Guarding Speech: Words as Part of the Soul

1“Moshe spoke to the heads of the tribes of Bnei Yisrael, saying: This is the thing that Hashem has commanded. If a man makes a vow to Hashem …”¹ The words “This is the thing that Hashem has commanded” need explaining, for at first glance they are unnecessary.

2We may answer through a Midrash that the Kedushas Levi cites: “‘If a man makes a vow …’: this is what is written, ‘His days are like a passing shadow.’”² But what do vows have to do with the verse “Our days are like a passing shadow”?³

3We can explain it as follows. R' Chaim Vital, zt"l, the foremost disciple of the Arizal, writes that the words that come out of a person's mouth are part of his soul.⁴ That is why we were commanded not to speak idle words, for through them a person loses part of his soul. He goes on to explain our verse, “He shall not profane his word; according to all that comes out of his mouth he shall do.” The words lo yachel, “he shall not profane,” recall chullin, the profane and ordinary: a person must not make his words chullin. For “according to all that comes out of his mouth he shall do”: according to whatever he says, good or bad, so he makes and creates advocates or accusers for himself. Those are his holy words.

4This foundation is clear from Chazal's words “I have found nothing better for the body than silence.”⁵ The Rambam explains this at length in his Commentary on the Mishnah.⁶ In words of Torah, he writes, speech is certainly good, and lashon hara, evil speech about others, and similar harmful words are of course forbidden. What the Tanna means is that even when speech is permitted, needed and useful, the proper way is to say little. That is why the Tanna said “I have found nothing better for the body”: a person's life-force goes out through too much speech. This is also why Onkelos renders the verse “and man became a living soul” as “a speaking spirit”:⁷ a person's life depends above all on his speech.

5This lets us explain what Chazal said on the verse “For the lips of the Kohen guard knowledge, and they seek Torah from his mouth, for he is an angel of Hashem of Hosts.” They said: “If the teacher resembles an angel of Hashem of Hosts, let them seek Torah from his mouth.”⁸ Notice the wording: why “from his mouth” and not simply “from him”? The point is this: how can we know that a teacher resembles an angel of Hashem, so that we may seek Torah from him? To this the verse answers, “from his mouth.” We can know it if he guards his mouth and his tongue, for then he is fit to be a teacher of Torah to Hashem's people Israel.

6Chazal tell of this too: “Two students were sitting before Hillel, and one of them was Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai. Some say they were sitting before Rebbe, R' Yehudah HaNasi, and one of them was R' Yochanan. One said, ‘Why do we harvest grapes in purity but do not harvest olives in purity?’ The other said, ‘Why do we harvest grapes in purity but harvest olives in impurity?’ The teacher said, ‘I am assured that this one will issue rulings in Israel.’ Only a few days passed before he was issuing rulings in Israel.”⁹ We see that a great man's power in Torah depends on the holiness of his mouth. That holiness also corresponds to purity in Yesod, the sefirah bound up with the covenant of the flesh. So when the teacher saw that the student was careful with the power of speech, he understood that he was ready and fit to become a great man in Israel.

7This is what the Midrash says here: “‘If a man makes a vow …’: this is what is written, ‘Our days are like a passing shadow.’” If, Heaven forbid, a person vows and does not keep his vow, he turns his words into chullin. And since a Jew's words are his very life-force, he causes part of that life-force to be lost [and so his days pass like a shadow].

8The Baal HaTurim hints at this as well when he writes that the word nedarim, “vows,” has the same numerical value as rotzeiach, “murderer.”¹⁰ One who vows and does not pay counts as a murderer, since for the sin of vows children die.¹¹ In light of what we have explained, we may add another reason he counts as a murderer: through his speech he destroys part of his own life, so he is like one who kills himself.

9The words “This is the thing that Hashem has commanded” hint at this, for hadavar, “the thing,” also means “the word.” The power of speech is so great and lofty that the speech of Bnei Yisrael must be only “what Hashem has commanded”: words of Torah or of prayer, and other such words of holiness and mitzvos. For their speech is part of their life-force and their soul. This answers our opening question.

10This is the meaning of what we find in the Midrash: “Before Moshe was privileged to attain the Torah, it is written of him, ‘I am not a man of words.’ Once he was privileged to attain the Torah, his tongue was healed and he began to speak words, as it says, ‘These are the words that Moshe spoke.’”¹² In other words, before Moshe Rabbeinu received the Torah he was “not a man of words” because he held back from speech. It is not fitting to speak of other matters at all; one should rather be “not a man of words,” as Chazal said, “I have found nothing better for the body than silence,” for every word is part of a person's life-force. Only once he was privileged to attain the Torah, that is, when it came to words of Torah, would he open his mouth. Moshe Rabbeinu taught Bnei Yisrael the wisdom of conducting themselves this way, as he himself did.

11[¹³This is the meaning of “Moshe spoke to the heads of the tribes of Bnei Yisrael, saying.” He told the leaders of the generations, who correspond to “the heads of the tribes,” to bring holiness of speech to Israel. And this is “to Bnei Yisrael”: the leaders must see to it that Bnei Yisrael speak only what pertains to the honor of Heaven. That is “This is the thing that Hashem has commanded.” Whenever a person wishes to speak, he must always think how to say nothing but what Hashem has commanded: in the spirit of zeh hadavar, his davar, his word, should be only what Hashem has commanded. That is why the verse ends with leimor, “saying.” Chazal teach that wherever it says leimor, it is for the generations.¹⁴ So the heads of the tribes in every generation must teach Bnei Yisrael to speak holy words and not, Heaven forbid, empty ones.]

12From here we see how important and precious a Jew's power of speech is. This is especially so in these times, the days of Bein HaMetzarim, the Three Weeks of mourning for the Beis HaMikdash, which was destroyed for the sin of baseless hatred and through evil speech.¹⁵ So we must work hard to guard the power of speech and to treasure it. Lashon hara and idle talk are the sickness of our generation, especially in the beis midrash. In the merit of being careful about this, may we be privileged to see the redemption and eternal life. Amen.