Doing Good Deeds to Start the New Year
By Dr. Elior Kinarthy
Doing good deeds and mitzvot are one of the prime directives of Jewish teaching and especially encouraged during the days of reflection between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
What are good deeds? In my opinion, the best actions create long lasting and positive results. As a former professor of Psychology, I experienced many instances of students benefiting from learning about human behaviours. Understanding and patient teachers can have long lasting effects especially if they proceed with wisdom and respect for the individual. There are many stories of teachers having profound influences that propel their students to confidence and success. One can donate tuition or the cost of books towards a struggling student, or sponsor a bursary or scholarship. A good deed that keeps on giving! Truly a wonderful mitzvah is to encourage a young person to reach their full potential.
Another important and long lasting mitzvah is to hire someone and give them a job. One of the best ways to ensure you have hired a capable person for the job is to examine their level of anxiety during the interview process. Above average anxiety can lead to forgetfulness, higher absenteeism, complaining and avoiding difficult tasks and this can negatively affect your business. If you interview someone who has no anxiety during an interview, has perfect answers, is very self confident and seems “too good to be true” they may be mild psychopaths or sociopaths. These personality types tend to cheat, (no absenteeism) demean others, and take over the workplace to their own advantage. Hiring someone can backfire without careful research and consideration, and the “good deed” that was well intentioned can end up doing more harm than good.
Doing mitzvot should be something that is thoughtfully and respectfully done and not impulsively. If you try to help people to compensate for a perceived deficiency, you may feel good temporarily but usually it will not be of any long term benefit. One should use logic, reasoning and rationality to determine the best course of action to any good deed or donation.
Positive initiatives are enhanced by:
respecting the capabilities of the person you are wanting to help
making sure you do not make suggestions for improvements
not assuming you know what is good for that person or their circumstances
asking if they would like assistance
helping others after gaining self-knowledge and reflecting on your talents and capabilities
Shana Tova and G’mar Hatimah Tova!