Kind Words Are Needed Now More Than Ever; Everyone, Think Before We Talk

2019 is coming around the corner. For us in the Jewish community who already have FOUR new years during our annual luni-solar (though some people think it is “loony”) calendar cycle, what’s another New Year? You can never have too many, right? And with the focus on New Year’s resolutions, this seems like a great reason to mark this turning of the calendar. Looking around at our world, its rather easy to figure out what our collective New Year’s Resolution should be – WATCH OUR WORDS and be aware of how what we say is heard by others.

With the continuing soap opera of our national drama continuing to assault us in our 24/7 news cycle, I find it hard to not get depressed and dejected. Thank God, as religious Jews, at least we get a weekly 25-hour rest from all of this, as we do not use any technology during our weekly Shabbat. But then, there it is again. I keep hoping that during our news blackout, the world has regained its sanity, but so far, no such luck!

I just today finished my learning of Masechet Sanhedrin (a Talmudic Tractate) and it ends with the thought that when there is evil in the world everyone is sad, but when a righteous person comes into the world and acts, there is joy. To be sure, there is a great deal of despondency on many levels in our lives today but there are also so many people doing good and doing so intentionally. As a mom of my four wonderful children, I am always so proud of their accomplishments and victories, yes, but I am most proud of the people they are – principled, intelligent, moral and worried about the world around all of us.. They are indeed living the values I have always held dear and tried to teach them, by word and deed.

Our words and our deeds do count. We can and we do make a difference. I am just as heartened by the wonderful initiatives that are going on all around us – the Toys for Tots drives, the volunteering at so many community spaces to provide for others, the many different levels of intentional redistribution of wealth and resources, the pulling together of people across different strata of society in working together to solve world problems – in short the many different initiatives taken by citizens who truly care in spite or what may be happening on larger official levels or not happening.

So we have the capacity to act with purpose and speak with intention. That is what we can do, and it is my prayer that this year of 2019 will bring us all together so that we can fulfill the words I read and thought about this morning. Let us all think carefully, act prudently and use our words for righteous purposes. Happy New Year Y’all!