Many years ago, I was fortunate enough to be introduced to an older woman named Essie Chasin. She lived in Great Neck, not far from the Great Neck Synagogue of which she was a member. Essie was a lifelong student of all religions and gave classes in her home to groups of people who highly valued her knowledge and teaching abilities.
When I first met Essie, she lived alone and told me she was starting to need some help. I promised to look for a part-time assistant for her and was fortunate enough to find someone in a few days who worked out well for her.
To thank me, Essie took me out to lunch in a Chinese restaurant on Middle Neck Road. We were talking about various things and I asked her, “What is the single most important thing in the Jewish religion?” Without pausing, Essie replied, “Kindness to others.”
Over the next 20 years or so, I asked many people this question and received many different responses, ranging from guesses to puzzled silence to assertions of a totally different answer. Only two people of the perhaps 40 or 50 I asked over the years gave me the same answer as Essie had, each without a moment’s pause.
One was an Orthodox dentist who said he had been taught this when he was young and studying in the Yeshivah; he said he was made to repeat it over and over in both English and Hebrew, and he said it for me in Hebrew. The second was a woman on line behind me in the Everfresh market who was with her two young sons and told me that she learned it from helping her boys with their Yeshivah studies.
I have been deeply impressed by what Essie taught me so long ago. Like my parents before me, I endeavor to be kind and help others whenever possible. And like them, if I have been less than kind to anyone, I endeavor to somehow find a way to make it right.
Diane Coffield
Great Neck
