This weekend, I have the pleasure of being in New York for the annual International Conference of Shluchim. Chabad rabbis from every corner of the world are gathered to gain inspiration and share ideas about how to carry out our mission of bringing Moshiach by saturating the world with goodness. I heard ideas in workshops and in conversations between sessions that I look forward to bringing home to El Paso. One theme we kept coming back to was how much a single mitzvah can accomplish.
In this week’s parsha, Chayei Sarah, Avraham sends his servant Eliezer to find a wife for his son Yitzchak. Eliezer brings back Rivka, who grew up in a home known for dishonesty, and leaves it to join a family whose home was permeated with faith and kindness. The Torah tells us that Yitzchak brought Rivka into his mother Sarah’s tent. Our sages explain that when she entered, a miracle that had happened during Sarah’s lifetime returned.
Each Friday, Sarah lit candles to welcome Shabbat, and they remained lit until the following Friday. It was reminiscent of the miracle that would take place many generations later on Chanukah. After Sarah passed away, Avraham and Yitzchak continued to light Shabbat candles. They were doing the mitzvah, and their candles burned for as long as the fuel ordinarily lasted. When Rivka lit the candles at the age of three, they burned for an entire week.
Think about who was lighting those candles. Avraham and Yitzchak were two of the greatest spiritual giants in our history. Yet a three-year-old girl lit candles that filled the tent with light all week. The spiritual stature of the person doing a mitzvah tells us very little about how far its light can reach. Sometimes a small child can accomplish through a single mitzvah what even the greatest of the great could never accomplish.
This teaches us something very powerful about how to view Mitzvah action. When a little girl lights her Shabbat candle for the first time, it is easy to think about what the experience will mean for her as she grows up. Rivka’s candles focus our attention on the impact of the child’s Mitzvah right now!
Maimonides declared long ago that we should see ourselves and the entire world as evenly balanced between good and evil. One mitzvah can tip the scales and bring redemption to the world. We usually have no way of seeing how far the light of a mitzvah travels. But the mitzvah that tips the scales may be the one a small child does this Friday, as she lights her Shabbat candle.