Dear all,
I was trying to log onto a website this week, but no matter what I did, I kept getting the same message: “Hmm, that isn’t right.”
I double-checked the URL.
Closed my browser.
Reset my password.
Restarted my computer.
I even ate a donut—which, to be fair, helped briefly.
Still nothing worked. I was convinced the problem was on their end.
So I reached out—and we discovered the issue: I had two email addresses on file, and that confusion caused everything to break down.
It got me thinking…
Communication is like that.
There are so many moving parts:
What we say.
What others hear.
What gets lost in between.
Whether we need to adjust—or they do.
Effective communication isn’t about being certain that we’re right.
It’s about slowing down enough to make sure we’re being understood at any given moment in time.
As Rabbi Israel Salanter taught:
“A person’s tongue is the pen of their heart.”
With love and Shalom,
Rabbi Zachary R. Shapiro
