Rabbi Zamir Cohen - The Hidden Root of Hurtful Speech

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi Zamir Cohen’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

Good evening and blessings to everyone. Our topic tonight is one of the central issues in every person's life in family communication, friendships, workplaces, relationships between neighbors, and between parents and children. Every person knows people who are pleasant to be around. Their way of speaking is gentle and considerate. And there are people whose speech is harsh. People leave their presence hurt, offended, uncomfortable. Sometimes a person even notices periods in their own life when they are pushing people away. And they try to work on themselves and change. King Solomon, the wisest of all men, who understood every field of wisdom in the world, was also the greatest psychologist in history. He understood the human soul deeply. And in the verse before us in the book of Proverbs, he teaches us what the root cause is. The inner source that, if a person fixes it, his speech changes automatically. Imagine a person who has a rash all over his body because of certain food he keeps eating. He can treat every sore separately, putting bandages on each one. Difficult work. But the rash will keep returning. However, the moment he discovers which food is causing the entire outbreak, he treats the root of the problem, and then everything becomes healthy on the outside as well. Now, let us see the words of King Solomon. In the mouth of a fool is a rod of pride, but the lips of the wise protect them. A fool here does not mean someone unintelligent. It means a person who does not think ahead. Someone who has intelligence, but does not use it. In many ways, that is even worse. Solomon says, in the mouth of a fool is a rod of pride. What is a rod? A stick, a branch. As the verse says elsewhere, a branch shall emerge from the stump of

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