To Be A Gadol

A man stands on the roof of a skyscraper and sees below him little dots. He goes down 20 floors and everyone looks like little babies. He descends another 20 floors and people look like children. Another 20 and they look like adults.

He gets to street level, sees a man and hugs him. The man says "What are you doing? I don't even know you???"

He answers "You might not know me, but I know you since you were a little-little baby:):).

To be a "gadol" means to give. To be a kotton means to take. Chazal say that a kotton who is self-reliant is called a gadol while a gadol who is dependent upon others is called a kotton.

The root of gadol is גד which means to extend as in the talmudic concept of גוד אחית or גוד אסוק.  The gemara says גד means גמול דלים - to give to the poor.

The moon was originally called gadol [שני המאורות הגדולים] but was called a kotton after it received the light of the sun [ואת המאור הקטן לממשלת הלילה]. [Rav Soloveitchik]

ויגדל האיש ויצא אל אחיו וירא בסבלותם - The man [Moshe] became a gadol, he went out to his brothers and saw their suffering. To be a gadol means to step outside of your own egotistical needs and to see the suffering of others.

Gadol has another meaning - to continuously grow. לך השם הגדולה - זו מעשה בראשית. The gedulah of Hashem is expressed in his creating more and more. The gemara in megilla says that בית גדול refers to a house where they are מגדל and constantly increase Torah or Tefilla [בית שמגדלין בו תורה או תפילה].

Gadol almost means to see go down to the lowest places and people to help them. The bigger you are the more you can see those smaller as the gemara [end of megilla] says about Hashem, that wherever you find an expression of His greatness you see the he also cares for the downtrodden.

It is hard work to be a gadol:).

[Based on a drasha I gave at a bar mitzva tonight - it is likely that some of the ideas I heard from the Rebbe Shlita]