Every New Year, whether it's Jan. 1 or Rosh Hashanah, offers us a moment to pause and reflect. We make resolutions. We set intentions. And we ask a simple but profound question: How can we live better in the year ahead?

There are many places to begin. We might focus on our health, our habits or our relationships. But there is one area that often goes unnoticed, even though it shapes every part of our lives. That is our speech, and the words we use matter more than we think.

Words are not just sounds. They are acts. They carry the power to uplift or to tear down. They can create trust or spread fear. They can comfort the hurting or inflame the angry. As Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks wrote, “God created the natural universe with words. We create — and sometimes destroy — the social universe wi

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