Before you hit send | Rabbi Jeremy Perlow | June 23 2026

Okay, good morning everyone. I want to take the opportunity to welcome everyone. Thank you for coming. It's always wonderful to see everyone. Start the morning right. Uh I want to start by reminding everyone of the schedule today. So today I'm going to be speaking first. Afterwards, we're going to have Rabbi Browitz as usual. Following that, Rabbi Yasi Golden will be speaking. Okay, for the rest of the summer, he's probably going to be speaking later in the day, just so everyone should be aware. Um and I'll be speaking the first slot usually. And then finally, we're going to have everybody Sam Shore will be speaking. Give the last cheer for today. Yes. >> Do you want me to move it? Sure. Okay. Uh I would also like to remind everyone to It's very hot out today. So, everyone should continue to bring water every day, every time you come to the Shirim. I always encourage people you to have water in the Besset. Just make sure that it's covered and it won't be spilling everywhere. Okay. Okay, so let's go ahead. We're going to get started. Uh, also people were asking next week just in terms of one last scheduling notes next week whereby Shai Finkelstein is also going to be away. Again, Rabbi Schm Golden is away for the rest of the summer. Rabbi Shai Finkelestein will also be away next week. So it'll be a similar uh little switch switcheroo next week. Uh same schedule as this week for next week. So everyone should just be aware, everyone should know what's happening. And then please go the following week Rabbi Shy Finglestein will be back. Okay. Okay. Okay, let's go ahead and get started. I want to talk a little bit about what I believe is a very important topic today and that is our speech. We know whenever we speak we have a responsibility to be very mindful of our words and I think it's a very big responsibility. It's not so easy. There's a lot of things that we just almost out of happen stance we just they slip and we once once the leave words leave we really can't take them back. And we find many times throughout kazal there were warned time and time and time again to be mindful of our speech. how we use our words can make worlds and can destroy worlds. We have that opportunity right here. And we find this the one person who really knew this very very well was none other than Bum. And we in this week's Cedra we find one of the one of the worst of the worst right Basha. He was someone who understood the secrets. He understood the power of words and he comes to attack clawist using his speech. Now what's interesting is even Basha he knew seemingly some somehow he knew he says source one how can I possibly curse the Jewish people after all Hashem himself did not curse the Jewish people how can I possibly send them another word for curse we have we'll discuss in a second what the difference is between these words how can I possibly give them a curse hashem now you'll You'll notice here we know the the Torah often speaks in poetic language, but it seems to be almost the same exact phrase. He seems to be saying in two different methods, in two different manners, how can I curse the Jewish people if Hashem has not cursed them? Right? He uses the termal and he uses the term, two different words for curse. And you'll notice also he uses two different shashem uses alhamdullet name of Hashem. So why is it that he's using these two different terms? Is he just being poetic here? Is there something else going on? What's the significance of these twoem? And what is the significance of the two words for curse? So rashi here on the spat in verse number two, he tells us a little bit about the background here. He says even when the Jewish people were deserving of being cursed, they were not able to be cursed. When was that? So we have here he's going to provide for us several examples of instances you would expect the Jewish people would be cursed and they would be receive a curse and yet they did not. What what are those? Number one we know their forefathers are our forefather we call ourselves Ben is Jacob for children of Jacob. When Jacob mentioned their sins what does he do? He does not curse them. He says what does he do? He curses their anger. He only curses their ignorant but he does not curse the Jewish people because the Jewish people cannot be cursed. Similarly when his father right their father went ahead and went and acted in a way in a manner which was again with trickery even next to his father when Jacob went tok with trickery. What episode was that? We know, right? Good. Asov. Asov and Jacob. Yes. Okay. They're going to fighting for the braot and Jacob comes to trick his father. He tricked his father. He should have been cursed. You be pulling a fast one on me. You think you're going to get away with the And yet what happens? Even when he finds out that this was Jacob, he says he should also be blessed. Finally, one last example. The Jewish people we know right before we went into we were asked to stand on different mountains. We stood at Harri and we stood in Haral and we know one of the mountains was the mountain which was meant to be to deliver the blessings and the other mountain was expect to be the mountain on which we deliver the curses. But if you look carefully at the