SHEMOS - WORDS

 August 17, 1993

"And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage and  they cried, and their cry came up to Hashem by reason of the  bondage.  And Hashem heard their groaning, and Hashem remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.  And Hashem saw the children of Israel, and Hashem took cognizance of them." Exodus 2:23

This passage seems to imply that when the Jews were suffering as slaves in Egypt, it was only when they cried out that Hashem heard their groading and 'remembered' His covenant with their forefathers.  The question can be asked that since Hashem saw the suffering all along, why did the crying out seem to evoke a greater response from Hashem?

Similarly, in a passage in Parsha Re'eh that encourages us to lend to the poor, it says:

"Beware that there is not a base thought in your heart... and you give him nothing, and he cry to Hashem against you, and it  is a sin in you."

Three steps are enumerated:  First someone doesn't give the poor man money, then the poor man cries to Hashem, and then it is considered a sin.  What role does the second step play, that of the poor man crying to Hashem?  Since Hashem sees and knows everything, why doesn't Hashem regard it as a sin as soon as the poor person is denied the money?  Why does the sin seem to become tangible only AFTER the poor man cries out?

While outlining the Hallachos of Tschuva, the Rambam says that confession in our hearts is not enough for us to be forgiven.  It is required for us to verbalize our sin and ask Hashem to forgive us.  This has to be done with WORDS.  Thoughts and feelings are not sufficient.  Why?

The answer may lie in the fact that in Hebrew DVAR means both word and thing.  For the Jew a word is not merely a means of communication, but is something tangible and effective - a THING as real as a building or a rock.  When we speak, we create THINGS, just like when we build a house we create houses.  Reality is altered significantly and populated by the words we use.  Thinking and feeling, though significant, are not tangible things with nearly the same effect as words.

There are two worlds: the physical world, and the world of mind and spirit.  If we build or destroy something physical, we change the physical world.  The world of mind and spirit seems generally diffuse and intangible, and by using words we apply our consciousness and spirit to concretize the non-physical world, and make objects that have effect and greater reality.  Feelings and thoughts ebb and flow, change and metamorphize from moment to moment.  But when we say words, the effects of the words remain.

The Gemorrah tells the story of a man who would always leave a bit early from the Bais Medresh on Friday afternoon to come home to his wife.  Once he was so engrossed in learning, that he left late.  His wife was worried and told her father who was a Tzaddik.  Her father said, 'I hope nothing has happened to him'.  The man who was coming home was at that moment on the roof of a house, and the roof collapsed, killing him.  The words of the Tzaddik became real, and had a powerful effect, though the effect obviously was not intended.  There is a saying that the words of a Tzaddik are as though they are already done.  How careful we must be with our words!

The Gemorrah in Moed Katan says that a Rabbi was making a shiva call to his brother who had just lost a child.  The brother said 'If you knew how I felt.'  A few days later a child of the Rabbi who had visited died.  And when the brother made his shiva call the next week, the Rabbi said 'You caused this to happen to me with your careless words'.

At the very beginning of the Chumash, in the very beginning of time, Hashem SAID 'Let there belight', and there was light. Why didn't Hashem just create light without saying anything?  Perhaps it was to show us that words have enormous power.  Words take the teeming, flowing, amorphous metaphysical world of mind and spirit and concretize it, and makes it as real as anything we see and touch.  In fact, words are used to CREATE the physical world.  Only because of the words of Hashem does the physical world exist at all.

This partly explains the incredibly destructive power of loshon hara, speaking badly about other people.  This is using the amazing power of words to destroy other people, rather that to increase the kedusha in the world and make the world a better place to live.

This also partly explains the power of prayer.  With prayer we verbalize what is in our heart and mind to create channels of communication to Hashem, and channels for Him to respond.  The words of prayer transform our concerns, hopes, and thanks into real, tangible THINGS that can have great effect.

The power of words is exactly the power than separates Man from animals.  Animals are 'dumb', while we have the power of words.

On Yom Kippur, the Kohane Godol, the high Priest, sought forgiveness for all the Jews.  One of the first things he did was to slay an ox and receive its blood into a basin.  This blood, once thrown onto the altar in the courtyard, would effectuate forgiveness.  But then, as if reminded of something even more important, the high Priest has someone stir the blood in the basin so that it wouldn't congeal, and he hurried into the Haichal where the inner altar is.  There he burned incense as an atonement for the sins of SPEECH of the Jewish People.  The Gemorrah in Yuma says, 'Just as the smoke of incense spreads and fills up the room, so does speech spread and fill up the world'.