Page 2 - Announcements Mon. Nov. 1

26 Old Mill Road, Great Neck, NY 11023 (516) 487-6100 Shabbat Announcements Toldot 5782
Abraham” without any deception, knowing him to be Jacob However, one man offered a different perspective.
not Esau. Llewellyn Thompson Jr. had been American ambassador to
the Soviet Union from 1957 to 1962 and had come to know
Such is the human price we pay for a failure to the Russian president well. He had even spent a period of
communicate. The Torah is exceptionally candid about such time living with Khrushchev and his wife. He told Kennedy
matters, which is what makes it so powerful a guide to life: that the conciliatory message sounded like Khrushchev’s
real life, among real people with real problems. own personal view while the hawkish letter, which did not
Communication matters. In the beginning God created the sound like him, had probably been written to appease the
natural world with words: “And God said: ‘Let there be’”. Russian generals. Kennedy listened to Thompson and gave
We create the social world with words. The Targum Khrushchev an opportunity to back down without losing
translated the phrase, “And man became a living soul,” face – and the result being that a potentially devastating
(Genesis 2:7) as “And man became a speaking soul.” For war was averted. It is terrifying to imagine what might
us, speech is life. Life is relationship. And human have happened, had Thompson not been there to establish
relationships are built through communication. We can tell which was and which was not the real act of
other people our hopes, our fears, our feelings and communication.
thoughts.
So many aspects of our lives are impacted by
That is why any leader – from a parent to a CEO – must set misinformation and enhanced by genuine communication.
as their task good, strong, honest, open communication. This is why friends, parents, partners and leaders must
That is what makes families, teams and corporate cultures establish a culture in which honest, open, respectful
healthy. Everyone must know what their overall aims are as communication takes place, and that involves not just
a team, what their specific roles are, what responsibilities speaking but also listening. Without it, tragedy is waiting in
they carry, and what values and behaviors they are the wings.
expected to exemplify. There must be praise for those who
do well, as well as constructive criticism when people do
badly. Criticism must be of the act, not the person; the
person must feel respected whatever their failures. This last
feature is one of the fundamental differences between a
“guilt morality” of which Judaism is the supreme example,
and a “shame morality” like that of ancient Greece (namely,
guilt makes a clear distinction between the act and the
person, which shame does not).
There are times when much depends on clear
communication. It is not too much to say that there are
moments when the very fate of the world depends upon
this. One such instance happened during the Cuban Missile
Crisis of 1962 when the United States and the Soviet Union
were on the brink of nuclear war. At the height of the crisis,
as described by Robert McNamara in his film, The Fog of
War, John F. Kennedy received two messages from the
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. One was conciliatory, the
other far more hawkish. Most of Kennedy’s advisers
believed that the second represented Khrushchev’s real
views and should be taken seriously.

Great Neck Synagogue
26 Old Mill Road, Great Neck , NY 11023
516-487-6100

Rabbi Dale Polakoff, Rabbi
Rabbi Ian Lichter, Assistant Rabbi
Rabbi Yehoshua Lefkowitz, Intern Rabbi
Dr. Ephraim Wolf, z”l, Rabbi Emeritus
Yitzy Spinner, Cantor
Eleazer Schulman, z”l, Cantor Emeritus
Zehava & Dr. Michael Atlas, Youth Directors
Mark Twersky, Executive Director
Dr. James Frisch, Assistant Director
Jordan Wolf, President
Dov Sassoon, Chairman of the Board