wording in the Torah that's not what we find. The says what does it say? It does not say those are the ones who are going to stand to curse the Jewish people. Rather it says those the ones who are going to stand on the curse. Meaning the wording is very precise. It's not parallel to what we find by the bra. It's the wording is very precise and that we're emphasizing that the Jewish people are beyond curse. were only meant to receive. Hem never wanted to rest upon us a word having to do with curse. You see here something very important. The Jewish people are not cursible. We're not meant to be cursed. Which leads us to a very interesting question, right? >> Ah okay. Yeah, we have to talk about that too. Maybe we have time at the end. We can try and squeeze that in. What leads us to a very important question which is if you think about it why is it the Jewish people are beyond curse bum understood this bom was very very bright he was one of the scholars of the um ulam he was one of the scholars of the non-Jews of the world he knew so much he knew about the world he knew about curses he knew about blessings and he knew that the Jewish people couldn't be cursed and yet we know for many reasons there's a big discussion in the farim he went and he tried to curse the Jewish people what was he trying to do what was he trying to accomplish is not 100% here but on a simple level we have to understand the concept I think we have to zoom out and understand the concept of a curse right what is the concept of a curse how do curses work we understand right a person can give you a bra and even if you're not deserving of the hashem can go ahead and hashem can do with you hashem can be benevolent hashem can act with loving kindness and hashem can bestow upon a person of even if they're not deserving when it comes to kalala however it doesn't really make sense Either you sinned and you're deserving of punishment or you didn't. And therefore, why should your curse have any effect on me? Why should the curse that you give me have any effect on whether Hashem is going to punish me? If I didn't do anything wrong, I shouldn't be punished. So when we and you look, this is not my question. This is the question of the or if you look at source number three, he asked this question very very strongly. Okay? He says this is very difficult to understand. If Hashem give a certain curse to a personal then why do you need bam? Right? Either Hashem is going to give the curse and then okay he's going to get the curse or Hashem is not going to give the curse. But if Hashem is giving the curse why do you need a right? How could he possibly give a curse? Why would Hashem need curse? After all, only called upon to curse him. Furthermore, he asks another question, etc. If you look at the context of this puk, he points out that the that if you look at the theim surrounding this, you'll find that bam emphasizes that the Jewish people that the Jewish people come from these these mountains. It's like giving like a seems to be painting a picture for us. I see them from the heights of the mountains, right? And from the hills they will be viewed. Why is that important for us to know? Why is he painting a picture of where the Jewish people arrest him? And he goes ahead and he goes to great wing theory. I don't want to go too much in detail here, but just to emphasize the question, if you look at the second paragraph in source three, he says to understand the matter properly, we have to look at the primary the focus point of the person who is cursed. Either way, if he's deserving of punishment according to the letter of the law, he will be either way, he's going to receive the punishment even if he's not cursed. Hashem is deserving of if he's deserving of punishment, he's going to get punishment. And if he didn't do anything wrong, if he is innocent, then the curse will go back to the person who gave the curse. It won't fall upon the individual who is meant to receive it. He says when it comes to that's not true. The bold section, Hashem wants to do kindness with us. Hashem's act of benevolence is greater than that of his desire to curse. even for someone who's not deserving. This we understand according to his actions even if it's not according to his actions unlike when it comes to a punishment when it comes to a person doing wrong for that would punish us if we're not deserving. So again we have this these these a few questions here on the table. Number one, let's just review. Why is it that Hashem is mentioning his name specifically that BA mentions Hashem's name twice when he's emphasizing that he can't possibly curse the Jewish people? Number one. Question one. Question number two, the main two questions I want everyone to know. Why is it that we can find that when it comes to the the uh the concept of a curse, how could a curse ever take effect? Either person is deserving a curse or they're not. Those are the main two questions I want everyone to know. Okay, we asked four questions in total, but those are the main two I want everyone to guess. Yes. Okay. So, let's go ahead. I want to delve into this. In order to properly understand this, we have to take a step back. What is the greatest weapon, the greatest that the Jewish people have? >> What according to what you're saying? >> Okay. So, okay. So, so one of the Okay, so we're getting a little bit of a hint here. Okay. The orim does mention this question, right? that he said why that he's almost like I said painting a picture that we saw that said that he's referring to Rashi says who are the mountains referring to in the hilltops he says the reference to the aot and the mahoot so you're getting a little bit of a hint perhaps from the itself but there's something special about the aot and the mahot that's true okay but let's just take you're just pushing the question a little bit further back in time what was special about the abot what is their secret weapon that enabled them to be successful uccessful in their endeavors. What is the secret weapon of the Jewish people? >> Ah, very good. Very good. Okay. So, we see there's something very powerful. I'm going to take what you said a little bit. Okay. The answer that we got was that Hashem told Abraham, right? Whoever you, right, whoever you bless will be blessed. Hashem gave Abraham the power to give brah. But I'm going to go ahead and extrapolate a little bit beyond that. What was he really giving him? He gave him the gift of speech. The greatest weapon that we have in our arsenal is our speech. Our words are beyond precious. And like I mentioned at the beginning, they can build worlds and they can destroy worlds. We have that capability in the tongue. And that's why you'll see almost everything we're going to see today is going to be highlighting this point. the power of speech, the power of our words, what we can accomplish with them, how we can build people up and do the opposite. Look at the Torah on source number four. He says, he says a beautiful midrash sites here the acronym of we mentioned we asked one question which is why does he have two different words for curses? So one reason we appear here in the Torah he says the word is actually an acronym. He says right it stands for how can I possibly curse the Jewish people they're always answering they're always answering they're always answering how can I possibly curse them they have such great through the power right to say it more broadly the power of when we dive into Hashem we have the ultimate tool in our arsenal. So he says how can I curse such a nation. So this is one one way we see this. Look at the next source. Okay this is still again the second paragraph. Now we get to the answer to our original question. Why is it that bam went ahead and he emphasized that he gave twoem two different names of god he utilized in his his comments that can't possibly curse them. Why is that? Says the Torah. He's quoting from the because because their name is intermingled is mixed in with that of the creator with Hashem. The Jewish people and Hashem are one and we're inseparable. And therefore, just like you can't possibly curse God, you can't possibly curse the Jewish people. What is the punishment? God forbid if someone goes ahead and curses Hashem and uses Hashem's actual name, what's the punishment? Very good. He's deserving of capital punishment. We hold it to be very very severe such a person who does such a crime. And similarly, the Jewish people, Hashem says they're just like me. We go hand in hand. So we have this concept. He says, I can't possibly curse Hashem and therefore I can't curse the Jewish people. It's not fitting to curse the great and awesome name of God. So we have here notice again there's two different names of God. You have kel and you have right alhammed and then you have the four-letter name of Hashem. So we have to see what is the significance of these two names in particular. But he's highlighting this point that the Jewish people and God are inseparable and therefore I'm not it's impossible to curse the Jewish people. Now we know the word Israel, right? Just to emphasize the two names here for a second. The name Israel, what was it? Was the name given to us? It was really Jacob's name. It was given to us when Jacob defeated the Malik the Malik of he was given the name Israel same to is as if to say to Yakov when he went ahead and conquered the Malik of As you fought with the angel of Asov and you won. You were victorious. Yeah. Right. but within the name of Israel we have with the name of Hashem's name Hashem himself puts his stamp so to speak on Yo and he says I'm with you and all of your battles and everything you're going to be facing I'm with you I'm here and also the name what does the name signify we know has multiple names whenever a person says that name and it's important whenever you say four letter name there's a requirement it's recorded in the we're supposed to think about two things every time we say right and that is the way that Hashem's name is spelled right y and k and k and the way that it's pronounced right and then we say n right what is the significance of the way that it's spelled you have in those four letters the words hay hashem was hashem is and hashem will be Because Hashem is timeless. That's the first thing we need to think every time we say Hashem's name, right? And we're reminded by that by looking at the letters, how it's spelled. However, there's another kavan we're meant to have, which is an addition. We're meant to think about the way that Hashem's name is pronounced. Adon. Adon means