Dear all,

I was trying to log onto a website this week, but no matter what I did, I kept getting the same message:聽鈥淗mm, that isn鈥檛 right.鈥�

I double-checked the URL.

Closed my browser.

Reset my password.

Restarted my computer.

I even ate a donut鈥攚hich, to be fair, helped briefly.

Still nothing worked. I was convinced the problem was on their end.

So I reached out鈥攁nd we discovered the issue: I had two email addresses on file, and that confusion caused everything to break down.

It got me thinking鈥�

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鈥攐r they do.

Effective communication isn鈥檛 about being certain that we鈥檙e right.

It鈥檚 about slowing down enough to make sure we鈥檙e being understood at any given moment in time.

As Rabbi Israel Salanter taught:

鈥淎 person鈥檚 tongue is the pen of their heart.鈥�

With love and Shalom,

Rabbi Zachary R. Shapiro