“And Yehuda approached Yosef and he said, please my master, allow your servant to speak to your ears of my master.”(Bereshit 44:18)
From this pasuk we can learn a lot of communication principles from Yehuda’s strategy in talking to the Egyptian leader who he didn’t realize it was his brother Yosef.
Take notice of the sweet way in which he expresses himself and the respect he shows.
He calls him master twice, uplifting the listener and giving him honor he was able to open up the channel of communication making the listener more receptive to what he wanted to say.
Everyone in life likes to feel important and acknowledged.
Always try to accomplish your goals with diplomacy’s
and respect, if this approach doesn’t work then sometimes, but only as a last result we might need to use harsher tactics.
When traveling in a wagon driven by horses, Rabbi Wolf Zbarazer would not allow the driver to whip the horses. He would tell the drivers:”when you know how to speak to them in the right way, you do not need to use force.”
If this is true of animals,how much more so with people.
Some excerpts taken from “Growth Through Torah” by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin
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