master. That Hashem is master of the whole universe. Everything that goes on, Hashem is in charge. In this name of Hashem, the tells us we're supposed to always be thinking every time we say Hashem's name. The truth is it's a very hard thing to do. We say Hashem's name so many times throughout the day. How is it possible every single time to pause and think about it's very hard to do. It's not so easy. You have to dive in slowly if you're going to do it. Or there's another solution. You'll see in some they have this actually printed on the very first page of the little box and it says it's basically an apology to Hashem. and you say, "Hashem, I know that it's difficult for me to think about every single time I say your your name what I'm supposed to think about. It's difficult for me to think about every single time. It's not so easy." But maybe that the recitation of this text right now as I say your name now, it should be uh considered as if I thought these proper notes every time I said your name. and you go ahead and you say that is you look the first page in a lot of room they have this because Hashem knows and we know it's difficult for us to think about this. So again it's something we should strive for but even still we have to understand we're not perfect and we can go ahead and say this text at the beginning of the ding and hashem will count it as if we had the proper kavana. So uh again this is a name though which signifies not only Hashem's mastery of the whole universe not only Hashem's timelessness but in addition it signifies Hashem's act act of uh Hashem's attributes of mercy right mercy we know the 13 attributes of Hashem we say what are the very first two attributes we say twice Hashem Hashem this is a name which arouses Hashem's mercy And we have the potential of tapping into that in what does he do? He utilizes these two names of Hashem in his attempt to quote unquote curse the Jewish people. He says it's impossible because these two names of Hashem, the fact that Hashem is all merciful, Hashem, the forer name of Hashem and the fact that Hashem is puts a stamp so to speak on the Jewish people, Israel, the name of Kel, right? puts a stamp on the Jewish people signifies to me that it's impossible for me to curse them. And that's his initial response when he's asked to curse them. He says impossible. Now there's another we have we we've been talking so much so far about using the how we can use our words for proper ding for talking to Hashem which is one of the best purposes possible for our speech. However, we know there's another form of speech which is actually a lot which we're not meant to do right. Right? We can use our spirit words for a wrong. Now, most of us are probably when I say this, we're probably thinking about all the other forbidden forms of speech which are right. We're not going to go so much into that today. I want to focus right now on something which I think no one in this room does. I hope and that's we have in source five. The Puk says this is the other comment that BA makes. He emphasizes on the bottom of the first side. He emphasizes that there's no sorcery amongst the Jewish people. There's no magic and we know that this is something which we pride ourselves in. We're unlike some other groups. We are very careful about not being into all the sorcery, all the magic. We believe we're timic. We act appropriately. We don't get involved in magic. We don't get involved in divinity. We believe in the fact that Hashem is all powerful and we have Torah. We have we have mitzvot. That's what we believe. It's funny. Uh very often people say they come over to me and they'll ask me you know I need help with X in my life. Either I want to have a child or I want to help with parnasa or I need a shak for someone in my family. Everyone has a lot of things that we dabbing for and they ask they say rabbi what is a good sigula that I should take on what's a proper practice that I can go ahead and put bring into my life but they use the term sigula. Now sigula is is very often people get very confused about what this means. Sugula literally means a treasure, right? We're in an Sula, right? We're a treasured people. And suga though, when people usually use the term colloially, they want to know like what's a you know something I can do? Maybe I'll bake a key in my kawa or I'll put a red string around my wrist or these types of things. That's what people are referring to usually when they say the term sigula. And the truth is we don't believe in superstitions. We're not a religion that believes in superstitions. The Torah emphasizes this time and time again. You want to know what's the best sigula? I always tell people you want to know what the best is the says what's the context where says you'll be a treasure people to me to the best possible that we can take on is learning and practicing the Torah that's it it's on the books it's not a mem tells us this is the best you going to be for me a treasured people so we don't have to go looking for uh new practices, the oldest practices that we have, the Torah meets, that is our our pillar for being successful and making sure that Hashem will guard us. >> And she was in Brooklyn and they said there all the papers whatever and they skier. She said, "We have >> cute." It's