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Rabbi YY Jacobson - Words that Saved a Life

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Author: Rabbi YY Jacobson
Categories: Religion Education
Tags: religion, education
Views: 2 · Last viewed: 2026-10-16 08:09 UTC

Short Summary

Main recommendation: Be generous with affirming words, gestures, and embraces, and actively remind people of their own strengths, dignity, and potential, because such words can literally save a life. The speaker, Rabbi YY Jacobson, illustrates this with a story told to him by a young man he met at a shabbaton, about a teenager who was on the verge of suicide and was pulled back by a single affirming sentence from an elderly stranger.

Key Points

  • A 14-year-old boy, expelled from eight yeshivas and sent to Israel by his father, was left alone and feeling forlorn.
  • An elderly man, a 95-year-old Jewish partisan named Usher, met him in a shul and told him never to forget his strength ('gevurah'), after explaining a teaching (attributed to a Hasidic master) that God's greatness means each person was created meaningfully.
  • About a year later, at age 15 after being expelled from a tenth school, the young man, feeling completely alone, stood on a roof in Jerusalem intending to jump and stopped when he recalled that conversation, deciding first to become aware of his strengths.
  • The speaker frames telling every person they meet about their inner strength, majesty, and dignity as a mitzvah (a commandment).
  • The story is presented as an example of how one sentence can change the course of someone's life.

Details Worth Noting

  • Concrete instructions: Speak affirmations to people you meet, specifically reminding them of their strengths, beauty, gifts, and inner dignity; be generous with words, gestures, hugs, and embraces; and apply the same approach to your own children by believing in them so they can believe in themselves.
  • The elderly man's teaching, attributed to a great Hasidic master, is that God wants each person to affirm others' greatness, because God's greatness implies each person was created purposefully and the world is incomplete without their contribution.
  • The young man was reportedly struggling with a harsh father who punished him more after school expulsions, and he was sent to Israel at around age 14.
  • The story takes place at a shabbaton in Connecticut, where the young man shared it with the speaker that afternoon, and it is told as a true account the speaker heard directly from him.
  • The speaker concludes that every soul is precious and that people should not withhold encouraging words.

Bottom Line

Simple, sincere encouragement given at the right moment can be the difference between despair and survival, so speak life into the people around you.