Shemirat HaLashon שמירת הלשון

I have further undertaken to awaken men to guard their faculties while yet in this world, to realize that the faculties of speech, hearing, and sight are implanted in the soul. The soul hears; the soul sees; the soul speaks. The material [component], which is flesh and blood, does not see or hear or speak at all. It is just that the Holy One Blessed be He has implanted [the faculties in such a way] that sight, hearing, and speech are mediated by the surrounding flesh. Sight [which proceeds from the soul in the brain, as Chazal say: "Just as the Holy One Blessed be He sees but is not seen, so, the soul sees but is not seen"] (is mediated by) the eyes; hearing, by the ears; speech, by the tongue. But all of these are faculties of the soul.

It emerges, then, that even when a man's matter disintegrates and becomes dust, and his soul returns to G-d, as it is written (Koheleth 12:7): "And the dust will return to the earth, as it was, and the spirit will return to G-d, who gave it," it retains all of these faculties — sight, hearing, and speech — for these will not have been annulled by the separation of matter from it [the soul]. For matter is only the garment of the soul, as it is written (Iyyov 10:11): "With skin and flesh did You clothe me." Now if one removes his garment, will his soul be annulled thereby?

Now this is known to all, that when one lacks one of these three faculties, he is not considered a "man among men." That is, if he is blind, he is perceived as dead. And if he is deaf, not hearing at all; and, more so, if he is an absolute mute, not hearing and not speaking, he is not reckoned at all among [other] men. And, especially if he must sit in some kind of gathering and he is blind or deaf, how much suffering is his lot!

And one should also know that all of these faculties — sight, hearing, and speech — which the Holy One Blessed be He implanted in a man's soul, as essential as they are to a man in this world, as is known to all, they are even more essential to his soul [in the next world]. That is, to see the glory of the L-rd, and with his ears to hear the words of G-d in Gan Eden. As we find, in Midrash Tavo, that the Holy One Blessed be He is destined to learn Torah with Israel in time to come, to speak in words of Torah in Gan Eden.

Now it is known that of all the hope of a man, ennobled by the name "Israel," the primary hope is to merit life in the world to come, the greatest delight of all the delights of the world. As stated in Avoth 4:17: "Better one moment of pleasure in the world to come than all the life of this world." And it is also known what has been written in many sefarim, including the GRA, on (Mishlei 13:13): "He who cheapens a thing will be injured by it," viz.: When a man cheapens a mitzvah, he injures himself. For every thing in his organs receives its vital force from a mitzvah. For the 248 positive commandments correspond to the 248 organs of a man, as we find in the Midrash, so that there is thereafter found [(by the cheapening of a mitzvah)] an injury in the soul in [the area of] the corresponding limb.

Accordingly, if one is not heedful in his lifetime of his faculty of sight, and permits himself to gaze at what the Torah forbade, he should know with certainty that in time to come he will be like a blind man, unable to gaze upon the light of the L-rd, just as one who is sick in his eyes cannot see by the light of his soul. And the degree of the injury to his eyes is proportional to the degree of his [self-abandonment].

And how much bitterness will one suffer because of this in the end, that for one minute of pleasure that the yetzer has fed him with its seductions, it has corrupted his eyes and darkened them, by drawing down upon them each time the spirit of uncleanliness of the spirit of harlotry.

And the eye is the first entrance of the evil inclination, for through it there enters the heart the power of desire and lust against which we were exhorted at Mount Sinai, and as our sages of blessed memory said: "The eye sees, the heart desires and the instruments of action consummate." And, concerning this it was intimated (Eichah 3:51): "My eye scalds my soul more than all the daughters of my city." "my city" alludes to the powers of the body (which is also called guf [body]), as in Nedarim 32b: "'a small city' — this is the guf." The verse intimates that the eye has corrupted his soul more than all the other powers of the body, all of them coming to consummate only what his eyes have begun.

And now we shall speak about the faculty of hearing. Hearing, in itself, is good, as it is written (Isaiah 55:3): "Hear, and let your souls live." And (Mishlei 15:31): "The ear that hears the reproof of life, in the midst of the wise will it reside." And hearing works on a man to cause him to satisfy [an obligation] by hearing as if he had performed it himself. A proof may be adduced from the reading of the Megillah, the blowing of the shofar, and other such things, such as [the recitation of] Kiddush and the grace over meals, where one makes the blessing and all the listeners satisfy the obligation. Similarly, all of the receiving of the Torah was through hearing. All this, for good things. The reverse is true for bad things, G-d forbid. Hearing [bad things] also greatly affects a man's soul. It is well known what our sages of blessed memory have said (Kethuvoth 5b): "The Rabbis taught: 'Let a man not allow idle speech to be heard by his ears, for they are the first of the organs to be "burnt."'" How much more so [does this apply] to one who intends to cause rechiluth to be heard by his ears, this being proscribed by a negative commandment in the Torah, viz. (Shemoth 23:1): "You shall not bear a false report," or to one who hears, with intent, lashon hara and other forbidden things, or frivolous speech or leitzanuth (levity), in which instance his sin is too great to bear. And our sages of blessed memory have said about the scoffer (Avodah Zarah 18b) that suffering comes upon him, as it is written (Isaiah 28:22): "Do not scoff, lest your bonds be strengthened." And they have also said (Shabbath 33a): "Even he who listens [to obscenity] and remains silent [is condemned], it being written (Mishlei 22:14): 'The abhorred of the L-rd will abide there' [next to the speaker of obscenity.]"