very cute. I like that. >> Very nice. >> We don't do we listen to the best. >> Very nice. >> It's cute. >> That's right. Got to be careful. Now you look here at the Torah takes this idea and he runs with it and he goes so far. It's amazing what he does here. Look at the turns to the back. Now source six at the top anyone who's who's makes himself from the word. What's difficult to translate, right? So we know from the Hagada it's the four sons, right? Is the people usually translate as the simple son. Okay, that's one meaning. But Tom also comes the word tam means perfect theorm is perfect without flaw. It means we don't at a simple level it means a simple Jew who doesn't he's not involved in superstitions or or divinity or magic. No you act simple. Anyone who does this Hashem will do the same for you. Hashem will take you under his arms. Hashem will protect you. It's based on the if you act piously, Hashem will also act with you piously. If you act with if you're type of person, Hashem will do the same for you. And he says, look what he does here. He emphasizes time and time again. Anyone who does this reacts with he'll be have divine favor and divine uh providence at all times. Hashem said to Abraham, the very first Jew, walk before me. Meaning, what does it mean to be before Hashem? Means that you act the way Hashem expects. You act as if Hashem is here. You're not going to look at other religions. You're not going to look at other uh uh vir you act like the like your like your principles in the room so to speak right you act as someone's watching you someone important someone you're going to be on best behavior you do this and what does the say they go hand in hand if you're able to do this then will make sure that he's with you next one he says he says here and the is you'll a father of a multitude of nations. Anyone who's involved in this magic with the serpents, they used to have this type of says, I'm sorry, skip the parenthesis. If you're involved in quote unquote magic, it's a plain words. The word also means a snake, right? Snakes will come running after you. Okay? So again, punishes us. Hashem rewards us. And he emphasizes here. Jump down. Gives many examples of this. Go to the bold. Anyone who goes ahead and avoids this type these types of practices. It is simple. A simple Jew has true belief in Hashem. Simple to me am Hashem will bring you in within his then even his hashem's ministering angels are not able to enter and he proves it the angels themselves will ask the Jewish people they will ask us what is Hashem meaning we know something that the angels don't know. We're closer to even the because we're not involved in this divinity. We're not involved in this magic. We have an even closer relationship than that of the angels to Hashem. And uh he says, "What does it mean to have a close to not be involved in this magic? What does it mean to not be involved in these other things?" Look at the last line, the bold section. You trust in Hashem and by doing so Hashem will reveal to you the secrets of the world even that which is not that the angels themselves are not privy to. So we have an unbelievable potential to tap in by being careful with our speech by being careful with our words by strengthening our amuna. We have the unbelievable potential to be closer to Hashem than even the angels themselves. So let's go ahead take a step back now. Let's go to uh what we call here a lesson the duo an eternal mitzvah. We had not too long ago in par we know one of the most famous uh sins of the Jewish people in the desert when the Jewish people caused us to have to wander in the desert for 40 years. That is the episode of the miraling the spies. Now if you look at the very beginning right before we start para the last thing in the previous para para you look there at the very end of the para what is the final episode before we begin para it talks there about the the sin of miriam what was Miriam famous for what was her sin she spoke she was not careful about her speech and what happens immediately after at the episode of the Moragu. Another instance of a group of people who are not careful about their speech says Rashi. Why is it we have this juosition between the episode of Miriam who spoke and the episode of the Moragui? What was the actual sin of the Mogu says Rashi? The exact same sin. What was their problem? He asked this question. What's the reason for the justosition? Miriam was struck. She got she received because she was not careful with her speech. She spoke negatively about her own brother. Now Miriam, she had the best of intentions. She was trying to help her brother. She was trying to help him. Right? You maybe you know the context of Rashi cites it in very brief. He says what was what was the rash that she spoke? Ah very good. She says why is it that all the other prophets they're able to speak to Hashem and they don't have to to be uh separated from their spouse and yet Mosher Abenu separates from his spouse. How could it be? It's wrong. It's not appropriate what he does. And she had really good intentions here. She was trying to bring Moshe back to be together with his wife. She had very good intentions. She wanted Mosh and Sora to be together. And yet, nonetheless, she was punished. She was sent out of the