Why Should We Bother?

Each day presents us with opportunities to touch a persons life. It can be as simple as smiling at someone who be suffering from depression or smiling at a homeless. It can be more complex by engaging in a conversation with a homeless person and finding out why he is living on the streets. Or it can simply choosing to find ways to bring peace to your home and community. One way to bring peace is to listen, really listen to family, friends, co=workers, and at times, the strangers we encounter.

A Simple Jew in his post, Why Are They There? is a reflection on these thoughts. He writes:

How often do we stop, look around us, and consider that every single person we see is there because Hashem wants these people to be in our lives? There may be times when we may not care to deal with some of them, yet how can we be so dismissive of them? If there was absolutely no reason for us to come into contact with them during the course of our day, why are they there to begin with?

So there are these people we encounter everyday. Why are they there? Should we even bother with them?

Miriam at Shearim points out in her post, Revenge As A State of Emergency shows why we should bother with those who may be problematic. She writes of her leaving the haredi life. She choose to announce her decision by wearing pants and it set her apart from the community. Her reflections:

On the bus I felt great. I looked at all the Haredim sitting there and was so glad not to be one of them anymore. A feeling of total freedom arouse.
In the Jewish Quarter in the Old City I met a young haredi woman I know. She looked at my me and her following reaction was one of the most surprising in my entire life. She only asked one question:
"Who hurt you ?"
And it was this question letting me almost burst out and faint. However, I pulled myself together and stumbled something I cannot even remember today.
But, who did hurt me ?

Who hurt you?: An awesome response. No judgement, just a person trying to reach out and find out what has caused someone so much pain to renounce a way of life. This is why we should bother. It helps alleviate a person's pain.