Seyag LiD'varav - Creating A Fence For our Words
"If a person guards his speech, others will emulate him and he will be rewarded for that merit also."
Guard Your Tongue, Chofetz Chayim, p.189
Speaking Mouth: Peh - Sach
"It is a Torah commandment to retell the story of the Exodus from Egypt. The Hassidic masters felt that the mitzvah of retelling the Exodus story entailed more than just a directive to narrate what had occurred to our ancestors. Rather, they conceived of the Exodus story as an example of the mitzvah of narrative itself, which must be practiced by every Jew throughout the year. [One interpretation of Pesach is “pe” – mouth, and “sach” – speak, to connote the idea that we must continually tell our tale.] When the Baal Shem Tov felt that his prayer could not penetrate to heaven, he would begin telling a narrative, and the gates of heaven would open…
If this is what happens with a story told all year long, just think what can be attained by telling the story of the Pesach Exodus. R. Yehuda Leib Alter, the second Admor of the Gur [Hassidic] dynasty and author of the “Sfat Emet,” stated that with the story of the Exodus from Egypt we are igniting the sparks of redemption. In the beginning God planned to bring complete redemption during the Exodus from Egypt. But only part of the redemptive plan was carried out; the rest was left, hidden away and preserved, for a future time. And where did God hide this redemption- to-come? In His Holy Torah, and especially in the story of the Exodus from Egypt. Thus, when we all sit around and narrate the story of the Haggadah, we are thereby drawing out and igniting the sparks of redemption. Therefore, says Rebbe Abraham Borenstein of Sokhochov, we must tell of the Exodus from Egypt with such great emotion and enthusiasm that we feel and see the miracles and wonders of the Exodus from Egypt for ourselves."
Rabbi Arie Strikovsky from https://elmad.pardes.org/2001/04/pesach-in-the-hassidic-tradition-2/
פרך = Lit. "Harsh Labor" -- Pun: Peh Rach (Soft Mouth)
ובזוהר אמרו (ח"ב קפז, א) על פסוק (תהלים קיג, ב) יהי שם ה' מ"ב ר"ך, כי מתחלה עלה במחשבה לברוא העולם במדת הדין הקשה, דהיינו שם של מ"ב שהוא שם היוצא מהגבורה. ואחר כך נעשה רך, כי שיתף מדת הדין עם מדת הרחמים והיה מדת הדין רך, וכן תמצא במצרים (שמות א, יג) בפה רך ובעבודה קשה. רק ארורים הם הרשעים שכל עניינם תחלה שלוה ולבסוף יסורין (ב"ר ס"ה, ה), אבל הצדיקים תחלתן יסורין וסוף שלוה, והוא יתברך צדיק בכל דרכיו מתחלה עלה במחשבה בעבודה קשה דהיינו מ"ב, ואח"כ רך. ועבודת ישראל במצרים לזיכוך ע"י פרעה הרשע והיא הפך, מתחילה בפה רך, ואח"כ בעבודה קשה:
The Zohar, in commenting on the line יהי שם השם מבורך, (Job 1,21) divides the word מב-רק into מב =42, the name of the attribute of גבורה, i.e. that G–d had first planned to create the world based on מדת הדין הקשה. Subsequently, this attribute was softened through the co-option of the attribute of רחמים, mercy. After the first 42 letters, we have another 42 letters until the letter ר in the word ויאמר. This is followed by another 42 letters ending before the letter ד in ויבדל. The sign, סימן, of this sequence is ב-ה-ר-ד, with the letter ב referring to בראשית. You find a parallel in Israel's experience in Egypt, when the עבודה קשה, hard labour, was tempered by פה רך soft words, (Exodus 1,14) (the second time the expression פרך is used) The reason that this word also appears prior to עבודה קשה, is to remind us that the wicked are initially allowed to live in peace, only to face יסורים, afflictions, in the Hereafter. The opposite is true of the righteous whose experience in life begins with afflictions. G–d in His righteousness begins with מב i.e. the attribute of Justice, only to co-opt the attribute of Mercy, i.e. מצרף רך, at a later stage. This is why His name is blessed, i.e. מברך. Just as creation began with the מב, so the initial experience in Egypt which emanated from the wicked Pharaoh proceeded in the reverse order, i.e. commencing with פה רך, while ending in עבודה קשה.
Festival of Freedom
This day shall be to you one of remembrance: you shall celebrate it as a festival to יהוה throughout the ages; you shall celebrate it as an institution for all time. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the very first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. You shall celebrate a sacred occasion on the first day, and a sacred occasion on the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them; only what every person is to eat, that alone may be prepared for you. You shall observe the [Feast of] Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your ranks out of the land of Egypt; you shall observe this day throughout the ages as an institution for all time. In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. No leaven shall be found in your houses for seven days. For whoever eats what is leavened, that person—whether a stranger or a citizen of the country—shall be cut off from the community of Israel. You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your settlements you shall eat unleavened bread.
“You shall observe this as an institution for all time, for you and for your descendants. And when you enter the land that יהוה will give you, as promised, you shall observe this rite. And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this rite?’ you shall say, ‘It is the passover (פסח) sacrifice to יהוה, who passed over (פסח)the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when smiting the Egyptians, but saved our houses.’ Those assembled then bowed low in homage. And the Israelites went and did so; just as יהוה had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
The Groan
MidBar - Land of Speech
Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a festival of יהוה. Throughout the seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten; no leavened bread shall be found with you, and no leaven shall be found in all your territory. And you shall tell the story to your child on that day, ‘It is because of what יהוה did for me when I went free from Egypt.’ “And this shall serve you as a sign on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead*on your forehead —in order that the Teaching of יהוה may be in your mouth—that with a mighty hand יהוה freed you from Egypt. You shall keep this institution at its set time from year to year.
Now when Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although it was nearer; for God said, “The people may have a change of heart when they see war, and return to Egypt.” So God led the people round about, by way of the wilderness (Midbar) at the Sea of Reeds. Now the Israelites went up armed out of the land of Egypt.
Song of the Sea