camp for a full week. Miriam, we're talking about Miriam. She had very good intentions. She had all the she's trying to help her brother. There's not something, she's not talking about a stranger. She's talking about her own brother. And yet, we find that Moragwim did the exact same sin. What was the sin of the Morag? What was the spoke? They didn't even speak about any group of people. It wasn't about any individual. It wasn't about a group. It wasn't about a uh institution. They spoke about a land, an inanimate object, a land. And look at the punishment they received. The entire nation by listening to their their their were punished in the desert. They did not learn the lesson of Miriam. Now, we know that there's six things that we have to remember every single day of our lives. There's a mitzvah to remember six things every day. Some actually have the practice that they'll recite these six things at the end of the ding in the morning after shak there's six things we're meant to remember okay to go through real quick you know amazing okay we'll see them together number one is Ashkanazim we have six sorry have even more actually interesting they have even more but for Ashkanazim let's start simple six is already a lot okay number one the exodus there's a mitzvah to remember the exodus every day of our lives okay when do we do that by the way >> okay so maybe more famous even for people who don't say in the itself right in the paragraph of the we mention the mitzvah of of the exodus we have a mitzvah mitzvah mentioned actually in the evenings too in the morning and the evening the exodus okay number one number two we have a mitzvah to remember okay we'll get to that go in order okay how we stood at harina and received the Torah there's a mitzvah to remember every day but we stood at harina and received the Torah number three now you could say a mo we have a mitzvah remember is the fight against evil, a constant battle. Number four, remember how he angered Hashem. Very good. How he angered Hashem in the desert. Okay, some says reference to eagle. Some of interpretations, but how we angered Hashem in the midbar. Number five, we have a mitzvah to remember. I guess that one that'll be the last one. Okay, number five. Okay, that's this mitzvah right here. This is the one I want to emphasize. We have a mitzvah to remember how Hashem punished Miriam. Why did Hashem punish Miriam? She was not careful with her speech. What's the eternal lesson? We have to be careful with our speech. Okay, I'll come back to that and emphasize that a little more in a second. Last one, number six. The last thing we have to remember is Shabas. There's a mitzvah to remember Shabas every day of the week. We know there's many times we do this. According to this mitzvah is fulfilled when you say this at the end of Ding. You mention the day of the week in reference to Shabas. You don't say today is Sunday, today's Monday, today is Tuesday. You say right you reference the day of the week in reference to Shabas. That's how we we act as Jews. So then mentioning the day of the week in reference to Shabas is the fulfillment of this mitzvah as well. Now for those who don't have this practice of reciting all six of the zik at the end of ding, you should know that you can fulfill this mitzvah just by doing the ding itself if you have the writing. Because in the schma we mentioned we have the mention of the exodus. You have shom is the mention of shabas and the other four are actually all alluded to in the last two lines right before the schma in the paragraph of you'll see the last two lines we actually have an illusion to these other four items that we're meant to remember okay we say brought us close right he brought us closess to him that's a reference to his great name we know tried to cause Hashem's name to be divided to have Hashem not recognized in this world. So emphasizing Hashem's greatness that's actually a reference to a Malik the member of a Malik. Okay, that's number three. So we have one again exodus we mentioned two the next two words rightem's great name that's a mo we have that's the opposite of what Miriam did instead of using our tongues for wrong instead of speaking we we praise Hashem that's instead of angering Hashem, right? We have this connection with Hashem. The act of love, the counter, right, of what the sin that we did in the meatbar, right? So, all six of them are mentioned in the d. We have all six of these these mess we have to remember every day are mentioned in the d. We just have to have the kabana. It's interesting. I find there's some that actually print in small letters above these words. They tell you remember, remember shabas. They'll tell you as you get to these words in the dling. So, you can think about it. You have a mitzvah to remember these six items. And it's appropriate as we say these words, it's appropriate to try and remember these six things. So we have a mitzvah to be constantly on guard with our words. And I want to do now in the last few minutes, I want to go ahead and I want to do the final step here, which is emphasize the power of our speech. It's something I think we all know, but it's something which I think is hard to act upon. It's not so easy because we speak so often and we use our mouths for so many things