When her father passed away in 2006, Linda Cohen’s busy life as a mother, wife, and entrepreneur came to a screeching halt. She took a spiritual sabbatical to work through her grief, and she came out of it resolved to embark upon a project: perform one thousand acts of kindness "mitzvahs" to honor her father’s memory.
Out of those acts of kindness, a book was born. 1,000 Mitzvahs: How Small Acts of Kindness Can Heal, Inspire, and Change Your Life shares Cohen's two-and-a-half-year journey from sorrow to inspiration through simple daily acts of kindness. She presents each mitzvah as a short vignette, and the myriad forms they take—from helping the elderly to donating to good causes to baking and collecting food for others—highlight the many ways in which one person can touch the lives of others. As she pursues her quest, Cohen finds that her life is improved by these small acts—that every time she goes out of her way to do something good for someone else, she enhances her own well-being.
In this episode, Linda shares her journey with us. More than a touching story of a daughter's love for her father, 1,000 Mitzvahs is a testament to the transformational power of kindness, and a call to arms for those who would like to follow in Cohen's footsteps with their own mitzvahs—no matter how large or how small.