In The Healer of Shattered Hearts, Rabbi David Wolpe tells: “The
renowned physicist I.I. Rabi was once asked to name the most significant
intellectual influence in his life. The interviewer
expected to hear ‘Einstein’ or, perhaps, ‘Newton.’ ‘My mother,’ Rabi replied instantly. For each day, he explained, when he would
come home from cheder, the Jewish religious school, his pious mother would say
to him, ‘So Isaac, did you ask any good questions today? From her,’ said Rabi, ‘I learned that the key
to wisdom is to ask good questions.’
Like so many of her contemporaries, this woman, growing up in an Eastern
European ghetto, had imbibed a great principle of Jewish thought: All things must be weighed, scrutinized, evaluated.
“To say the right thing at the right time, keep still most of the time.” John W. Roper Those who get in trouble most often are those cannot seem to keep still, remain silent. Life teaches many lessons. Among the best lessons of life is one my father taught me at an early age was, “If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing.” The contributions we make to life via our mouth are many and varied. Most of the time, I reckon, they are not contributions at all, but things that diminish the richness of life.
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