Zohran Mamdani was elected the next Mayor of New York.
The Dodgers won the World Series.
The Boise State basketball team lost its season opener.
All of these events share something in common.
Mamdani’s election was the net result of every single vote cast for him. We shall see, what his tenure as Mayor of New York brings, but he was elected by each person’s vote.
The Blue Jays played 162 games and then won the playoffs to make it to the World Series. The competition went into extra innings of Game Seven. They lost by one point. Each out, including a runner arriving at the base less than a second after the ball, contributed to the final result.
The Broncos lost by one point. Against a Division II team. Who had a guard wearing a yarmulke.
Despite the Broncos coming within one point with under a minute remaining, they could not avoid the upset. But, the game was won and lost in the previous 39 minutes as well. Every moment and every shot counts.
What we learn from all these occurrences is that although the final result was a collective result, each individual – and each individual’s individual act – contributed to the outcome.
In our spiritual lives we need to take the same attitude. Rambam (Maimonides) writes that a person should always, “see himself and the entire world as equally balanced between merit and sin. If he commits one sin, he tips his balance and that of the entire world to guilt and brings on destruction.” Of course, one mitzvah can bring salvation and goodness to the entire world.
No person and no act is insignificant.
This lesson is also underscored in this week’s parsha. G-d destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah due to their sins. Hashem declares, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah as it has increased; and their sin as it has become exceedingly heavy. Let Me now go down and see if as her cry that has come to me they have done – annihilation.”
Nechama Leibowitz points out that G-d blames – and punishes – the collective sins of the entire populace. Yet, in the next sentence, Hashem states that “her cry” has come to me – a single murderous act that provoked annihilation. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 109b) explains, “There was a young woman who would take bread out to the poor people in a pitcher so the people of Sodom would not see it. The matter was revealed, and they smeared her with honey and positioned her on the wall of the city, and the hornets came and consumed her.” It was this act of murdering someone for acting benevolently and her cry to G-d, that tipped the scale for their destruction.
This teaches us that every person is an individual creation with a unique mission. Each one of their acts counts with distinct influence.
The fate of the entire universe is in each of our hands.
Always.
Now.