Share Good News!

Most of what shows up in your news feed is going to put you in a bad mood; Because so many of your friends think it’s their responsibility to click share on every negative news article they read. Well I’m here to tell you that they got the wrong memo.

I am fortunate to have a friend who put me in a good mood earlier this week. Thanks to his click, a very positive article showed up in my news feed, (It was about a new device, developed in Israel, that will help prevent preterm birth), and it got me thinking…how his simple act of sharing good news was beneficial to me and my state of mind.

It occurred to me that this was what the Rebbe referred to when he encouraged the many (tens of thousands of) people who wrote to him with their challenges and needs, to also write to him when they had good news to share. The Rebbe even called this “sharing of good news” an act of love -integral to foundational Jewish mitzvah, “to love your fellow as yourself.”

It’s true that for many of us it doesn’t come naturally. As humans we are predisposed to focus on the negative. The the laws of nature have us on high alert for anything that might threaten our well-being, and so we have evolved to beings who are fixated on the negative aspects of our lives and of the world around us.

This was highlighted in conversation I just had yesterday evening. I had called someone to check in on them and the first thing they shared was the stress they were feeling about an issue with their teenage daughter. Thankfully I stayed for the whole conversation, because by the end of it we had also talked about the the many excellent things that were going on with that same daughter, as well as some other great updates on her siblings. Of course the human heart is conditioned to share its troubles, and as a Rabbi and friend I am in the position to help with it, but when put in context, the stressful situation was hardly as stressful as that instinctive “news that is fit to share first” made it sound.

Our conversation concluded with me pointing that out, because it is important for us to put our challenges in context, and to give as much (if not more) focus on all the good things going on around us. Another rule of nature is that you get more and attract more of what you focus on!

So help me out here- Let’s start a trend of sharing good news. I am convinced that it is a moral obligation.

On that note, I’ll be the first to share. You were all so concerned and helpful when I had shared the tragic news, a few months ago, that my brother-in-law passed away. So today I want to share the wonderful news that this week my niece (his oldest daughter) got engaged! We are all so grateful that my sister and her family have this wonderful joy in their life right now. Thank G-d!

Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom.