“Check your mailbox.” That was the email message that I received last Wednesday, a short while before Yom Tov came in. I checked it, and there the book “Rebbe” was waiting for me with a very moving dedication from the dear friend who sent me the email.
I admit that it is an effort for me to read English on the level of the book “Rebbe.” And yet, since then, whenever there’s a free moment, I find myself enchanted by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin’s flowing narrative and the fascinating analysis. It took four years of work to publish this 500-page-plus biography of the Rebbe. I fully understand how the book quickly became a bestseller in the United States, by any standard.
In the introduction, Telushkin describes his work, and reveals that writing the book changed his life. He acquired the Rebbe’s positive, optimistic outlook on the world and on life – mainly thanks to changing his style of talking and thinking. This might sound insignificant, or at least minor, but changing one’s speech influences one’s thinking, and a style of thinking that is positive and optimistic is a guarantee to a certain frame of mind, and therefore also for a positive and optimistic running of one’s life.
He brings two examples for this. One is the Rebbe’s suggestion not to use the term “Beit Cholim” (house of the sick) for a hospital, as it is a negative and pessimistic expression. Instead of that, he said, one should use the positive and optimistic expression “Beit Refuah” (house of healing) or “medical center.” The second is that Telushkin, when he wants to set a last date for a project, no longer uses the English term “deadline,” and instead uses the term “due date,” which in colloquial English means the estimated date of birth. The difference is obvious: the first expression uses the word “dead”, whereas the second expression expresses “life”!
How is this all connected to Parashat Noach? Don’t worry; it’s very connected.
In this week’s Parasha we find the first source in the Torah for the use of positive words vs. negative ones. The Torah is not stingy with words when it comes to describing Noach’s entrance into the ark: the text gives us full details as to who joins Noach and who enters the ark with him. In the description of the animals the Torah does not use the term “Tameh (unclean) animals,” but, rather, describes them as “animals that are not Tahor (not clean).” Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi (Tractate Pesachim 3a) comments about this: “One should never say an indecent word, for the Torah added on eight letters and did not use an indecent word, as it says, ‘from the clean animals and from the animals that are not clean.’”
The distinguished writer, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, says that these changes made him into a happier and more positive person. Sounds like it’s worth trying, doesn’t it?
Shabbat Shalom,
Zalmen Wishedski