The people of Klal Yisrael always say, “I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed be His Name, rewards good to those who keep his mitzvos.”
Hashem gives reward for each mitzvah, each good deed, each word of proper speech, and every small act of hisgabrus. However, in order to be worthy of receiving reward in the World to Come, it is not enough to do good deeds. There are two things that transform a person into someone worthy of receiving reward. One of them is zikui harabbim, as Rabbeinu Bachyai wrote near the end of chapter 4: A person should show others the ways of serving the Creator yisbarach and should lead them to do good.
In order to be mezakeh the rabbim, a person does not have to be an esteemed mashpia. While someone who works in chinuch, such as a melamed, mashgiach, maggid shiur or rosh kollel is certainly mezakeh the rabbim through his work, even someone whose official job does not fall into this category can do so too – through influencing his family, his children, his neighbors, his friends, and people he meets. When a Yid acts in the proper ways of the Torah wherever he goes, then those in his presence are influenced by him, and he becomes a mezakeh rabbim.
A Yid walks down the street on a rainy day with a shopping cart filled with groceries he just bought. Suddenly, a car passes by him and sprays water in all directions. His suit gets dirty, his shopping cart is sprayed with water, some of the things he purchased get wet, and he says, “Gam zo l’tovah.” The neighbor who comes over to help him hears: “Did you see how much Hashem loves me? What a kapparah for my sins! And look how the sugar and salt are on the other side of the wagon and didn’t even get wet!”
What a wonderful perspective! Instead of complaining bitterly about his misfortune, he accepts these blessed rains with emunah and bitachon. How this influences his neighbor, who later goes home and sees that his family wasted all sorts of things in his absence.... Yesterday he would have asked, “Why don’t you all pay attention?!” – and behold, today he thinks to himself in the language that his good neighbor just taught him, “How Hashem loves me...”
The is an example of simple matters, but the reality of zikui harabbim affects all different areas of life and all things: dealing with parnassah, with health matters, with nachas, with shidduchim. You meet a Yid who is struggling, and he smiles and thanks you for everything. This gives you encouragement! And if he also says good words – how great is his reward! Every bit of chizuk we give others, every good word, each time we marvel about the goodness of Hashem — all of these bring with them more and more good.
In Maseches Tamid (28a) we learn, “Rabi says: What is the path of justice for a man to follow? He should love to be rebuked, for whenever there is rebuke in the world, nachas ruach comes to the world, goodness and blessing come to the world.”
One must know how to give rebuke. Not everyone is capable of giving rebuke. The Nefesh Hachaim teaches that these are instructions to those who give rebuke, that they should do so with pleasantness, “And good blessing shall come upon them.” Eliyahu Hanavi explains in Tanna D’vei Eliyahu that both the person who rebukes and the one who accepts his rebuke will be blessed with good blessing.
Actual rebuke — to tell a Yid that he did not do well and that he must behave differently — should be given by someone who knows the trade and whose words will be heard. Chizuk, however, anyone can give. Anyone can bring more and more soldiers for Hashem: to bring up in conversation the glory of those who learn Torah, and thus to strengthen those who learn and inspire others to go in their path; to tell stories of chizuk about the greatness of a mitzvah and about hashgachas Hashem; to tell each other good things that were heard about people who gave tzedakah, or those who held back from retorting when they were hurt, or who were careful to daven on time, and so much more. A person can never know where his good words will lead, how many Yidden will be strengthened and how many of them will change their way of thinking and even their deeds, all in the merit of his good words.
Each time one is mezakeh rabbim in this way, he merits to receive reward in the World to Come, for there are actions that go beyond fulfillment of his personal responsibility: There is deep caring here that increases the honor of the Name of Heaven in the world, and through the chizuk, blessing comes to the world and evil leaves the world. With these sorts of actions, a person cannot know what the end will be and how far-reaching his influence is, and he is zocheh to boundless reward. Fortunate is the one who merits to do so, and fortunate is his lot.
