{"id":39612,"date":"2016-03-18T20:59:42","date_gmt":"2016-03-19T04:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=39612"},"modified":"2016-03-21T11:19:27","modified_gmt":"2016-03-21T19:19:27","slug":"little-ripples-kindness-create-big-waves-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/little-ripples-kindness-create-big-waves-happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"How Little Ripples of Kindness Create Big Waves of Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

<\/p>\n

Of all the Jewish holidays, none is anticipated by little children more than the festival of Purim.<\/p>\n

The historical origins of the celebration reside in the Babylonian conquest of Israel and the Jewish exile under\u00a0Persia and Media during the 4th Century BCE. The wicked viceroy Haman conspired with the opportunistic King Ahasuerus to eliminate the \u201cJewish problem\u201d once and for all by declaring \u201copen season\u201d on Jews all across the empire.<\/p>\n

All hope seemed lost. But literally overnight, through a series of apparent coincidences, the King turned against his evil viceroy and ordered him hanged on the gallows that Haman himself had built for the execution of Mordecai, the leader of the Jews. And then, in an extraordinary reversal, Mordecai the Jew was\u00a0elevated to the position of viceroy left vacant by Haman.<\/p>\n

The theme of reversal figures prominently in the traditional observance of Purim, which is seen as a kind of alter-ego to the solemn\u00a0holiday of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. In place of fasting there is feasting. In place of prayerful reflection there is revelry. In place of the simple white garments of purity there are costumes and spectacle.<\/p>\n

Children especially look forward to dressing up on Purim. But Purim is in no way a Jewish Halloween. Just the opposite: children dress up and go door-to-door not<\/em> to ask for treats and threaten tricks, but to give away<\/em> gifts of food to others.<\/p>\n

Which brings me to the point of this narrative, with only one more small digression.<\/p>\n

NO DEED TOO SMALL<\/p>\n

Every Friday morning I stop by the local Jewish bookstore to pick up for my wife a copy of Mishpacha Magazine<\/em>, which is published for the Torah-observant community. It contains several inserts, including special sections for children of varying ages. Our youngest daughter read them cover-to-cover for years, but since she moved out of the house those sections have been largely ignored.<\/p>\n

One afternoon, our friends Dave\u00a0and Donna* dropped by with their young boys, who immediately found the children\u2019s inserts and disappeared into them. From that day on, I\u2019ve brought the inserts with me each week to Friday night services, where I pass them along to Dave,\u00a0who then passes them along to his boys. It’s one of those little acts of kindness that costs nothing, takes almost no effort, and can make a big difference.<\/p>\n

And, in this case, it made a really big difference to a little boy and his mother.<\/p>\n

TURNABOUT IS FAIR PLAY<\/p>\n

Donna had recently ordered her son\u2019s Purim costume online — a classic fireman\u2019s outfit — when the little boy came home from school announcing he no longer wanted to be a fireman for Purim. As he and his friends at school were discussing how they planned to dress up, one classmate declared that a fireman\u2019s uniform was a \u201cdumb costume.\u201d As only a child can be, Donna\u2019s son was mortified and immediately decided that no way he was dressing up as a fireman.<\/p>\n

For the rest of the week, his mother tried to cajole the boy into reconsidering, but he would have none of it, leaving Donna uncertain whether to swallow the cost of the unwanted outfit or tell her son he could either dress up as a fireman or as nothing at all.<\/p>\n

Then came Friday night.<\/p>\n

I handed the magazines over to Dave\u00a0as usual, without even looking at them. Tucked in among them was a special Purim insert filled with pages and pages of costume ideas. And there, on the front cover, was a little boy wearing a fireman\u2019s uniform identical to the one Donna had ordered for her son.<\/p>\n

So Purim came early this year to the home of Donna and Dave, whose son is bouncing with excitement over the fireman\u2019s costume he\u2019ll be wearing for the holiday.<\/p>\n

One good deed leads to another<\/em>, teaches the Talmud. The ripples of kindness spread out across and beneath the surface of human interaction in ways we can\u2019t even imagine, and in ways we may never notice. But every once in a while, we get a glimpse of how the bread we cast upon the waters finds its way to unexpected places, and how little things can make a big difference.<\/p>\n

We all want to make a difference, to change the world for the better, to bring good into the lives of others. But we don\u2019t need a big stage to do it. As King Solomon says, \u201cA little light dispels much darkness.\u201d And a little kindness can produce much joy.<\/p>\n

Do you have a story about some small, kind act that had a big, unexpected payoff? If so, I\u2019d like to hear it. Please contact me here<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

*Personal details have been changed to protect privacy.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Rabbi Yonason Goldson<\/a>, a talmudic scholar and radio personality, is a former hitchhiker, circumnavigator, and newspaper columnist who lives with his wife in St. Louis, Missouri. \u00a0His new book is Proverbial Beauty: \u00a0Secrets for Success and Happiness from the Wisdom of the Ages<\/a>, a marriage of King Solomon\u2019s proverbs with the mysterious beauty of the Mona Lisa, is filled with discovery, insight, and inspiration.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all want to make a difference, to change the world for the better, to bring good into the lives of others. But we don\u2019t need a big stage to do it. As King Solomon says, \u201cA little light dispels much darkness.\u201d And a little kindness can produce much joy. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12163,"featured_media":39962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[32,9,5,21,58,7,6],"tags":[4641,5007,864,4631,66,4629],"yoast_head":"\nHow Little Ripples of Kindness Create Big Waves of Happiness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We all want to make a difference, to change the world for the better, to bring good into the lives of others. But we don\u2019t need a big stage to do it. 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