In Pirkei Avot 3:12, Rabbi Yishmael advises us to greet every person besimcha - joyfully. Rabbi Moshe Perl wrote an article in this week's Hamodia magazine entitled, "Finding your Inner Smile." He begins with an anecdote "about a student, who, upon entering the beis medrash, is asked by his rebbi why he looks so gloomy. The student begins to list a long litany of complaints about everything that is going wrong in his life. The rebbi quickly cuts him short and responds; "You didn't understand my question. I didn't ask you why you're so gloomy. I asked you why you look so gloomy." He further writes that "some even say that one who walks around displaying his bad behavior has violated a part of his obligation to treat others properly."
In the book, "Holy Woman", by Sara Yocheved Rigler, the author writes about Chaya Sara Kramer, a woman who lived through the holocaust and remained barren all her life. Despite her travails, Chaya Sara was always happy. "When I once asked her how she had maintained such an elevated level of joy, despite her not having the children she so craved, she replied indignantly: 'What! I should have been both barren and sad?'
Happiness is a choice, not the result of getting everything - or anything - one wants in life. Like kindness and patience, joy is a quality one must actively cultivate." (pg. 31)
This afternoon, I had the occasion to speak to some friends who had attended a three day seminar on the power of positive thinking and they told me how much the lecturer's words had influenced and changed their lives for the better.
The next time someone greets me on the street and asks me how I am, I hope to be able to answer them with a smiling countenance, "Baruch Hashem, couldn't be better."
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