In Breishit (Genesis) chapter 37 we learn that there was a great famine in the land and Yaakov (Jacob) send the 10 brothers to graze the sheep. But because of the scarcity of food for the sheep the brother had to travel a great distance towards Shechem (Nablus today). After some time passed and the the brothers had not returned Yaakov became very worried and send Yosef (Joseph) to find them.
Yosef became terribly lost. He reached into his pocket and tried to call his father for assistance on his cell phone but the battery was dead and he could not find a place to plug in his charger. He then reached for his GPS and could not lock onto a single satellite signal. So Yosef did what no self-respecting man would ever do. He actually stopped and approached a nameless man in a field. The man asked Yosef what he wanted. And Yosef replied that he was looking for his brothers. The man then pointed in the direction of Dothan and said that he thinks that they went towards Dothan.
The Bible never mentioned the man’s name or anything more about him. He might have been totally lost in the continuum of time if the Bible did not give him the credit due him for this simple act of kindness telling Yosef where he might find his brothers. A without his directions Yosef might not have found his brothers. As such a simple act of kindness changed the entire course of history resulting in Yosef being sold into slavery, rising to the second highest position in Egypt, saving everyone with his emergency planning for the Great Famine, the slavery and subsequent Exodus from Egypt, the Revelation at Mount Sinai, 40 years in the desert, and ultimately reaching the G-d given Holy Land to his people. And all of the subsequent history. And all of this came about because of one simple act of kindness fulfilling G-d’s divine plan. So the lesson of this story is that we must think about each of our actions because we may never know went a simple act of kindness may not be insignificant and actually impact someone else’s life and change someone’s world forever.
