Rebbetzin Leah Gans
It is written in the Gemara (Moed Katan, 18a): “A covenant is made with the lips.” This principle demonstrates the power of the spoken word. Thus, as Abraham was on his way to sacrifice Isaac, he told those accompanying him (Genesis, 22:5): “…the boy and I will go over there, and we will bow down and return to you.” Rashi explains that here he foretold that they would both return. Spoken vows have the same power—what has escaped one's lips must be fulfilled. And curses have power in exactly the same way—what a person has uttered has acquired power. Tractate Temurah (3a) states that one who curses his fellow using His name is punished with lashes under Torah law, even though he has not physically done anything.
Therefore, we should all try to avoid speaking thoughtlessly, “not give Satan an opening,” and be among those who bless.
The Gemara tells of a woman who kept coming to one of the Sages and telling him her frightening dreams so that he would give them a favorable interpretation. For example, she dreamed that a ceiling beam in her house was falling. The Sage replied that this dream meant: you will soon give birth to a son! And so it happened. The next time she came with her dream, the Sage was absent and only his students were there. She told them that she had had the same dream—that a beam in the house had fallen on her. The students interpreted the dream to mean that her husband would die. And so it happened. The Sage then severely reprimanded his students, saying that the meaning of a dream follows its interpretation, so one must always interpret it favorably! With their words, they had killed a person. [However, the interpretation must correspond to the dream—editor's note]
Of course, we understand nothing about dreams. But when worried people come to us asking us to interpret their dream, we must always say only kind and positive things.
The dream itself, without an interpretation, is generally nonsense, but when it takes on meaning through the interpreter's words, it becomes a significant force.
In our time, the effects of human speech have already been studied—and not even on a person, but on an inanimate object. Scientists planted legume sprouts in identical little dishes, on identical cotton wool. The difference was that one plant heard pleasant, gentle words from people each time it was watered, while the other heard insults and curses. The scientists found that the first plant sprouted beautifully, while the second withered completely. [The meaning of this is clear: the speaker's words carry the powers of their soul—editor's note]
When the mixture of ketoret (incense) was prepared for the Temple, the person grinding it would always say: “Grind it well, grind it well,” because “the voice is beneficial for the ingredients of ketoret,” as our Sages say. This refrain will indeed help the incense to be ground more finely.
The book “Shemirat HaLashon” quotes a passage from the “Zohar” explaining that bad words create evil entities that hang on a person's lips and wait. Then they attach the bad words to the holy words the person speaks and drag them down, preventing prayers from ascending. In this way, the power of holiness is weakened. Suddenly, a person finds that they have no strength to study Torah, no strength to pray. The holy words that a person could have spoken are blocked by evil entities, which keep bad words at the ready to interfere with the holy words.
The following example is given on this subject. A man was very skilled at cutting gemstones. He went away from home, leaving his tools there. Now he needs to do some work on a stone, but his tools are at home! Where he is, he has only crude, unsuitable tools. Even though he is highly skilled at his craft, he cannot accomplish anything with such tools.
The tool a person uses for their work in this world is the mouth.
A person was given a mouth to use for holy speech, blessings, and praise of the Almighty. But if a person does not use their tools properly, they can ruin them. Curses, lies, lashon hara—any forbidden speech harms us. And now, even though we are professionals, our tools are damaged, and we cannot carry out our task in this world.
It is said in the name of the Maharal that when a person harms any of the organs of their soul, the corresponding physical organ also suffers. If it is a hand, the hand suffers; if it is the head, the head suffers. But the mouth is a different matter. In this case, the entire body suffers at once. What enters the body through the mouth is absorbed (in the intestines) and enters the blood. The blood carries it throughout the body, and if a person has eaten poison, then after a while (unless the protective mechanisms kick in), the body will be poisoned.
It is also worth thinking about the fact that children are sometimes born with defects of the mouth—a cleft lip or cleft palate. In some especially severe cases, such a child finds it difficult not only to eat and drink, but also to breathe. A series of costly operations is needed to correct the congenital defect and help the baby. How grateful we must be to the Almighty that our children are born healthy! And another thought occurred to me: how can we use this gift—a healthy mouth—to say forbidden things, to rebel against the Almighty!
We often forget that all our organs are tools for serving the Almighty, and that He, in His great mercy, gave them to us healthy and ready for use. Now our task is to take care of them and use them properly.
to be continuedPrepared by: Mrs. Zissi Skarzhinskaya