As posted on October 5, 2012 by Sam Blustin on Soup for the Neshama
“During his stay in Mezritch, the Rabbi of Kolbashow saw an old man come to the Great Maggid (Rabbi Dov Ber) and ask him to impose penance on him for his sins. ‘Go home,’ said the Maggid. ‘Write all your sins down on a slip of paper and bring it to me.’ When the man brought him the list, he merely glanced at it and he said, ‘Go home. All is well.’ But later the rav observed that Rabbi Ber read the list and laughed at every line. This annoyed him. How could anyone laugh at sins!
For years he could not forget the incident, until once he heard someone quote a saying of the Ba’al Shem: ‘It is well-known that no one commits a sin unless the spirit of folly possesses him. But what does the sage do if a fool comes to him? He laughs at all this folly, and while he laughs, a breath of gentleness is wafted through the world. What was rigid, thaws, and what was a burden comes light.’ The rav reflected. In his soul he said: ‘Now I understand the laughter of the Holy Maggid.”
We all do things that we’re not proud of. We’ve all been recipients of things that others aren’t proud of. And now that we’ve been forgiven for our shortcoming by our family, friends, strangers, and the big guy upstairs, we have the opportunity to start a new. But how do we avoid making those same mistakes again this year, and how do we deal with them we they pop up again?
The Ba’al Shem Tov teaches us how we should act, and the Maggid shows us to do so. When we run into situations that we don’t like, we can decide, as we say in the camping world, to “choose our attitude.” In these cases, we can choose to take things personally, as an attack on ourselves and on our pride, or we can laugh them off, like Rabbi Ber. Notice as well, that Rabbi Ber waits until after the man leaves to laugh, so as not to embarrass him.
Clearly, these two sages had the same opinion on this issue. Take responsibility for what we have done. Life can be funny and irrational. And treat the world with a smile and a kind face. We don’t get to choose what happens to us in life. But we do get to decide how we respond; We can be proactive or we can be reactive.
Not only did our Rabbi’s know the power of laughter hundreds of years ago, but modern day science has proven that people who laugh more actually live longer. Maybe it’s because they’re not as stressed about what people think about them, and they’re not worrying about the affect of other’s actions, but instead laugh about them?
My blessing for everyone this Shabbas is that we take control of our lives, starting with ourselves. Let’s all become more self conscious of our reactions to events and how those reactions control our actions.
Shabbat Shalom,
SB
Here’s the “Laughing Song” for your weekend enjoyment.
(Story taken from “Ideas and Ideals of the Hassidim” by Dr. Milton Aron, p. 48, which was taken from Buber’s Tales of the Hasidim, Early Masters, p. 109.)
