Congregation Beth Israel: From the Study of the Rabbi:

Rabbi Paula Reimers:

What Can One Person Do?

People are often so overwhelmed by the troubles in the world that they are tempted to throw up their hands in despair: "I'm only one person. I can't do anything."

The rabbis of the Talmud taught us to view the world each moment as equally balanced between good and evil. It is action of each person in next moment, they said, that will tip the balance for the world toward the darkness or the light. Each person, they taught, not only the "movers and shakers," the heads of state and diplomats and generals.

How is that possible?

Throw a pebble into a lake, and watch the ripples spread in every direction. Even if minutely, everything in the lake is touched by the ripples. You have no way of knowing exactly how, but it is true.

So too it is with our lives. Every mitzva, every kindness, every loving act, spreads its blessing through all the worlds.

Perhaps because you smile at the cashier in the supermarket, s/he will leave work calm and relaxed, and will not run the yellow light and hit the child on the bicycle who would have grown up to develop a cure for cancer, but who will instead need life-long medical care. We just don't know.

Once I was waiting in a supermarket line behind a woman with a cart piled high with groceries. I had only one or two items. She looked at me and said, "Please go ahead of me." I thanked her graciously, and went ahead of her in line. I realized that my whole day had brightened-all because of that one woman's kindness. It didn't cost her anything-kindness doesn't have to cost anything-but I was touched by a sense of gratitude for the rest of the day, and found myself going out of my way to be kind to others. Just because it felt good.

I have returned that woman's kindness many times, and the result is magical. A smile…an open face…eye contact…human beings crossing the gap to recognize one another as fellows…to change, just for a moment, a stranger into a friend.

It works the other way too. Every nasty, selfish act contracts the blessing in the world, and spreads its malignance through the worlds.

It's up to each of us, every moment. Smile. Give compliments-there aren't enough of them. Hold a door. Make a phone call to remind someone you're thinking of them.

The story is told of a man walking on a beach after a storm. As far as the eye could see, there were starfish swept up onto the sand by the storm, unable to return to the sea. In the middle stood a little boy. One by one, he took a starfish and flung it into the sea.

The man watched for a while, then called to the boy: "Why are you wasting your time? There are millions of starfish on the beach. You can't possibly get them all into the sea before they die. What difference can you make?"

The boy smiled as he threw another starfish into the sea: "I made a difference for that one!!"

How are you making a difference?

 

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