Rabbi Hannah Estrin

What if God was one of us?

Just a slob like one of us

Just a stranger on the bus

Tryin’ to make his way home?

—– Lyrics to One of Us by Joan Osborne, 1995.

Quite the image isn’t it? Growing up in Southern California, I can count the number of times I rode a public bus on my fingers. I’m would not even need two hands. But I don’t need to be on a bus to be confronted by the slob or the stranger. I am embarrassed to think about how often have I walked down the street and consciously avoided eye contact with someone.  I did not want to see their humanity.

I spent ‘Jr Year Abroad’ at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Most Saturday nights we would leave campus and head downtown for a snack. I was on a tight budget, but this was the social outing of the week so a friend and I would share something and join in. There was a gentleman downtown. We called him the ‘Cantor Man.’ He sat at a specific corner of Ben Yehuda street and sang. I don’t recall the songs, but his voice was a deep and amazing baritone that would carry through the air. He had a hat in front of him and for several weeks we would each put a few sheckels in the hat. And then one night we struck up a conversation with him. What a story we learned and what a lesson I learned. 

Just a year before he had come from Russia, where he taught higher mathematics at the university in Moscow. He could not get certified to teach in an Israel University. He was tutoring and trying to gather money to bring the rest of his family to Israel. To join him in a place where they could safely and openly practice Judaism. Over the months we would have our outings and then we would bring a hot or cold drink for him and sit with him and talk for a few minutes. We learned his life story, saw photos of his family and would listen to letters that he received. And each week, we would give him small change. I will never forget the final Saturday night. We were all leaving soon & wanted to say goodbye. He said he wanted to thank us. Not for the cash but for our time, our interest, our smiles. For seeing him as a person, not just a beggar on the street. That is a lesson I never forget. The cash that we left was helpful, but seeing him as a person with a story and not simply a man begging, that was priceless.

It is easier to walk past someone who appears homeless, someone different than us. Worse yet, we may even move further away. As if they were contagious. According to the 2019 White House reports, roughly half-a-million people experience homelessness on any given night in the United States. Homelessness almost always involves people facing desperate situations and extreme hardship. They must make choices among very limited options, often in the context of extreme duress, substance abuse disorders, untreated mental illness, or unintended consequences from well-intentioned policies. It is estimated that more than 50% of us would be on the street within three months if we lost our jobs. Roughly 7 percent of the homeless are veterans. Do those who fought for our ideals and country not deserve at least a smile? Does it matter why someone is there? Are they not still human? 

In the Book of Ruth (2:4) we read of the landlord Boaz’s greeting to the simple workers: “And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and he said to the reapers, ‘May God be with you!’ And they said to him, ‘God bless you.’” Despite the differences in their status, he made a point to greet them with pleasantness. Pirke Avot, the Ethics of the Fathers,  teaches us that we should greet each person kindly and with a warm smile. 

Smiling requires us to get out of our own heads and see the world around us. Smiling takes thought and effort. Did you know that a ‘fake smile’ and a ‘real smile’ are generated from different parts of the brain? I try to make it a practice to greet each person I pass with a smile and hello. Sometimes though, I am lost in thought. Sometimes I don’t want to open the door to more conversation. Sometimes I am simply grouchy. Yet, over time, this simple act has become second nature, and my world has been brightened by a return smile time and time again.  What a simple and powerful gift we have to give each other. Just because we take second of our day to see the other person.

We have the power to treat each person we meet as made in the image of God. We have the power to give a smile, say hello, and when possible, to give assistance. We are only made richer by those we meet. A small act to remind us that each individual is important. We don’t have to be perfect. Heavens knows I am not. We simply need to remember that they, like us, are created in the image of God. Shouldn’t we want to smile at God? After all God could well be a stranger on the bus.