Saving Lives the Easy Way
Maybe someone is walking around this very moment on the verge of utter despair, contemplating the unthinkable. You might be the one that can save his or her life...
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Lerner shlit’a, a brilliant Torah scholar and one of the rabbis whom I was privileged to learn under at the Aish HaTorah rabbinical kollel, told me a true story about the Lakewood Yeshiva, where he was once a student. Years ago, one of the married students was having deep difficulties in life. He was embarrassed to tell anyone about his problems, and he was walking around in deep despair. The poor young man reached a point of what he thought was hopelessness, so he took his life in his hands. Rav Lerner told me that when the Mashgiach of Lakewood eulogized the young man, whose funeral was a severe shock to the entire community, the Mashgiach – while sobbing uncontrollably – chastised himself and everyone else: He said, “Who knows? We could have saved a life! If only one of us would have put our arm around his shoulder, or even smiled at him, we might have encouraged him and given him the power to keep on living.”
I’ll never forget that story. We can’t fathom what a smile does for another person – it strengthens them, virtually gives them life. Rebbe Yochanan in the Gemara says that smiling at someone is enough to revive him, so by smiling at people, we can save lives all day long. Imagine the paradise a person can earn just from smiling at people. The fifth Mishna in the fourth chapter of Tractate Sanhedrin says that if you save a person’s life it’s as if you’ve saved the entire world. Can anyone imagine the reward in Heaven for saving the entire world? Someone who sincerely smiles at people saves entire worlds all day long, every day of the year. Who can possibly estimate the Gan Eden that awaits such a person?!
In the priestly blessings, we say, “May Hashem shine his countenance upon you” – that means, “may Hashem illuminate your life.” We can invoke this wonderful blessing on ourselves by illuminating the loves of others, for the Gemara tells us in tractate Sota 8b that Hashem treats us in the same way that we treat other people. Our sages tell us that a smile is like making the sun shine – if it can illuminate an entire world, it can certainly illuminate the life of whoever we smile at. Look what a great deal – we smile at others and Hashem smiles at us! We illuminate other people’s lives and Hashem illuminates ours!
A smile makes the sun shine – it gives another person the will to live, for it illuminates their life. This is ingrained – smile at a little baby and he’ll smile; frown at a baby and he’ll cry. We see that this is a very deep concept. By the same token, give two babies the identical food and nutrients, but if you smile at one and frown at the other, then the baby with the smiles will be healthy and the baby with the frowns will be sickly. This is something that has not only been clinically proven with humans, but even with plants and animals. Both animals and plants react positively to smiles and negatively to the opposite.
Rebbe Natan says that the epitome of joy is when you convert a person’s anguish to joy. He bases this on an example that Rebbe Nachman brings in Likutei Moharan II:23: a bunch of happy people are dancing in a circle, like you do at a wedding, but there’s this sad onlooker who’s standing outside the circle over by the wall. The dancers grab his hand, pull him into the circle and force him to be happy with them. The Rebbe is telling us to do the same thing, in other words, to bring our anguish into life’s joy. How can he possibly expect us to do this?
We can always smile and always be happy by knowing three basic facts in life:
1. Hashem loves us, every single one of us; and,
2. Hashem does everything for the best.
3. There is no bad in the world.
Suppose you know someone who is having a terrible difficulty or challenge in life. You come along, smile at them and say, “Don’t worry, everything will be OK. Hashem will never leave you – wait and see, everything will turn out OK.” When you smile at a person, you chase away the clouds in their life. You make the sun shine for them. You give them a new lease on life. It’s the real deal, not just some nice expression, because once you remind a person that Hashem loves them and that Hashem is doing everything for the very best, they become instantly happier. Even more, with a smile and a kind word, you’ll illuminate the world and you’ll be saving lives, the easy way!
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