Kindness
Delighting in contributing to the well-being and happiness of others is the very definition of kindness; expressing the goodwill and benevolence that is such a beautiful part of our spiritual essence.
In the early 1980’s, in a Sausalito, CA restaurant, Anne Herbet wrote on a placemat, “Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty.” (In 1993 she also authored a children’s book by that name.) There is a Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, www.randomactsofkindness.org and Random Act World Kindness Day is November 13, 2014, followed by Random Acts of Kindness Week (RAK), celebrated February 9-15, 2015.
According to research at UCLA and The University of Cambridge, when we see others helping others, it makes us feel good; inspiring us to be altruistic. In other words, kindness is contagious!
In Judaism the mitzvah is a good deed, an act of kindness that reflects the teaching that the world is built on kindness.
I invite you to celebrate that beautiful part of your spiritual self by giving and receiving Random Acts of Kindness.