Throw Me into the Water
When a stranger who knew four orders of Mishnah carried Reish Lakish across a deep puddle, the sage protested that a man of Torah should not be carrying him.
It is told that Reish Lakish was once walking along the road when he came to a deep pool of water that blocked his way. A man came along, lifted the sage onto his shoulders, and began to carry him across.
As they went, Reish Lakish asked him a question. Have you learned Chumash? Yes, the man said, I have. And have you learned Mishnah? I have learned four orders of the Mishnah, the man answered.
Reish Lakish was alarmed. You have hewn out these four mountains of Torah, he said, and you are carrying the son of Lakish on your shoulders? Throw the son of Lakish into the water.
But the man did not want to put him down. It gives me pleasure to serve the master, he said.
Reish Lakish found a way to let him keep his mitzvah without slighting his Torah. If so, he told him, learn this halacha from me, which Rebbi Zeira taught. And he taught him the ruling. Now the man was his talmid, and it was fitting for a talmid to serve his rebbi.
The same Reish Lakish who had once been the strongest man among the robbers could not bear to be carried by a stranger, because the stranger knew Mishnah. In his eyes, the honor of Torah belonged to every person who learned it, whether he sat in the first row of the beis medrash or met him by chance on the road.
Source: Gemara, Megillah 28b (Talmud Bavli); English: The William Davidson Talmud (Koren–Steinsaltz translation), Megillah 28b.
Reish Lakish noticed the Torah hidden inside an ordinary traveler. This week, when someone does you a service, such as a driver, a waiter, a neighbor or a younger family member, take a moment to learn something about them. Ask what they are learning or what they care about, and let them see that you value it. Then try to give something back, even a short dvar Torah or a word of real thanks, so the kindness flows in both directions.