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COMMUNICATING

The key to stable relationships in life is the ability to communicate between people. In our greatly advanced technological society there are many ways to communicate that were not available to previous generations. It is difficult for us to remember that as little as thirty years ago e-mail was an unknown term and unproved technology. The cell phone, computer, text messaging, fax messages, etc. all are very recent methods of communicating with one another. However, what remains the prime example of effective communication is the spoken word.

Even though the Torah was written down on stone and parchment for the Jewish people to read and study, the Torah itself describes that God almost always tells Moshe dabeir el bnei yisrael – speak to the Jewish people. The concept of the Oral Law that governs Jewish religious thought and practice is based upon oral communication, the give and take of people speaking one to another. What makes speech the prime method of communicating with one another is its very personal nature.

The inflections and nuances of voice and tone that only speech can impart are unable to be matched in writing. Writing well is a skill as is speaking well but the two skills are not necessarily interchangeable. It is no wonder therefore that the rabbis of Israel have always maintained that the teaching of Torah, especially of the Oral Law, be done in an environment of speech and interpersonal communication. We are the people of the book but we are more so the people of the ear, the tongue and the mouth.

By Jewish tradition, the study of Torah is to be accompanied by melody. Anyone who has been fortunate enough to spend time – even a small amount of time - in the study hall of a yeshiva will remember for a lifetime the melodies sung there while the study of Talmud is pursued. The melody itself becomes a method of communication in Torah study.

The public reading of the Torah on Shabat is always faithful to the melodious notes that adorn its holy words. Ideally, it is insufficient to read the parsha by one’s self alone but rather it is the public reading of the Torah, the spoken word rather than the written word alone that guides and instructs us.

The Torah was granted to us through a human voice, that of Moshe. The Jewish people themselves begged Moshe to teach them for they were unable to “hear” God. Ever since the Torah has been communicated from generation to generation by human voice and personal, even individualistic methods of communication. Midrash teaches us that God, so to speak, first spoke to Moshe at the burning bush at Sinai in the human voice of Amram, Moshe’s father. God also is the example, so to speak, that effective communication with human beings must be accomplished through the communication of human voice.

This concept is the basis for all Torah education and growth. Therefore, teachers, lectures, shiurim, even audio tapes and CD’s (no personal agenda intended here, believe me) are the necessary components for effective Torah communication.

I have mentioned a number of times that when my late beloved father-in-law, Rabbi Leizer Levin, of blessed memory, took leave of the great Chafetz Chayim he was told by that sainted scholar: “Go speak to the Jewish people.”

All of his life he lived by that motto. Even two weeks before his passing at the age of ninety-six he still spoke at a banquet of a local yeshiva in Detroit. The rabbis of Jewish tradition added the idea that spoken words that emanate sincerely from the heart pierce the hearts of the listeners as well. This is a particular facet and gift of the spoken word alone.

No written words, no matter how powerful and forceful that may be (including this great essay) can match that trait. Written words reach the heart only after first being filtered through the brain and intellect of the person. Spoken words have the ability to enter the heart of the listener immediately and clearly. In World War II it was the spoken public words of Winston Churchill that helped defeat Germany even more than his governmental and administrative abilities.

The Lord demands that our hearts and minds be mobilized for noble and holy purposes and for the preservation of Torah and Israel. But God also commands us to mobilize our tongues and mouths for the achievement of those goals. That is why bad speech is so reviled in Jewish law and tradition and good speech is so praised and exalted.

Shabat shalom.
Berel Wein