We live in a funny world; the way we worry and argue about things never changes even though the topics we argue about change. Our opinion means everything even though the results aren’t the outcome we wished for. No matter what ends up happening in the end, we will always have our point of view on the situation, yet we know best. And in the end, the essence of it all is the fact that we got to express ourselves and hopefully felt heard. That’s all we need in life to feel appreciated for what we have to offer.

Many people will choose to delve into common topics like politics, sports or current events, since there is a large community of people they can converse with. As we said, the objective of most conversations are to fill the need to be heard, and those who involve themselves with simple topics usually don’t care about the results of their words, rather it is all about the current moment in time that gives them the feeling that their opinion was valued. But then you’ll find people with a larger need, the need to leave an impact in the listeners heart.

Such people will choose rarer topics, like medicine, the sciences, and business, so that their opinion can be valued and taken seriously. To them their knowledge is the most important part, and if they feel that they aren’t respected for what they have to share they will most likely avoid conversation with uninterested parties. The purpose of their arguments isn’t to pass time; they have a deeper agenda, they wish to spread their knowledge and wisdom to the world. Naturally, they are from the quieter group of people, as the Mishnah in Avot 3:13 quotes Rabbi Akiva, “The boundary to wisdom is silence.” When you want to know someone’s character all you have to do is listen. If they are........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)