If you ask 10 random people if they think of themselves as kind, the answer in 9 out of 10 cases would be yes. If you press them a little further and ask them if they are willing to go out of their way to do a good deed for someone, now you have them thinking. Not because they are not kind people, but because at this point, they are being asked to go out of their comfort zone. You see, there is a difference between just doing good and going that extra mile.
Last week’s Torah portion taught us about the first seven plagues, and in this week’s portion we learn about the last three of the ten. We learn that only at the last plague, the death of the first born, do we find the expression, “G-d went out” during the plague of the death of the first-born child. So what happened during the other plagues—was G-d not involved? Surely, He was! Yet this time something very different took place. During the other nine plagues all that G-d had to do was give instructions to Moses and Aaron as to how the plagues should come forth—and so they did. This time around, G-d wanted to make sure that nothing went wrong.
G-d was concerned—What if there was a Jewish first-born in the house of an Egyptian? Would he be killed by mistake? Granted he didn’t belong there, and the fact that he was there should tell us something about this fellow (as in, what is he doing there in the first place?). So G-d says He will “go out” and roam the streets, so to speak, to make sure that nothing happens to any Jew.
G-d went “out of His way” to protect the Jew. The ungodly Jew. The Jew who didn’t care that he was hanging out in the non-Jewish section of town, in the homes of anti-Semites! Yet, G-d didn’t give up on them and went Himself to find them! This is what it means to go out of our way to help a fellow person.
Yes, we think of ourselves as fine people. But are we willing to go out of our way for another person, especially when they make us uncomfortable? That is the question. Let us learn from G-d how to do so.