Making Sense of the Sedra: Bo
The average person will speak 123 million words in a lifetime. But what if there were a limit?
Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons, a play by Sam Steiner that opened recently in the West End starring Aidan Turner and Jenna Coleman, imagines a world where we’re forced to say less. It’s about what we say and how we say it; about the things we can only hear in the silence; about dead cats, activism, eye contact, and… well, lemons.
It is an interesting proposition; if we each had a daily word limit, would we have to really think hard to ensure we always say what we mean and mean what we say?
In Judaism, the power of speech is incontrovertible as the Torah begins with God himself speaking and the physical world coming into existence. What distinguishes human beings from the other creations is that God blew the breath of life into us and we became a living being. Targum Onkelos, the Aramaic translation and commentary, renders “living being” as “speaking soul”, inferring that speech is God’s unique gift to us. The Hebrew word davar means both ‘a word’ and ‘a thing’, implying that what is said has a concrete significance and so we are conscious that our words create our reality in this world. For this reason, the Chofetz Chaim (Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan,1839-1933) dedicated his life to teaching us to be responsible for what we say, as it is clear that words have the capacity to build as well as to destroy.
In parshat Bo, so as to ensure that we always remember the Exodus from Egypt, we are instructed to speak about it with our children and to tell our national story to the next generation. In addition, the mitzvah of tefillin is intended to act as a physical reminder of God miraculously redeeming us from slavery and also “in order that God’s teaching may be in your mouth”. (Shemot 13:9)
On a literal level, we can understand that the intent here is for us to verbalise Torah on a daily basis so that we not only learn its lessons, but also develop familiarity with it, ensuring that it is as much part of our routine as eating. However, HaKtav VeHaKabalah (Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg, 19th century) provides a deeper insight by suggesting that “in your mouth” means generating a mindset where the Torah’s words are important to us. There is an expectation that, amongst all the other matters that we speak of regularly, God’s teachings should be seen as at least as valuable in our eyes and something worth talking about.
There is a Kabbalist idea that we each have only a finite amount of words to use during our lifetime and if we kept that in mind every time we open our mouths, perhaps we would be more careful in choosing the words that come out. At the very least, we know that when we speak words of Torah or discuss our heritage and tradition, those words are the best use of our allocation.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