In sum, just as in hearing good things one fulfills many tens of mitzvoth each day, (e.g., answering Amen, yeheh shmei rabbah, Barchu, Kedushah, and answering all of the amens [in the Amidah]), so, hearing bad things affects a man's soul very adversely.

Returning to our subject, if a man in his lifetime constantly degrades his faculty of hearing, employing it for forbidden things, let him know that in time to come he will not have the power in his ears to hear the words of the living G-d.

And now we shall speak of the faculty of speech that the Holy One Blessed be He implanted in a man's soul, which distinguishes him from all the other animals. And He gave him the power of speech whereby a man can merit speaking before the Holy One Blessed be He and meditating in his Torah, which is the end of the creation. As Scripture states (Jeremiah 33:25): "If not for My covenant [of Torah] day and night, the statutes of heaven and earth, I would not have made."

[It is clear, then, from Scripture, that day and night were created for the sake of the Torah. And I have hereby explained (Menachoth 29b): "Dammah, the son of R. Yishmael's sister, asked R. Yishmael: 'May one such as I, who have studied the entire Torah, study Greek wisdom?' — whereupon he pronounced over him (Joshua 1:8): 'This book of the Torah shall not depart from your mouth, and you shall study it day and night.' Go and find an hour which is neither of the day nor of the night and study Greek wisdom in it!" I have explained this by analogy. A certain tailor had a great deal of work and had to hire a worker for a month to come to his house to finish the work. This he did, and he paid him. After this the worker brought some of his own work to do there — whereupon the tailor said to him: "Until now, when you did my work, I had to give you my table and all of my tools to work at it. But now, when you are doing your own work, why should I give you my table and all of my tools?" The analogue: The Holy One Blessed be He created time, day and night, to do His work, and you now want to learn Greek wisdom on His time! Go out and find an hour which is neither day nor night and learn it then!]

And through every word of Torah, holiness is added to a man's soul. For with every word he fulfills the mitzvah of talmud Torah, as written in the sefarim. And through each mitzvah a man's soul is sanctified, as it is written (Bamidbar 15:40): "So that you remember and do all of My mitzvoth; and you shall be holy to your G-d." And there is no mitzvah performed by the organs, where a man has mitzvoth added to him as profusely as that of speech [of Torah] granted him by the L-rd. For whatever mitzvah one does with his organs, he must allocate to it [at least] several minutes, and in this time, if he were learning Torah, he could utter hundreds of words of Torah. Therefore, a man is not permitted to leave off Torah study if the mitzvah can be performed by others. And this is what is intimated by Mishlei 14:4: "Wealth adds many friends," which the GRA explained: Through the wealth of Torah many friends are added to a man. For with every word of Torah with which one fulfills the mitzvah of Torah study, there is created for him one defender, and these [defenders] are the true friends of a man.

In sum, speech is a man's happiness and his success if well used. But, conversely, if he uses it incorrectly, there is no organ among all the others that he can be harmed by [as much as by] the tongue. For, certainly, from every forbidden word there is created a prosecutor against him, and in one hour he can speak several hundred forbidden words of falsehood, levity, rechiluth, and lashon hara.

And, in general, in the instance of other transgressions, regret and repentance obtain, as opposed to sins of speech, where they do not obtain. And even though he says in Confession: "We have spoken lashon hara," it does not occur to him that what he spoke is lashon hara, and that he must take it upon himself not to repeat it in the future. He does not think at all about this. Where, then, is his repentance? And where there is no repentance from below, there is no forgiveness from above. And sin is added to sin almost without number. [And even on Yom Kippur, when he says; ("Forgive us) for the sin that we sinned before You with lashon hara," it does not occur to him to think: "What will be the end, with the multitude of 'prosecutors' that arise against me through my faculty of speech, which I was not careful with until now and because I did not seek counsel to strengthen myself against recurrences of these things?" And, in truth, not one word has been lost. As our sages of blessed memory say on Amos 4:13: "He relates to a man what his converse is" — "Even the light talk between a man and his wife is related to him at the time of din."] And this is (the intent of) what our sages of blessed memory have said: "All who speak lashon hara magnify sin until the heavens."

And, worst of all, if one habituates his mouth always to speak forbidden things, in time to come the faculty of speech is taken from his soul. And, in truth, how is he better than a beast in having been given the faculty of speech if with it he angers the Holy One Blessed be He? All of this is intimated in the words of our sages of blessed memory, viz.: "The Holy One Blessed be He is destined to cut out the tongue of the speakers of lashon hara, as it is written (Psalms 12:4): 'The L-rd will cut out all smooth lips, the tongue that speaks great things.'" That is, there will be taken from his tongue its faculty of speech. And how much shame and mortification will he suffer in Gan Eden, even if he merits a portion there through his mitzvoth — still, he will be reckoned a mute there, without the faculty of speech.

What emerges from all of our words is that one must guard his soul in his lifetime in all of these three faculties — sight, hearing, and speech, that they not be defective, and he must take it to heart that they are essential to him for eternity.

And if it happens, for any reason, that they are spoiled, he must see to it to repent before the L-rd with true repentance, with strong resolution not to repeat his offense in the future. And he must make fences for this, not to come to this folly again and to amend each one accordingly. As our sages of blessed memory have said (Shemoth Rabbah 23:3): "Tzaddikim, in that through which they sin, they are conciliated," and then, [life is] happy and good for him — in this world and the next.