There was once a guy, a parent of a student of mine whom I suspended. This guy was a ruffian, a very tough guy—a very big guy, a big, brawny man. He heard that his son was suspended. He tried to call me. I said, “Listen, I really can’t talk right now. I’ll call you back.” But he wouldn’t hear of it. He decided he was coming down to the yeshiva to give me a piece of his mind. Thank God, only a piece of his mind.
Anyway, he walks in. As he walks in, he tells the secretary, “Where’s Rabbi Zeytouneh? I want to talk to him.” I hear it from my office. My secretary comes and says, “You know, Mr. Gindi, let’s call him. Mr. Gindi’s here, and he’s furious.” I said, “Mr. Gindi’s here, and he’s furious? Okay, just tell him I’m on the phone, and I’ll be with him in three minutes.”
So I was on the phone. I was listening to the talk to him. I wasn’t talking to anybody, but I didn’t believe he was on the phone. Just to allow him to maybe calm down a little bit. All of a sudden, I see Mr. Gindi walking by. Every time he comes, I smile at him. He goes back, he comes back, and I smile at him. I say, “One minute, one minute, Mr. Gindi.”
Finally, I make my fake phone call, and I get up. Mr. Gindi comes in, and as he walks in, I say, “Mr. Gindi, how are you?” And I give him a humongous hug. A humongous hug. In the back of my mind, I’m fearing for my life. But I give him a big hug. And Mr. Gindi melts. He melts like chocolate. And he goes from being this big, ruffian monster to a big teddy bear. To a big teddy bear. To a big teddy bear. To a big teddy bear. A big teddy bear.
He sits down, and I start talking to him: “How are you? How’s it going? How’s your wife?” And then I start talking to him about his son. He’s like, “You’re right. My son deserves it,” he tells me. “It’s a good thing you suspended him.” That’s what he tells me. Could you imagine? Could you imagine? That’s what a smile can do. A smile can turn an entire world upside down. You could change the atmosphere in your life forever. That’s what it means to be a ben adam (human being). Even the smile they stole away. Even the smile they stole away.