The Jewish people are compared to the stars in the sky and the sand of the earth. The Shem m’Shmuel on this week’s parsha points out that there is a difference between the two analogies. The comparison to sand highlights
kamus, the quantitative numerical population explosion that the Jewish people will merit. The comparison to stars highlights
eichus, the qualitative greatness to which the Jewish people can rise.
scientifically speaking, in an infinite and constantly expanding universe, the stars may well outnumber the grains of sand. The sand is limited to expanse of the earth.
ReplyDeletei am now convinced you can google anything. sure enough, someone bothered to try to figure out mathematically which if the two is greater
ReplyDeletehttp://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=539329