Power of Speech°

(1) With ten utterances the world was created. And what is learned - couldn't it have been created by one utterance? Rather, [it was done this way] in order to punish the wicked who destroy the world that was created with ten utterances and to give reward to the righteous who sustain the world that was created with ten utterances.

Therefore David said, "Lord, who shall sojourn in Thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell upon Thy holy mountain? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh truth in his heart" (Ps. 15:1—2). And he did not say, "He who speaks the truth in his mouth," for what he meant was that the truth should be deeply rooted and established in the heart of man.

(20) The tongue of a righteous man is choice silver, But the mind of the wicked is of little worth.

Our tongue expresses our inner language, things that we have comprehended are expressed through our tongue. The mouth has three parts correlating to three forms of knowledge. 1- the lips which correspond with chachma (the "spark" of thinking about something, but before the idea is formed in your mind). 2- the tongue with corresponds with bina (expansion and development of the chachma's spark). 3- the language which corresponds with da'at (the conclusion or application of the idea contemplated. This carries the idea to its logical conclusion).

A tzaddik, who uses his mouth correctly, is compared to a choice silver and his words have no safek if they are correct because they are coming from a holy place where he has mulled and comprehended what he lets through his mouth.

(20) A man’s belly is filled by the fruit of his mouth; He will be filled by the produce of his lips.

Because so many things depend upon the tongue, it is necessary to guard the tongue very much. And therefore David said, "Keep thy tongue from evil" (Ps. 34:14). And our Sages, of blessed memory, recounted a story about a certain man who cried out in the streets, "Who wants to purchase the elixir of life?" Everybody came to buy. He then took out the Book of Psalms and showed them what was written in it: "Who is the man that desireth life and loveth days, that he may see good therein? Keep thy tongue from evil" (Ps. 34:13—14). And when Rabbi Yannai saw this, he took this man into his house and he fed him and he gave him (26)drink and money. The pupils of Rabbi Yannai came to him and said to him, "Did you not know this verse before?" And he said to them, "I did know it — but I never put it in my heart to be careful concerning this. When I used to read this verse I would go over it hastily and did not realize its full meaning. And now this man came and made it mean something to me, and from now on I shall be more careful with my tongue" (Lev. Rabbah 16:2; Shohar Tov, 52b).

The human body was constructed to refrain from speaking lash on hara. Every other limb in the body is vertical and the mouth is horizontal (inactive position). Furthermore, we have two eyes, ears, hands, legs, nostrils, while we only have one mouth (to symbolize that it is important to minimize chatter). Not only this, but the mouth is so dangerous that it has two walls preventing it from misuse, a wall of bone (teeth) and of flesh (mouth).

(14) The general rule here is this : When a man makes a door for the entrance to his house, there is a time to open it and a time to close it. So should he close the doors of his mouth, for there are actually two doors, the lips and the teeth. And be very careful as to when you open your mouth, and guard your tongue as you would silver and gold and pearls in your room and in your jewel case, and make a lock for the lock.

And if one is sitting among the wise he should be silent and listen to their words, for when he is silent, he hears what he does not know, but when he speaks he does not add anything to his knowledge. However, if he is doubtful as to the meaning of the words of the wise he should ask them, for to be silent in such a case is very bad: King Solomon said, "A time to keep silence, and a time to speak" (Eccl. 3:7)

(28) It is written, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue; and they that indulge it shall eat the fruit thereof" (Prov. 18:21). There is a story about a king of Persia who became ill, and the doctors said to him, "You cannot be healed until they bring you the milk of a lioness and then we will make you a medicine that will heal you." One of the men present said, "I will bring you the milk of a lioness if you wish, but give me ten goats." The king told his servants to give them to him, and they did so. He went to a pit of lions and there was a lioness there who was giving suck to her young. The first day he stood far off and threw one goat to the lioness and she ate it. The second day he came closer to her a bit and threw her another goat, and thus did he do until he was able to play with the lioness, and he took some of her milk and started back. As he was travelling along the way, he saw in a dream that his limbs were quarrelling with one another. The leg said, "There are no limbs like us, for if we had not gone our master would not have been able to bring the milk." Then the hand said, "There is no one like us, for if we had not done our part, nothing would have happened." The brain said, "There is no one like me! If I had not given counsel, of what use would any of you have been?" Then the tongue said, "There is nobody like me. For if I had not said that we would do this thing, who would have done it?" All the limbs answered, "How dare you compare yourself with us? You are in a place of darkness, and you possess no bone like the rest of the limbs." And the tongue replied to them, "This day will you say that I rule over all of you."

