The Greatest Thing in the World is to Do Something Good for Someone Else (Ekev)

Parashat Eikev includes the ancient promise: “If you listen, then things will go well for you.” At first glance, it seems simple — do good, and good will follow. But as we know, life is rarely that straightforward. If only the world worked like that, but it doesn’t. As we age, we come to understand ever more deeply that bad things do happen to good people. It is instructive to note that Rabbi Harold Kushner, in his seminal work “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” wasn’t asking why — he was acknowledging the reality that unfairness is part of our lived experience.

The Torah speaks of rewards for following mitzvot, but even the ancient rabbis teach us that these rewards aren’t necessarily found in this world. Instead, the true reward for fulfilling a mitzvah is the mitzvah itself — the opportunity to do more good (Pirkei Avot 4:2). We’re not meant to follow the mitzvot for the sake of reward, but because it is right.

I was reminded of this during a recent visit to Israel, where I had the privilege of meeting children supported by an organization called SAHI that instills this very value. They’ve faced immense challenges, yet they are taught, in the tradition of the great Polish Jewish educator Janusz Korczak (1878–1942) and Rabbi Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapiro (1889–1943), whose lives intertwined in the Warsaw Ghetto, that the greatest thing in the world is to do something good for another person. And they live it — every day, in ways both big and small.

This lesson is timeless. Doing good isn’t about what we get in return, but about being part of something greater than ourselves. It’s about embodying a love so true that it expects nothing in return. When we act with kindness, when we choose to show up for others, we bring a piece of the world to come into the here and now.

May we be blessed, in this way, with the strength to show up for others, to be the person who doesn’t wait for rewards but acts because it’s the right thing to do. May you be a good ancestor, a good neighbor, and may the kindness you offer ripple out in ways you can’t even imagine. As Rabbi Harold Kushner said, “If there were any ‘help others’ sections in bookstores, there would be no need for self-help sections.” Let’s build a world where we show up for each other, where we remember that doing good is the greatest thing we can do. And in that, may we find true blessing.