Today we begin the fourth and final week of Elul.
Today, Rosh HaShanah is eight days away. We have one more week to muse upon the way we live and the improvements we might choose to make in 5771. This coming Shabbat, by popular request, we will discuss “How to Speak about Another” in our Elul assignment, Creating an Ethical Jewish Life. It will be our topic as much as possible on erev Shabbat at our erev Shabbat Family Tefilah, and certainly also on Shabbat morning.
Rabbi Jose ben Zimra taught:
come and see how vicious is an evil tongue….
The tongue…is imprisoned with the cheeks and teeth surrounding it,
and with many other restraints upon it. Yet no one can withstand it. (p. 194)
In medieval Jewish philosophy, we are called the hai medabeyr, the “animal that talks”. It is our special gift and a terrible responsibility. Some Jews have fasted from speaking as a ritual way to try to become more sensitive to the power of speech. When to speak? when to keep silent? when is it a mitzvah to talk about another’s troubles, and when is it lashon hara‘?
This Shabbat we’ll share our impressions of this chapter in our book, ask our own questions, and consider our own powers of speech.
