A few short weeks after my back surgery, my wife, Sharon, had toe surgery, leaving us with a total of two good feet between us. The surgeries brought us closer together in one way, since, after mine, she drove me around wherever we had to go, and after hers we switched. Closeness has limits, though, so thankfully we both can drive now, giving each of us a bit more independence.

When Sharon checked in for her operation, she went through the usual identity verification process, including giving her date of birth. And when she did, the intake nurse exclaimed, “You’re having surgery on your birthday?!?” Of course she deserved a better birthday present, but that’s how the dates worked out best for us.

As I was waiting in the visitors’ lounge during the operation, one of the nurses came over to me with colorful birthday wishes to Sharon signed by everyone in the surgical center. I gladly added my signature.

When she woke up from the surgery and they gave her the card, she unsurprisingly appreciated it. More surprising to me, though, she REALLY appreciated it, commenting on it many times to all who asked about the operation. True, it was just computer-generated Happy Birthday wishes, but it deeply touched her as small acts of kindness so often do.

Kindness is not, of course, only individual; there are communal kindnesses as well. Our local community recently experienced deep sorrow when Sammy Roth, a vivacious high school student, fell ill with cancer and died within months. There were, I am certain, many individual acts of kindness to both Sammy before her death and to her parents, brother, and the rest of the family throughout their ordeal. But their community — consisting mainly of their shul, Congregation Rinat Yisrael, and her school, Yeshivat Frisch, though far beyond that as well — also provided comfort and kindness.

One day, when the situation had turned dire, we received an email from the shul announcing a special Tehillim gathering that evening for Sammy. It was a weekday, and the........

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