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"A woman pulls up to a tollbooth. ‘I’m paying for myself and the six cars behind me,’ she says with a smile, handing over seven commuter tickets.
"One after another, the next six drivers are told by the collector, ‘Some lady up ahead already paid your fare. Have a nice day.’
"The lady, it turned out, had read a note taped to a friend’s refrigerator: ‘Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty’. The words leaped out at her, and she wrote them down...
"The message is spreading, and as it spreads, so does a vision of ‘guerrilla goodness.’" (Excerpted from an article by Adair Lara in the Reader’s Digest.)
According to our Sages, the destruction of the Second Holy Temple was punishment for unwarranted, baseless hatred. They further tell us that the way to rectify the transgression of our ancestors is for us to behave with unconditional love, kindness and goodness.
"If you think there should be more of something, do it--randomly. Kindness can build on itself as much as violence can," says Anne Herbert, composer of the above-mentioned message.
Judaism firmly believes that our individual and collective actions can change the world, can transform darkness into light, mundane into holy, and can hasten the coming of Moshiach.
As it says in one of the first ads of the Moshiach campaign, inspired by the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s words: "The final redemption, culminating in unity among people, domestic harmony, and cessation of hostilities between the races, neighbors and nations, can be accelerated through the small but important acts of goodness and charity that are within the reach of every man, woman and child. It is our job to lift ourselves, our communities and our societies toward the great dawn we are all witnessing. And it doesn’t take much to move forward--a kind word, a gift to the needy, treating others with respect, strengthening our commitment to the Torah and its directives."
Smile at someone right now. Respect someone just because he/she is a human being. Give a poor person a few coins, or better yet buy him a sandwich. Honestly compliment a colleague for a job well done. You’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish by your one, small act of kindness and goodness.
Reprinted from L’Chaim, a publication of the Lubavitch Youth Organization, NY
Yehudis Cohen is the editor of L'Chaim, a weekly outreach publication of the Lubavitch Youth Organization. She also works together with her husband, Rabbi Eli Cohen, at Chabad at New York University.
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