Dear Friends,
How relevant are our private actions to anyone else?
This is a basic Jewish belief: nothing we do is truly isolated. Every mitzvah, every word, every choice—even one private thought—has an effect.
But how does that actually work?
Maimonides, known as the Rambam, teaches that a person should view himself—and the entire world—as perfectly balanced between good and evil. One action can tip the scale toward good and bring redemption to oneself and to the whole world.
At first, this sounds hard to understand. Can one private decision really matter that much?
This week’s Parsha, Nasso, gives us a powerful answer.
The Torah describes the dedication of the Mishkan, the portable Tabernacle in the desert. For twelve days, the leader of each tribe brought an offering to inaugurate the altar. The seventh day fell on Shabbos, and it was the turn of the tribe of Ephraim, a descendant of Joseph—Yosef.
Normally, a private offering in the temple does not override Shabbat. Only a communal offering does. Yet Ephraim’s leader was allowed to bring his personal offering. Why?
The Midrash explains that this was in the merit of Yosef, who kept Shabbos in Egypt even before the Torah was given.
But the Rebbe asks: how is this a reward? Yosef kept Shabbos, so his descendant was allowed to seemingly “break” Shabbos?
The answer is that Yosef’s greatness was not only that he remained righteous. He understood that his private choices were not really private.
Alone in Egypt, far from family, sold as a slave, and surrounded by corruption, Yosef could have said: “No one will know. No one will care.”
Yet when he was tested with Potifar’s wife to sin, he ran away.
The Talmud says Yosef saw the image of his father Yaakov. Our Sages teach that Yaakov’s appearance reflected Adam, the first human being. It was as if Yosef was being told: learn from Adam. One act can affect all of humanity.
That awareness gave Yosef strength. He knew his actions mattered not only to himself, but to the world.
Because Yosef lived with that sense of responsibility for the community, his descendant’s offering was treated like a communal offering. It was not a violation of Shabbos. It was an elevation of Shabbos.
This interconnectedness is the Jewish view of life.
Chassidus explains it this way: the world is like one living organism. Just as one part is not separate from the whole, one individual is not separate from creation. A small action in one part can affect the entire organism; in the same way, one mitzvah, one act of self-control, or one quiet moment of goodness sends spiritual energy through the world. Because G-d is the source of all life, everything is connected at its root. When one person brings more holiness into their own life, the larger world changes too.
The way we act when nobody is watching matters.
A kind word matters.
The content we consume matters.
Even choices no one else ever hears about leave a spiritual imprint.
A story: Reb Mendel Futerfas(1906–1995) was a Chassidic Jew who was sentenced to 9 years in the Soviet gulag for keeping religion alive in the former USSR. Being away from his family and community for so long, he would sometimes daven Mincha (afternoon prayer) alone in the forest. To strengthen himself, he would think: “This may be a place where no one ever prayed before. By praying here, I am bringing this corner of the world—and therefore the entire world—closer to redemption.”
That is the power of one hidden action.
The world is changed not only by public speeches and dramatic moments, but by quiet acts of integrity, courage, and holiness that nobody else may ever see.
Shabbat Shalom!
Good Shabbos!
Rabbi Yitzi Hein