(29) The man kept the dream in mind. He went to the king and he said to him, "My lord, the king, here is the milk of a dog." The king got very angry and ordered that the man be hanged. As he was about to be hanged, all the limbs began to weep. Whereupon the tongue said to them, "Did I not tell you that you are not worth anything? If I save you, will you confess that I am king over all of you?" And they said to her, "Yes!" Then the man said to the executioners, "Take me back to the king, perhaps I can be saved." So they returned the man to the king, and the man asked, "Why did you order that I be hanged?" And the king said, "Because you brought me the milk of a dog." The man said, "What difference does it make as long as you are healed? And moreover, a lioness is often called a dog. They took the milk from him and tested it and it was found to be the milk of a lioness. Then all of the limbs said to the tongue, "Now we confess to you that you are king." And this is the meaning of the saying, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." Therefore David said (Ps. 39:2), "I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue" (Shohar Tov, 39:2—3, and Yalkut Tehillim, item 721).

(31) You must consider well and distinguish clearly this matter of the tongue, because all the affairs of a man, whether for evil or for good, depend upon it. With his tongue, a man can commit great and mighty transgressions without number, such as informing, tale-bearing, scoffing, flattery, lies, and the like. And all of these great transgressions bring no profit to the owner of the tongue. And with his tongue a man can also do precepts without limit. And there are many people who say, "How can we do a good deed? We do not have money which we can give to the poor." They do not know that the source of the precepts is very near to them — the source of life in this world and in the world-to-come, and that is the tongue. And thus did David say, "Who wishes to acquire the life of this world and of the world to come?" And they said to them, "No one can stay in both worlds." Then he said to them, "It is very cheap," as it is written, "Who is the man that desireth life" (Ps. 34:13). They said to him, "Who is the one that can acquire life?" And he said to them (Ps. 34:14), "Keep thy tongue from evil" (Shohar Tov, 39:4; and see Abodah Zarah 19b).

Concerning this it is said, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Prov. 18:21), for a man can do more harm with his tongue than he can with a sword. For a man can stand here and yet betray his companion, who is a long distance from him, and cause his death (by his word), while the sword can only slay someone who is near it. Therefore man was created with two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and one mouth to say to him that he ought to speak less.

The sages said (Yerushalmi Peah 1:1) there are three sins [for which] people are punished in this world and have no share in the world to come: Idolatry, forbidden sexual relations and bloodshed. And evil speech is equal to them all. And the sages also said (Yerushalmi Peah 1:1) that anyone who speaks evil speech is a heretic, as it states (Psalms 12:5), "They say, 'By our tongues we shall prevail; with lips such as ours, who can be our master?'” And the sages also said (Arakhin 15b) [that] evil speech kills three people: The person who said it, the person who hears it, and the person who it was said about. And the person who hears it more so than the person who says it.

(2) Three kings and four commoners have no share in the World to Come. The three kings are: Jeroboam, Ahab, and Manasseh. Rabbi Yehudah says, Manasseh does have a share in the World to Come, as it says (II Chronicles 33:13), "And [Manasseh] prayed unto Him; and He was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom." [The Sages] said to him, to his kingdom He brought him back, but He did not bring him back to life in the World to Come. The four commoners are: Balaam, Doeg, Achitophel, and Gehazi.

And thus, precisely, is it in our instance. The (22)yetzer bested you today in the area of forbidden speech. Stand up and strengthen yourself against him tomorrow to defeat him. And even if, G-d forbid, he bests you again, notwithstanding this, return and strengthen yourself again against him to wage war with him. And the Holy One Blessed be He will certainly help you, too, to emerge victorious; for "one who comes to purify himself is abetted (from on High.") In sum: A man should spend all of his days warring with his yetzer, this being the intent of Chazal in "Let one always incite, etc." And this, in effect, is the intent of the verse (Koheleth 10:4): "If the spirit of the "ruler" rises up against you, do not abandon your position."