Unless you or some­one dear to you has been the vic­tim of ter­ri­ble phys­i­cal vio­lence, chances are the worst pains you have suf­fered in life have come from words used unfair­ly, from ego-destroy­ing crit­i­cism, exces­sive anger, sar­casm, pub­lic and pri­vate humil­i­a­tion, hurt­ful nick­names, betray­al of secrets, rumors, and mali­cious gos­sip. And con­verse­ly with words one can per­form lim­it­less acts of virtue — words of grat­i­tude, apol­o­gy, words direct­ed to those who lack con­fi­dence, and to the vul­ner­a­ble (and we are all vul­ner­a­ble), words of love, and words that can trans­form a child’s des­tiny. This is a thor­ough­ly reworked and updat­ed ver­sion of a clas­sic work first released over twen­ty years ago, before the age of the inter­net. Draw­ing on the rich Jew­ish tra­di­tion of laws con­cern­ing fair speech, Words that Hurt, Words that Heal is tru­ly a book that can change lives, start­ing with your own. And start­ing today.