Make Someone Smile

I recently… got out of the house… at night!! Congratulate me!

Hashem gave me a very big test a few weeks ago. In my local circular I saw a well-known rabbi was going to be speaking right after Shabbat. In my town. Right up the street!

I tore out the ad and stuck it on my fridge next to my kids’ artwork, school reminders, and bar mitzvah invitations. You know, I really can’t stand clutter, especially when it’s on the fridge. But I don’t have a better solution. And the ironic thing is that when you see something so much, it’s like you don’t really see it anymore. So I’ve almost missed several important meetings with teachers, dentists, and massage therapists (yeah, right) because I just don’t see the notes anymore.

I was looking forward to it all week, and then my Zumba teacher decided to do a two-hour Chanukah Zumba party – at the same time of the lecture! And the kicker was that after the party we’d all go out to dinner. Seriously, Hashem?!?!?

My inner battle raged the entire week: go out with friends because I rarely get such a fun opportunity, or go hear a prominent rabbi? Well, you should be proud of me! In the end, I decided to go to the rabbi’s lecture. (Of course, the fact that Hashem made me feel very weak the entire day kind of helped make my decision a bit easier, but let’s just keep that between us.)

Anyhow, the lecture was awesome. The rabbi spoke about the topic of making a kiddush Hashem. Many people think it’s just the willingness to die to sanctify Hashem’s name. But it’s actually much more than that.

Interestingly, he said that a chillul Hashem, or desecration of Hashem’s name, can only be erased by a person’s death. Well that just makes me feel so much better. There are so many types of chillul Hashem, and slander and rude behavior (if a person is religious) are probably among the top two worst types.

But!

He said that there is one way to make things a little better. Obviously you can’t undo the damage, because a real chillul Hashem poisons a person’s perception of someone else, and is almost impossible to undo. Therefore, the way to help fix things is to make a kiddush Hashem.

The best way is to do something that brings a person closer to Hashem, even if it’s a very subtle thing. This means we need to do our best to make someone feel good. It’s not about preaching Torah and telling others that they have to come closer to G-d or they’ll burn in hell. Wrong religion, people.

So we can see that there are endless possibilities to do this every day. Open a door for someone. Smile and say hello when you pass someone you know on the street. Let the guy in the next car go first. Don’t bite when someone starts yelling at you. Do something extra to make someone feel special.

You know how you can gauge if you did it right? If they smile.

Putting a smile on another person’s face is such a huge mitzvah, probably one of the biggest in our Torah. We don’t know how much stress another person is under. We can’t see what’s going on inside of them, how much they may be suffering. Making them smile, even for a split second, is literally taking them away from their pain and putting them in an alternate reality.

That is something truly incredible. And it’s so easy.

I sincerely hope you take this wisdom and use it every single day. You’ll be amazed at how good it will make you feel to make others smile. Because in the end, being happy is truly the greatest gift of all.