What is greatness?

In the immortal words of Shakespeare

"some people are born great

 some achieve greatness

 and others have greatness thrust upon them"

We are often told that nothing great comes easily. But is that true? Some people have a higher affinity for greatness. They are born on a higher spiritual plateau. Yes they must achieve greatness on their own level.. But they do have it easier. They don't have the distractions. They don't have the temptations. Some have never been exposed to the tantalizing treats that float right in front of most of us.

The question is what is greatness? Is there a global standard or is it more personal?

There are certain standards that we maintain for someone to be considered a "גדול״ " among the Jewish people. But those standards don't withstand the test of time. Every generation is different. The gedolim we have now pale on comparison on an objective scale to those 100 years ago. Yet, for us they are great. We are obligated to see them as such. The people get what they deserve.

Greatness is elusive to most of us. I had a teacher say that the moment we decide to live our lives beyond average; the moment we decide that mediocrity is simply not enough- that is when we have begun being great.

Great means going beyond ourselves. Greatness means pushing ourselves beyond what's comfortable and going the cliche extra mile.

Greatness does not come on it's own. It only comes with a conscious decision that this is not good enough. It comes with the realization that there is more than simply surviving from day to day.

Yet, sometimes just surviving and not giving in is great! Sometimes the fact that we manage to drag ourselves out of bed, change from our pajamas and face the day with even an inkling of hope: is greatness.

So what about Shakespeare? What about those who are born great? They have a lot to do in this world. Those who are born on a higher plateau need to work hard to go even higher. They have to purify the minutiae of their lives. They may be born great but they have a lot of hard work still to do.

I think that most of us fall into the category of having greatness thrust upon us. The day to day struggles, the tests, the battles and the fears of this life... Are hand crafted to make ME great. Most of us have a lot of work to do in this world.

G-d gives us the guidelines and the tools. He gives us the instructors and the circumstances that are tailor fit to make each and every one of us great.

But those tools only have their desired affect if we recognize that we have them. Only once we stop seeing our challenges as obstacles and see them for the stepping stones they are...do we have even a glimmer of hope of attaining any of our greatness!

What do you think is greatness? How would you define it? Can one person be objectively greater than another?