Each year when I would speak to the teachers in our school, I would remind them of the silent student in the back. That child, the one who seems never to pay attention and appears not to absorb a word. Years from now, all grown up, do not be surprised if that same daydreamer approaches you and says, “I will never forget when you said this….”

All of us can remember someone who changed our lives, although we may never have approached them to let them know. It may have been a teacher, or a friend, or even a stranger, whose words changed everything for us. Of course, we often forget that, just as others have done this for us, we have changed the lives of others.

In this week’s parasha, Joseph is searching for his brothers. He has no idea where they have gone. But he asks a “man from Dothan” and that man, never identified in the text, directs him to his brothers. (Tradition often identifies him with the angel Gabriel.) Had Joseph not asked this anonymous individual, he would not have been sold into slavery and the entire drama of the story would have been derailed. Commentators have often seen in this chance encounter the way Providence works through everyday occurrences to achieve Divine ends.

There is an additional lesson in the text that touches our lives. The man from Dothan was probably oblivious to the reality that he was present at a hinge of history. Perhaps in his last moments, he wondered if he made a difference in the world. Little did he know that with a simple kindness, he changed the course of human events.

No one can know the rippling effect of a word spoken or unspoken. Yet, if we try each day to contribute to the sum total of goodness, to teach chesed – lovingkindness- we may indeed change much more than we might believe. He may be one of the least heralded characters in the Torah, but the spirit of the man from Dothan is one that can inspire us and perhaps, change the world.