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any of us have seen family portraits with Bubby and Zeidy in the center surrounded by their children grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Sometimes there are so many people in the picture it’s hard to imagine that all of them descended from just one couple. A guest who joined our Shabbos seudah recently told us that his grandmother passed away a few years ago leaving 2 500 descendants. (Yes you read it correctly. That’s two thousand five hundred descendants!!) What a family picture that would have been!

Just think about it. A woman gives birth to many children. With each child she endures a long pregnancy and then suffers through labor pains. She wakes up multiple times a night to feed and care for each infant. She devotes herself to raising her children taking care of their physical and emotional needs providing for their chinuch cooking cleaning shopping chauffeuring doing homework with them and more — perhaps while also working to help support her family. Oftentimes it feels overwhelming and unmanageable.

Fast forward to the time when all the children are grown and have children of their own. The pain that the mother went through to give birth to her children and the efforts she expended to care for them have borne fruit. She no longer has to go through pregnancy and labor pains yet the grandchildren keep coming. If she’s blessed with a long life and if her children are blessed with large families then with relatively little effort on her part she can enjoy the tremendous nachas that comes along with generations of descendants.

As we know everything in the physical world has a parallel in the ruchniyus world.

The word toldos is generally translated as offspring. Rashi however offers an additional explanation when explaining the pasuk “Eileh toldos Noach” (Bereishis 6:9). Rashi explains that the “toldos ” the offspring of a tzaddik are his maasim tovim his good deeds.

Reach for Immortality

It is certainly no coincidence that the Torah uses the same word for both children and good deeds.

Children provide their parents with a measure of immortality. When children give birth to more children who continue to give birth to even more children the number of descendants increases exponentially with the parents living on in each of the descendants. If a couple has six children and each of those children has an average of six children and each of those children has an average of six children as well and so on then in five generations the original couple could have more than 7 000 descendants. In ten generations they could have more than 60 million descendants! All from two people!

Similarly maasim tovim can multiply exponentially. When we perform a good deed we’re not performing just one isolated act. We’re setting in motion a series of actions whose ripple effect can continue for generations. The travail we suffer to do a good deed is limited; the positive effects linger on. When someone leaves This World he can no longer perform mitzvos. However the positive effects of his maasim tovim continue to be credited to him and cause his neshamah to have an aliyah in the Next World.

A magnificent example of this is recounted in Genendel Krohn’s Sparks of Majesty. In the years following World War I the American army maintained a presence inGermany. A soldier named Alex Lurye fromDuluthMinnesotawas stationed inSeltersGermany and was provided with room and board by the Rosenhaus family. Although the occupying Americans were considered to be enemies the Rosenhaus family extended hospitality to Mr. Lurye since their attitude was “A Jew is a Jew even if he is an occupying enemy soldier.” Mr. and Mrs. Rosenhaus treated Alex like family and made him feel welcome and comfortable.

Years later as anti-Semitism inGermanyincreased a daughter and son-in-law of the Rosenhauses named Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Weinberg were anxious to leaveGermanyand immigrate to theUnited States. Due to strict immigration policies however they were told that it would take many years to obtain the necessary visas but if they could procure a sponsor who would take financial responsibility for them once they arrived in theUS the process could be expedited.

The Weinbergs were in a quandary. Who could possibly be their sponsor? They didn’t know anyone inAmerica.

While rummaging through a chest of letters in his grandparents’ attic one day one of the Weinberg children discovered a letter of appreciation that Mr. Alex Lurye had written to the Rosenhauses thanking them for their kind hospitality. The letter was postmarkedDuluthMinnesota. The Weinbergs wrote a letter to Mr. Lurye requesting that he sponsor them. Not knowing the exact address not even certain that Mr. Lurye still lived inDuluth they wrote on the envelope only “Alex Lurye Duluth MN.”

Through a chain of events that could only be attributed to tremendous Hashgachah pratis Mr. Lurye received the letter. Recalling the kindness that had been done to him by the Rosenhauses he agreed to serve as a sponsor for their family and even persuaded others to sign their names as sponsors as well. Mr. Lurye worked for many months to obtain visas for Mr. and Mrs. Weinberg and their three children.

As a result of an act of chesed that their parents had done to a complete stranger Mr. and Mrs. Weinberg and their family were spared the horrors of the Holocaust. They originally settled inDuluthand then moved toMinneapolis where they became builders of the community tirelessly working to establish the shul day school and other mosdos. The ripple effect of one act of kindness was that an entire family was saved and a city grew and prospered.

Impacting the Upper Worlds

Rav Chaim of Volozhin explains in Nefesh HaChaim that every action we do has a far-reaching effect not only in This World but also in the upper worlds. Man is created b’tzelem Elokim in the image of Hashem. This means that a person is granted incredible power to affect the world with his actions.

Quoting the pasuk “Hameivin el kol maaseihem — Hashem comprehends regarding all their deeds” (Tehillim 33: 15) Rav Chaim questions the need for the seemingly extra word “el — regarding.” He explains that Hashem comprehends not only the actions of a person but also everything regarding those actions i.e. the effects of the actions on the upper worlds. Rav Chaim of Volzhin explains the pasuk “Maggid le’adam mah seicho — Hashem tells a person what his conversation is” (Amos 4:13) in a similar vein. When a person ultimately stands in front of Hashem in judgment Hashem will tell him what effect his words had in the upper worlds either to build or to destroy. A person may think that his conversations are trivial. In truth each and every word has tremendous power.

What prevents us from performing a mitzvah? Usually we don’t do it because we think it’s too difficult. It’s hard to give up on our comfort our time or our money. If we look ahead however and try to envision the ripple effect of our mitzvah in both This World and in the upper world then perhaps we’ll be able to spur ourselves forward and act no matter the difficulty.

Let’s take the time to consider the thousands of offspring that can descend from just one couple and perhaps that will serve as an inspiration for us to recognize the myriad benefits that can result from just one action.

Rebbetzin Suri Gibber has been involved in chinuch banos for decades first as general studies principal in Bais Yaakov High School of Miami and for the past 15  years as principal of Bais Yaakov High School of the Twin Cities. She gives adult education classes as well. If you have any comments or questions on this column please contact fundamentals@mishpacha.com.