The Unique Nature of Yisrael's "Be Fruitful and Multiply" — and Its Implications for Our Education

The Torah contains eleven verses with some combination of "fruitful" and "multiply".
Of these eleven verses, six combine the two words into the commandment / blessing that translates into English as "Be fruitful and multiply".
Of those six verses, five use the plural form פרו ורבו ("pehroo urvoo").
These five verses refer to the animal kingdom and, through Adam and Chavah as well as Noach and his family, to humankind.
Only one verse uses the singular form פרה ורבה ("pehreih urveih").
This verse is the only place in the Torah where this phrase is used.

In Parashat Vayishlach, Hashem gives Ya'akov the new name Yisrael, and He blesses him:
"Your name is Ya'akov. Your name shall not always be called Ya'akov, but Yisrael shall be your name." Thus He called his name Yisrael. And G-d said to him, "I am G-d Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply [פרה ורבה]; a nation and a congregation of nations shall descend from you, and kings shall issue from your loins. The land that I gave to Avraham and to Yitzchak, I will give to you; and to your offspring after you I will give the land." (בראשית / Genesis 35:10-12)

The unique, singular usage of פרה ורבה, which comes at the very moment that Hashem "creates" Yisrael, suggests that there is something unique — as well as something singular — about Yisrael's essence and the nature of his fruitfulness and multiplicity:

Yisrael is distinguished as the only one of the three Avot (Patriarchs) whose children were all righteous and as the father whose twelve sons gave rise to the Twelve Tribes. Even these attributes, however, do not encompass the full extent of what makes Yisrael's "Be fruitful and multiply" unique, as his human descendants do not constitute the whole of Yisrael Bishlaymuto (Yisrael in Its Entirety). In addition to B'nei Yisrael / Am Yisrael (the Children of Yisrael / the Jewish People), there are multiple manifestations of Yisrael: Eretz Yisrael, Torat Yisrael, Medinat Yisrael, and Machshevet Yisrael. Each of these elements (nation, land, G-d and Torah and thought, and state) is present in בראשית / Genesis 35:10-12, and all of them taken together constitute Yisrael Bishlaymuto: they are intertwining aspects of one multifaceted and unified whole, of the essence that is Yisrael. This integrated wholeness — this coherence — is at the center of our identity and it must, therefore, be at the center of our education.