Jason is a recent Baal Teshuva who was involved with us at Rutgers.

One Erev Shabbos last summer, he drove from his home in NY to Edison to spend Shabbos. There was massive flooding and traffic along the New Jersey Turnpike came to a standstill. The hours ticked by and as the sun set, Jason turned off the highway to exit 12 in Carteret. He parked the car and asked some locals if they knew where he could find the closest Shul. He was directed to a building, several miles blocks away, which turned out to be the Carteret Yeshiva.

Unfortunately, it was bein hazmanim and nobody was there. Jason tried all of the doors and the only one open was in the back. Hashgacha arranged that the handyman who was supposed to fix the back door didn’t show up until the following week. Jason spent the evening eating stale matzah. As he set up two chairs to go to sleep, he saw a police car with flashing lights pull up to the Yeshiva. “Great,” he thought. “Now I’ll get arrested for trespassing.” In fact it was an NJ State trooper who had transported two other Jews from Lakewood who had also been stranded on the highway. The trooper explained that he lives in Toms River and is stationed near Carteret and he knew all about Shabbos. Jason and the two Yidden from Lakewood spent a different type of inspiring Shabbos. On Motzai Shabbos the trooper returned and helped all three Jews back to their vehicles.

Why was the State Trooper so eager to help? Likely because his interactions with frum people in Toms River had been positive. Because they were friendly to him and so he looked favorably upon Frum Jews. So he was more than happy to enable three Jews to keep Shabbos.

Anti Semitism is back with a vengeance. We see it everywhere and here in Lakewood, it is palpable. One of the most common complaints that we hear from our neighbors is that we don’t acknowledge them. We don’t say hello. Or look them in the eye when we interact. They incorrectly assume that we view them with disdain, when in fact, we often just lead very busy lives and some of us are just shy. Many of us come from New York City where acknowledging a stranger is simply not done.

We would be well advised to look to our Chachamim to see what they did.

Rav Yochanan Ben Zakkai, the leader of Klal Yisroel during the period right before, during and after the destruction of the second Bais Hamikdash, undoubtedly had to deal with much Jew hatred from the surrounding nations around Israel and the many Romans who lived there. Tensions ran high before and during the Churban, as the Jews revolted against the Romans. It was said regarding Rabban Yochanon ben Zakai that no one ever preceded him in giving the greeting of “Shalom”, even a non Jew [whom he would meet] in the marketplace. (Berachos 17A). This is the same Rav Yochanan Ben Zakkai of whom it was said that throughout his entire life he never spoke mundane speech, he never walked four amos without studying Torah or without being adorned with tefillin. (Sukkah 28A).

Imagine the power of Rav Yochanan Ben Zakkai’s Torah, his Koach Hadibur, never uttering Sichah Bitayla, his powers of focus and concentration, never walking 4 Amos without Torah and Tefillin. Yet it is this same man who found it imperative to stop thinking in learning and in his Tefillin greet everyone, Jew or non Jew, in the marketplace (a marketplace is, by definition, somewhere that people are unfamiliar with each other). Surely, it is incumbent upon us to take the time to have a nice word for a worker, vendor, or even the cashier at Target.

And while a kind word or act will not cure all anti Semitism, it will increase Shalom in the world. You may even be in for a pleasant surprise when you get to the Next World, after 120.

But it’s more than that. Because a kind word may not only have some positive unintended consequence, it may even enable hundreds of other Jews return to Torah:

Rabbi Shmuel Lynn, Executive Director of Meor Manhattan, worked for many years as the Meor campus Rabbi at the University of Pennsylvania. As an inspiring mekarev who lead many of his students to teshuva, Rabbi Lynn would invariably encounter an occasional irate parent who incorrectly assumed that their child becoming Shomer Shabbos meant that they would disassociate themselves from their family and would never be able to be gainfully employed.

On one occasion, a hysterical parent called up the University and complained. The University brought the charges to a University administrator who oversaw religious life on campus. Rabbi Lynn went to meet the administrator, who was an ordained Minister. He took one look at Rabbi Lynn and said, “You’re an Orthodox Jew, correct? I grew up in a poor, African American section of Baltimore. I was a poor orphan boy, but some Orthodox Jews from Pikesville, Md sent me to a Jewish camp in Maine. The camp was hosted by Orthodox Jews and they were very kind to me. These Jews taught me about G-d.” Rabbi Lynn and the Minister developed a good relationship which enables Meor to work with hundreds of students at Penn and has facilitated the return of hundreds of Jewish Penn students to their roots.

Imagine the scene of the camp counselors and administrators who were so kind to this child, ascending to stand trial in the Olam Haemes after they passed on. They won’t even know of the massive reward that they will receive in the next world, for their part in helping dozens of Penn students return to Klal Yisroel. They will not have known about their role in the Penn alumnus, who after attending yeshiva Machon Shlomo in Yerushalayim, spent more time in Yeshiva and Kollel and just recently finished Shas. All they did was say a kind word and gave a child, of no consequence to them, a smile and a sincere acknowledgement.

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Rabbi Meir Goldberg is the Director of Meor Rutgers Jewish Xperience