throughout the day. So it becomes almost something we do out of rut, something we do out of habit. We're not always thinking as we use our words. And I want to do now is the last few sources on the page here, I want to emphasize the importance of our speech. We know Hashem created the universe with 10 sayings, 10 utterances. The mission of tells us in source 8 with 10 utterances, Hashem created the universe. So the question is why did Hashem do that? Doesn't really make sense. We know that there's three forms of of human activity, right? Three forms that we can utilize. We have our let's start with the most concrete action, right? Action. We have speech, a little less concrete. And then you have thought, right? Those are the three forms. Again, action, speech, thought. So if anything, I would expect Hashem to create the world either through action, right? Hashem could have done that or more simply create the world through thought. Why did Hashem create the universe? Specifically through utterances, through speech. So the it's not my question. This is the question of the Mishna itself here tells us that Hashm created the world with 10 m. And the Gar gives the answer. The Garra states that Hashem created the world through speech. Why? to emphasize to us the importance of our words. As we say, right, blessed is he who spoke and the world was created. Hashem wants to teach us a lesson. If Hashem himself can go ahead and has to be careful with his words and can create worlds with his words and contrastingly, we know Hashem can also destroy worlds with his words. All the more so us. How much more do we who are not as careful with our speech need to be mindful of how we use our words that's how we start every day remembering this lesson before we say bless Hashem for anything else the first thing we do in we bless Hashem for creating the world with his speech it's a lesson to us about the power and importance of our words that's why the tells us in verse 9 death and life are found in the tongue And those who love speech will eat from its fruits. Meaning speech itself provides not only death and life but it provides fruits. What does it mean fruits? Fruits means right. Very good. Means productivity. It means continuing on. Fruits we know is the symbol of productivity. A person speaks and with those words is a ripple effect going everywhere. You know, today we live in a world where speech is even more complicated than ever before. It's the greatest challenge perhaps of our generation because what is something that we have that none of the other previous generations have right right here? Our phones in our own pockets. We carry this all the time. You post something in two seconds. It travels across the globe to hundreds if not thousands of people. Two seconds. It's all it takes. And that is again some people say, "Oh, so we shouldn't have phones." I don't think so. I think it means we have to be very mindful of how we use it. Like everything we have in this world, it can be used for good, it can be used for bad. And we have to have that capability of discerning how we're going to use each and every gift that Hashem gives us. Our speech is that potential. And people think, "Oh, I didn't say it." That's not true. Writing in counts just as much like speech, if not more. It's even more of a concrete action writing. If you write something down, everyone can read it. It's there. It's permanent until it gets erased. It's there, right? And even after it gets erased, who knows how many people read it in the interim, right? People have post something and they say, "Oh, I shouldn't have posted that." And they delete it an hour later, two hours later. Yeah, but maybe someone screenshotted it. Maybe someone forwarded it. Maybe now I went to whole another group, someone saw it. So, we have to be very careful before we click send. And that's why I wrote here the title of this that says she is before you hit send. elevating our everyday conversations. Just pause. I always tell them if you're angry, don't click send. Never click send if you're angry. Good rule of thumb. You wait in the morning when you're a little more relaxed. You thought about a little bit more. You had time to to to pause. You'll take a breather. It's okay. You can send a message a little bit later. Usually nothing earthshattering is going to happen if you wait a little bit. Okay? And if you're still nervous, have a friend look it over. It's always a good idea. Have a second set of eyes, right? Because time death and life are in the tongue and we have a ripple effect of our words. It's compared to fruits because the ripple effect of our words. That's why the the Torah says one of the most famous we have the Torah says in source 10 here in this is the beginning of the says right this is a mitzvah. Does anyone know this is the mitzvah of do not make your word profane? Okay, do not profane your words. What does that mean? That means don't have empty words. I mentioned last week for those who are here uh the concept of having words which areal the rootal and we mentioned that the verbal means empty. There's something missing eternal in internally. So a corpse is called a halal. Outer space is called kalal. We have again we give many examples. Let's speak a weekday is missing the sanctity of