Glowing Like a Star

Have you ever done a really good deed, and afterwards felt an inner glow of happiness that radiated through you?

That is “glowing like a star.” It’s a ticket to happiness and fulfillment in life. The more often we can glow like stars, the more radiant our everyday lives will become.

In truth, there’s a way for us women to do an exceptionally kind act every minute of the day. This particular mitzvah possesses immense power, and Hashem uplifts the entire world due to the merit we accrue when we perform it: the mitzvah of modesty.

In our current time of cultural confusion and widespread despondency, Hashem has given us women a path to achieve lasting satisfaction and self-confidence. Not only do the laws of modesty protect our dignity and self-respect, they also possess immense power to change future events.

When a woman dresses modestly in public, she prevents other women’s husbands from thinking about her, and that keeps countless marriages strong. Such continuous acts of kindness accrue amazing merits for the woman, and she shines with inner happiness. It brings her unimaginable reward in our current world and in the Next World.

What does shining with inner happiness actually feel like? It feels like a glowing satisfaction with our lot in life. We feel happy with the way we look, the way we are, the character traits Hashem gave us, and our current situation.

It doesn’t mean things go just the way we envision them, but it does mean that we feel Hashem is doing everything for our best, and so we don’t feel bitter about His decisions. Shining with inner happiness also means that our self-confidence doesn’t depend on what we imagine people think of us.

The more improvements in modesty a woman makes, the closer she feels to Hashem. The closer a woman feels to Hashem, the happier she is. The happier she is, the more she yearns to raise her level of modesty and grow even closer to Hashem. This beautiful upward spiral begins once a woman takes the first step of making a change.

A great rabbi in our generation, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky shlit”a, stated, “A one percent upgrade in modesty can affect 1,000 salvations.”  Imagine that. Imagine you receive a phone call tomorrow, and the voice on the phone announces you have won the Spiritual Lottery.

Because of your courage to upgrade your modesty, one thousand people around the world found their soul mate, were saved from danger, healed from an illness, found a job, improved their marriage, recovered from debt, or were able to now have children. Imagine their collective feelings of relief and joy, all in your merit! That is winning the Spiritual Lottery.

The Torah states, “Hashem repays a man according to his deeds…”(Job 35:11). This means Hashem always pays us back. If we supplied the merit to make so many people feel happy, imagine how Hashem will make our lives better too. Many, many women have reported that Hashem answered their prayers after they increased their modesty in some way.

The mitzvah of modesty possesses unimaginable power to “change the game.” It’s no secret, life can be quite challenging at times. Oftentimes in a difficult situation, we feel trapped. It’s natural to feel like a victim during a stressful incident, but we don’t have to remain that way.

By praying to Hashem for help, and deciding to make a positive change, we can turn our distress into feelings of trust that Hashem will rescue us. After all, that new upgrade in modesty sent a wave of salvations throughout the world, why shouldn’t we trust that Hashem will help us too? “Hashem repays a man according to his deeds…”

May we all please Hashem with our spiritual improvements and merit to see Mashiach arrive soon, Amen!