“Acts of kindness never die. They linger in the memory, giving lift to other acts in return.”

-Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

Like the film Pay It Forward, acts of kindness set off on a life of their own. The teaching is that our bad deeds cause harm for 3 or 4 generations, but goodness persists for thousands of generations. Like a ripple in a pond spreading out in all directions, our acts of kindness, big and small, have ripple effects that may reach beyond our knowing.

Rumi teaches: “If you open your loving to G!D’s Loving, you are helping people you don’t know and have never met.”  The kindness shown to me today may prompt me to offer kindness to someone else, and they to another, and so forth and so on, in an ever widening arc, a positive reinforcing cycle.

So yes, cruelty is powerful. But kindness is more powerful. The odds are a thousand to 4 I’m right on this one.

Where and how can you practice kindness today?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jonathan Henry Sacks, Baron Sacks, (born 8 March 1948) is a British rabbi, philosopher and scholar of Judaism. He served as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth of  the United kingdom from 1991 to 2013.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive, consultant, and a lowly rabbinic student. He can be reached at joe.laur@godsdog.net.