FIS #12: Listen Better than you Talk

“Listen Better than you Talk” is a mini podcast that seeks to extrapolate the value behind improving one’s listening and attentiveness skills. In this podcast, I explore the various facets within which good communication and DIALOG (not dialect!) lies. It is my hope that with some of the simple principles shared here, you too will be able to improve your listening and communication abilities.

Some quotes pertaining to this piece:

“Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder” – Rumi

“When one responds to verbal attack, the result is worse verbal attack” – Rav Shalom Arush – I THINK…

“Speech without thought is like a body without a soul” – Rav Lazer Brody

“A person who speaks without thinking utters empty words, and empty words don’t have the power to cast a lasting impression on the listener’s heart” – Rav lazer Brody

Ethics of our fathers:

Chapter 1: 17. His son, Shimon, would say: All my life I have been raised among the wise, and I have found nothing better for the body than silence…

Chapter 4: 1. Ben Zoma would say: Who is wise? One who learns from every man. As is stated (Psalms 119:99): “From all my teachers I have grown wise, for Your testimonials are my meditation.”

Chapter 5: 7. There are seven things that characterize a boor, and seven that characterize a wise man. A wise man does not speak before one who is greater than him in wisdom or age. He does not interrupt his fellow’s words. He does not hasten to answer. His questions are on the subject and his answers to the point. He responds to first things first and to latter things later. Concerning what he did not hear, he says “I did not hear.” He concedes to the truth. With the boor, the reverse of all these is the case.