “This is our Hashem”? Again, Hashem is going to be in the middle, and everybody is going to be around Hashem, and we’re all pointing and saying, “This is our Hashem.” Let one person say, “This is our Hashem.” Why is every person pointing? Because everybody serves Him in a different way.
Of course, you have the standard, the Torah. It’s about everything. The 600 terms—it’s about tzadik (righteous person). But even in that—in the way you raise your family, the way you raise yourself, your upbringing, your Torah learning, and your chiddushim (novel Torah insights)—two people don’t have the same chiddushim. Your chiddush is different from his chiddush. That’s what it is. You have different chiddushim in life. You have different ways, different approaches. They’re all great. And therefore, when we bless our children, like Ephraim and Menashe, we’re saying: use your potential and be as great as you can be. And you use your potential, because every child you have is going to have a different potential, and he can serve Hashem in a way unique to him in that Avodat Hashem. This is what we have to know. This is what we have to know in life. Everybody has their Avodat Hashem that nobody else can have.
And I’ll just conclude. There was one time when a Rabbi’s student came to me and said, “Rabbi, if I had the Emunah (faith) like Rav Chatzkel Levenstein, and if I had the brains like the Brisker Rav, and if I had this like the Chazon Ish, I would be Gadol HaDor (greatest of the generation).” You know what the Rabbi told him? The Rabbi said, “With your brains, with your Emunah, with your Avodat Hashem, that’s how you become Gadol. Hashem already has a Brisker Rav. Hashem already has Rabbi Akiva Eiger. Hashem already has Chazon Ish. Hashem already has Hacham Ovadia Yosef. Hashem wants you now. He wants you in your kochot, in your potential, in your strength, to do as much as you can do.”