Eighth Day of Awe: Communication

I graduated from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication. I still remember one of the first lessons I learned there: Communication-real communication-requires a broadcaster or transmitter and a receiver. In other words, someone has to speak and someone has to listen.

Today, on the eight Day of Awe, with Yom Kippur just a day away, we-I-contemplate how we communicate and how we fulfill both the role of broadcaster and receiver. We ask ourselves if we have sinned-missed the mark-in the area of communication. Is there anyone from whom we need to seek forgiveness, because we have been careless in our communication, haven’t communicated enough, haven’t communicated well, or haven’t communicated honestly? Do we need to ask to be forgiven for not listening well (or at all) or for misunderstanding the message that was sent to us?

We look at two types of sins: transmitting sins and receiving sins.

Then, we ask ourselves how we can improve our communication skills. (Sound like being in a corporation? It’s not much different in our every-day life.) How can we send clearer, more honest messages? How can we listen better? How can we make sure we are heard, that our message gets across to those who matter to us? And how can make sure that we are paying attention when someone sends a message to us?

We communicate in many ways. Most often we think about communication coming in the form of words. Indeed, whether written or spoken, whether arriving via a computer screen, the television or radio, a newspaper or magazine, a letter or email, or a telephone, words are the most common vehicle for communication. They also are the most powerful form…at least from a mystical standpoint. Words possess a creative nature. The Kabbalists say the world was create with words, since God spoke the world into being. “Let there be light,” he said, and there was light, for example. Plus, once we have spoken words, they cannot be recalled. We cannot scoop them up and change them. These days, our words go out via the Internet and live forever. There they have impact we might never know. For instance, an article I post to a directory could be picked up and used in a newsletter of blog somewhere on the other side of the world, and I’ll never know how it changed someone’s life.

We also communicate with our faces and our bodies. We don’t think about his much, but we give off clear messages all day long about what we like or don’t like and about our moods. Someone may think I don’t like them simply by my facial expression when I see them. Additionally, our actions serve as another communication vehicle. The same person might assume I don’t like them from the way I behave when we meet. So, as we evaluate if we have sinned in the area of communication, we must look at all these factors.

Last, but not least, we communicate with God and God communicates with us-or at least that’s what is supposed to happen. Some of us feel a short circuit exists somewhere in this system that prevents messages from getting through, though. The question at this point in the Days of Awe remains: have you been broadcasting to God, and have you been listening to the broadcasts God has been sending to you? Or have you even set up a connection so the two of you can have a Divine Communication Network?

In his book The Seventh Telling: The Kabbalah of Moshe Katan, author and Rabbi Mitch Chefitz described how a Kabbalists “tunes” in to God. He says a Kabbalist is like an electronic receiver. (You know, the kind you need to tune into a radio or television station.) The receiver is attached to an antennae or a satellite dish. (Imagine your head like the dish…) You have to turn the dials (figure out the spiritual practice that allows you to tune into the Divine Channel) and your dish or antennae until you get good reception. Only then can you receive messages via the receiver. And you’ll be able to receive them loud and clear-if you listen.

Once you’ve found the channel and gotten good reception, to send a message you don’t really need the receiver per say, which brings the broadcast to you.  You need a transmitter. Imagine the receiver has become a transmitter, and you simply must begin talking. Imagine yourself hooked into the Divine Internet for a podcast or Internet radio show. See our words flowing across some Spiritual Network. Just know that once you have a good connection, your message will be received loud and clear-because God is always listening.

Before the day is out, think about how you communicate (or not). Repent if necessary. Then, set up some better broadcasting and receiving systems for the coming year.