Authors: Joseph Telushkin
ISBN-13: 9780688163501, ISBN-10: 0688163505
Format: Paperback
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: September 1998
Edition: (Non-applicable)
A widely known spiritual leader and scholar, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin is the author of eleven influential Jewish books, including A Code of Jewish Ethics; Words That Hurt, Words That Heal; Biblical Literacy; and four novels. He lives in New York City and lectures throughout the United States.
Joseph Telushkin is renowned for his warmth, his erudition, and his richly anecdotal insights, and in Words That Hurt, Words That Heal he focuses these gifts on the words we use in public and in private, revealing their tremendous power to shape relationships. With wit and wide-ranging intelligence, Rabbi Telushkin explains the harm in spreading gossip, rumors, or others' secrets, and how unfair anger, excessive criticism, or lying undermines true communication. By sensitizing us to subtleties of speech we may never have considered before, he shows us how to turn every exchange into an opportunity.
Remarkable for its clarity and practicality, Words That Hurt, Words That Heal illuminates the powerful effects we create by what we say and how we say it.
Contrary to the nursery rhyme, words can hurt as much as sticks and stones. In this wise book, Rabbi Telushkin (Jewish Wisdom) draws on Jewish teachings, primarily the Talmud, and traditional Jewish stories to explore how our words can harm others and how we can approach the act of speaking in a more ethical, even sacred, manner. Acting on the principle that self-awareness is the initial step toward transformation, Telushkin first brings gossip, lying and angry words into the light, and then prescribes possible remedies for these so often unconscious habits of expression. Wit informs his text, as does a courageous intelligence-for instance, in his defending, against recent conventional and media wisdom, the right of public figures "to keep their private lives private." Telushkin concludes with a proposal for a national "Speak No Evil Day," which, if acted upon, he says, can offer "a taste of heaven on earth." Author tour. (Apr.)
Introduction | ||
Pt. 1 | The Unrecognized Power of Words | 1 |
1 | The Unrecognized Power of Words | 3 |
Pt. 2 | How We Speak About Others | 11 |
2 | The Irrevocable Damage Inflicted by Gossip | 15 |
3 | The Lure of Gossip | 35 |
4 | When, If Ever, Is It Appropriate to Reveal Information That Will Humiliate or Harm Another? | 46 |
5 | Privacy and Public Figures | 55 |
Pt. 3 | How We Speak to Others | 67 |
6 | Controlling Rage and Anger | 69 |
7 | Fighting Fair | 84 |
8 | How to Criticize, and How to Accept Rebuke | 90 |
9 | Between Parents and Children | 107 |
10 | The Cost of Public Humiliation | 118 |
11 | Is Lying Always Wrong? | 133 |
Pt. 4 | Words That Heal | 147 |
12 | Words That Heal | 151 |
Pt. 5 | What Do We Do Now? | 167 |
13 | Incorporating the Principles of Ethical Speech into Daily Life | 169 |
14 | Where Heaven and Earth Touch: A National "Speak No Evil Day" | 183 |
Appendix: Text of Senate Resolution to Establish a National "Speak No Evil Day" | 187 | |
Notes | 189 | |
Index | 209 |