Our 9 year old grandson called today.
He was very proud of participating in what he called a wax museum production.
It took me a bit to understand what he meant, but apparently his very creative teacher had the students research an individual and write a few paragraphs based on their findings.
The students then dressed up as the person they studied and posed as a group, each one standing stock still.
This was the “wax museum”.
When it was the student’s turn to present, a “button” would be pressed to “bring them to life”and they would share the story of their character.
It was as if a puppet was brought to life and given the ability to speak.
Our grandson chose to restore Jackie Robinson to life.
This week’s Torah portions, Tazria and Metzora, there are two, focus, with great detail, on the deleterious effects of speaking ill of others.
If one speaks maliciously of another, the Torah describes an illness which is the punishment that will result.
This malady is called tzora’at, which is translated as a spiritual form of leprosy.
The individual who is inflicted is called a metzora.
Our Sages teach us that if we break up the word metzora we find the words “motzi ra” which means finding the bad.
A person who has tzara’at is one who seeks out the negative in the other.
Apparently it’s a choice.
When we look at someone else what do we decide to focus on?
We are not preprogrammed puppets or wax figures, going through mechanical motions.
We can see a person before us and seek to see the good rather than emphasizing the bad.
When Gd created the first person, Gd did create a figure of clay which would seem almost puppet like. But then Gd infused the human being with a speaking spirit, the capacity to express oneself through speech. This capability differentiates us from the animals and it is a characteristic which each person can control, either by using it for the good, by spreading words of kindness and positivity, or conversely using words to destroy.
A student once approached Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe, a profound Torah teacher of the recent past, and asked for advice on how to refrain from speaking poorly about others.
Rabbi Wolbe gave the student some very simple instructions. He told his disciple to make sure to perform three acts of kindness each day as well as to be mindful to share a compliment, a positive word or some type of encouragement with someone in their orbit every day.
These basic instructions have the ability to change a person perspective.
The underlying message in Rabbi Wolbe’s teachings is that we can make a choice, constantly, about focusing on the good. And when we do actions to cement those thoughts we will raise the positivity we feel towards those persons.
“One’s heart is drawn after their actions”.
The repetition of acts of kindness will bring out our own qualities of generosity and will allow our definition of the other to expand as well.
This is the ultimate imitation of Gd who extends kindness constantly and created us with the capacity to do the same if we so choose.
So it seems that by committing ourselves to three small acts of kindness daily, we can inculcate in ourselves the generosity of spirit which will flow over into the choices we make as we see others.
The freedom to choose to do those actions is in our hands.
Because we have not been created as wax figures in a museum but rather we have been created in the image of Gd.
And in the words of the one and only Jackie Robinson,
‘A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives”.
That impact can be a result of a kind word thoughtfully extended which can have eternal ramifications.
There are many stories of individuals who had reached a moment of despair and were going to act rashly only to be deterred at the last moment by a small act of kindness, a caring word extended, often by a complete stranger.
Making the choice to see good and say something good is what makes us a transcendent if sometimes flawed human! A much richer option than a perfect, but one dimensional wax doll.
The choice is ours!
Shabbat Shalom and so much love!