Dear Friends,
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Now that may be the case in terms of description. When describing an adorable smiling baby or an early morning sunrise over the beach, words pale in comparison to the visual representation.
But a beautiful relationship can easily be tarnished or even destroyed with a few ugly or poorly chosen words. This week’s Parsha, Tazria-Metsorah, illustrates for us that words hold within them a great power. So much so that even the entire universe was created with only a few Divine utterances.
There is a famous story that Ben Zander, the well-known conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, passed on after hearing it directly from an Auschwitz survivor that expresses this point
A girl was sent to Auschwitz when she was 15 years old, and her brother was eight. Their parents were lost. Years later, having survived the camp, she told Zander:
“We were in the train going to Auschwitz, and I looked down and saw my brother’s shoes were missing. I got angry and said, ‘Why are you so stupid, can’t you keep your things together for goodness’ sake?’” — the way an elder sister might sometimes speak thoughtlessly to a younger brother.
Unfortunately, it was the last thing she ever said to him, because she never saw him again. He did not survive. And so when she came out of Auschwitz, she made a vow:
“I will never say anything that couldn’t stand as the last thing I ever say.”
Now this may be an extreme example, but it hammers home the importance of being intentional with our speech—of lifting up those around us with our words, rather than tearing them down.
This week, as we do every week in our hearts, we honored the more than six million souls who were murdered during the Holocaust, and we will do so this Shabbat at Chabad of Naples by taking out a Sefer Torah that survived. Indeed, the Torah itself is but a collection of words, yet it is these words that guide our way of life and preserve our traditions.
We must consider the words that come out of our mouths. How often do we speak without thinking? Most of us receive many compliments and pleasantries from the ones we love regularly, and yet if a stranger is rude to you in line for coffee, it can ruin your whole day.
This is not a coincidence. The Gottlieb Institute discovered that for every negative interaction, it takes five positive ones to return to emotional equilibrium.
Your words are perhaps the most underutilized power you have for making the world a better place. And you can start right now! Tell your spouse how happy you are to have them in your life, tell your children how proud of them you are, tell your neighbor how much you admire their hydrangeas, tell the postman thank you for delivering your mail. None of these are small acts. They are strategic victories in the battle against negativity and darkness.
Join us this Shabbat for our famous services and Kiddush luncheon, where people often share that they leave feeling uplifted and strengthened, not only from the prayers and the words from the bimah, but from the warmth of being together and the way words are shared between us.
Let’s use the power of words to uplift one another and fill our community with peace, blessing, and light—more than any picture could capture.
Wishing you a peaceful and uplifting Shabbat,
Rabbi Fishel & Ettie Zaklos
Leslie Lilien wrote...