chabas. Someone who's a secular Jew is missing something eternally. People say I don't think that's true. But right this concept of having our words be mundane. Right? That's what we're told. We're cautioned many times in the Torah to be careful about. Don't have empty words. You promise something, follow through on that promise. You say something, you tell someone you're going to be somewhere, be there. Right? Be very careful with our words. In fact, cautions us. He says better not to promise at all. Right? As Jews, it's best we always say. We say, "I'm doing this without promise, without a vow because once you say something, once you promise it, it's very, very difficult to go back on that." Don't have empty words. It's a mitzvah to keep our promises. It's a mitzvah to keep our words. It's a mitzvah. And we know one of the we go into Yumkipur to wrap up. When we go into Yum Kipur, only six minutes left. When we go into Yum Kipur, we say uh one of the first services we do. It's interesting, right? We have all the Jews in the world, right? If they go to one service, one service the whole year, even Jews are secular, have no background, what's probably the one service they go to Yamipur. The very first thing we do, we have everyone in the room, right? I would have imagined now is the time. You should give an inspirational sh. You should go ahead get everyone excited about Judaism. Get them excited about what it means to be in sh. Some of these people you're never going to see again the whole year. What's the first thing we do when everyone's in shre? Isn't that boring? Come on. I'm a rabbi, so I'm allowed to say these things. I guess maybe I'm not allowed. I don't know. What are we saying? We're emphasizing. We're emphasizing this concept of we're taking all the vows we took the whole year and we're saying they should be wiped clean. Why is it that's what we do of all the Jews in the room? Why is that the most important thing that we have to do? And the answer I think is very clear because on yum kipur before we can go into all the dabbing of the day before we can d five times we d fiveot over the course of the of yum kipur right marv musa before we can go into all the other dings we have to wipe the s clean because our words that we've said unfortunately we know we make promises we're not so good about this we promise things and we don't keep them we say we're going to do something and it doesn't necessarily happen says to us No, you can be better than that. Start clean. We wipe this clean and we do see all vows that we took there should be no and void because the rash tells us the accuser can never become the defendant. If we have again we know the primary example is this is in yum kipur the ken is not allowed to go into the keshim into the holy of holies while he's wearing gold he has to wear white garments why can he not wear gold because the gold is a is a remembrance of the golden calf so he does not want to bring that sin with him it's the koshim when you're inside the koshim you cannot be bringing about this the uh the memory of a sin that the Jewish people committed of the golden calf and katigor the accuser cannot become the defendant. I once wrote on I was in high school I wrote a whole paper on this uh to get a scholarship money for Israel actually I won second prize not first prize I won second prize and I wrote it on this topic of it's a very important principle in then you use something for a certain of it can now no longer be used for a mitzvah that's the general principle so correspondingly what that would mean for us is our words when a person uses their mouth for evil a person says something he speaks a person makes a promise he doesn't keep You've now used your mouth for evil. How can that same mouth go into Yamipur? How can that same mouth now be used to go ahead and speak words of how is Hashem going to accept that? The answer is we wipe the slate clean. We do need we emphasize to Hashem, it's true. I made a mistakes with my speech. It's true. I spoke things. I said things I shouldn't have said. It's true. But I want Hashem you to wipe the slate clean. And this of wiping the slate clean. Hashem should go ahead and listen to all of our throughout. And uh so we have tremendous potential. Every time we speak, we use the words for Torah for and I'll just end with this. The mission tells us anyone who cites his source, who uses his speech for good. He says, "I learned this from so and so. I gained this from Rabbi X. I gained this from so- and so. This person, this teacher, this mentor, he taught me X. that ripple effect that you've created of using your words for good of carrying on the torch of passing on. You look at the Gomar it's amazing how many times you have lines so they quote lines and lines and lines the whole chain of tradition of who they heard this from. He said this shame that person bash shame that person shame that person. Why do we do that? Because the garra tells us anyone who quotes their sources appropriately you're bringing redemption to the world. So I give everyone a braha. We should be mindful of you how we use our speech. We should use the words for Torah, for good. And in this, Hashem should enable us to listen to hear all of our and we should be to see the final gula, the final redemption.