Words have power. In every utterance, there is real opportunity to build up another person and affect him positively forever. Wishing a simple \u2018good morning\u2019 to a neighbour, giving a sincere compliment to a friend, or asking about a co-worker\u2019s wellbeing with genuine interest can impact the recipient in ways that we could never imagine. The person will feel cared for, respected, and valued. And this, in turn, can bring joy to his day and give him a feeling of self-worth that can be cherished for a lifetime.<\/p>\n
The following true story clearly illustrates this point:<\/p>\n
Mechel Tauber received a phone call from Rabbi Berel Oppenheim of Yeshivah Ohr Yechezkel in Monsey. Rabbi Oppenheim needed Mr. Tauber\u2019s assistance in getting permission from the township officials to begin construction on a new building for the yeshivah. Since it was well-known that Mr. Tauber was friendly with Phil O\u2019Reilly, who worked at the nearby township offices, Rabbi Oppenheim was hoping that Mr. Tauber could speak with Mr. O\u2019Reilly on the yeshivah\u2019s behalf. \u201cI really would like to help you,\u201d Mr. Tauber sighed, \u201cbut that\u2019s a hard one. I don\u2019t speak to Phil often, although we do get along well. Also, Phil isn\u2019t Jewish and, unfortunately, isn\u2019t particularly fond of the Jewish population here. Your yeshivah is not the only place that has had a hard time getting building permits.\u201d \u201cCan you at least try?\u201d Rabbi Oppenheim begged. Mr. Tauber agreed to do his best and made an appointment to speak to Mr. O\u2019Reilly. \u201cSo, Mr. Tauber,\u201d Mr. O\u2019Reilly greeted him happily the next morning. \u201cWhat are you building today?\u201d Readying himself to deal with the negative reaction that was sure to follow, Mr. Tauber began to explain the reason for his visit. \u201cWell, actually, I\u2019m not coming for myself today. I wanted to speak to you on behalf of a yeshivah.\u201d \u201cA yeshivah? Sure! What do they need?\u201d Mr. Tauber couldn\u2019t believe what he was hearing. \u201cI appreciate your readiness to help, but honestly Phil\u2026what\u2019s gotten into you?\u201d Mr. O\u2019Reilly smiled at Mr. Tauber\u2019s confusion. \u201cI\u2019d like to share a story with you. My mother lives in a nursing home nearby. When I visit her, she is often in a very depressed state. One weekend, though, I found her smiling and looking very happy. I was pleased to see her in a better mood, so I asked her, \u2018Mom, why are you in such a good mood today?\u2019 Do you know what she answered me? She said, \u2018Phil, it\u2019s because a rabbi smiled at me and wished me a good morning! Now, I go out every morning at the same time just so I can see him. He makes my day.\u2019 I\u2019m telling you, Mr. Tauber, this rabbi changed my mother\u2019s life! She is a different person now. So when you say the word \u2018yeshivah,\u2019 I\u2019m ready to help you. What can I do for you?\u201d From that day on, Phil O\u2019Reilly was always ready to help the Jewish schools and organisations whenever there was a problem.<\/p>\n
Mr. Tauber later found out that the friendly rabbi was none other than Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, ztz\u201dl<\/em>, Rosh Yeshivah of Mesivta Torah Vodaath in Brooklyn, New York, and a great Torah sage. Rav Yaakov understood the power of a smile and a greeting to another person. Look how far his greeting to an elderly, non-Jewish woman went! How difficult was it for the Rosh Yeshivah to take a moment and wish someone a friendly good morning? Likely, it was not very hard. Yet it was this small gesture that made a profound impact on a lonely soul, ultimately enabling a yeshivah to acquire much-needed permits for a new building.<\/p>\n It\u2019s incumbent upon us to heed this important lesson. Despite the frenetic pace and stresses of our own daily lives; it only takes a moment to flash a smile and wish someone a good day. Not only will this positively impact that person, but even more, it will likely cause an endless ripple effect, as that person may then be inspired to reach out warmly and graciously to others he meets that day \u2013 and so on and so forth. Who knows just how far a pleasant greeting or kind word will travel? The effects are inestimable! And we mustn\u2019t forget that, by doing so, we profoundly impact ourselves as well, <\/em>becoming more caring, genuine people.<\/p>\n By: Sara Gila Margulies Words have power. In every utterance, there is real opportunity to build up another person and affect him positively forever. Wishing a simple \u2018good morning\u2019 to a neighbour, giving a sincere compliment to a friend, or asking about a co-worker\u2019s wellbeing with genuine interest can impact the recipient in ways that we could never imagine. The person will feel cared for, respected, and valued. And this, in turn, can bring joy to his day and give him a feeling of self-worth that can be cherished for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-6","category-may-2016"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions\/233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Sara Gila Margulies is a staff writer for the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation (CCHF), an organisation based in the USA dedicated to promoting the Torah\u2019s wisdom on human relations and personal development. In South Africa, the Chofetz Chaim Educational Foundation makes CCHF programming on positive\/proper speech available to local Jewish schools and communities. For more information: cchfsa@gmail.com<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"