Shovevim #3 - Guard The "Milah"

לרפואת יהודה בן מרגלית שרה

The gemara [Sotah 42] says that 4 classes of people do not merit to receive the "face of G-d" after their death. Those who flatter, scoff, lie and speak lashon hara.

However, apparently the gemara missed one. The Zohar says that a person who wastes his seed also does not merit to receive the "face of G-d". The commentators wonder why this class of people was omitted by the gemara.

HaGaon HaChacham Rebbi Ovadiah Yosef ztz"l answers briefly [as is his wont] that there is a connection between the two convenants that Hashem made with the Jewish people according to Kabbala. There is a bris ha-maor - the covenant of the flesh, bris kodesh, and the bris ha-lashon, the covenant of the tongue, speech. We receive the same punishment when we are lax in guarding our bris ha-maor as we do when we are lax in guarding our bris ha-lashon. Therefore the gemara doesn't have to mention the class of people who waste seed. It is included in the four classes of people already mentioned.

That got me thinking. We live in a generation where talk is limitless. I get up in the morning and go to shul and people are standing around outside [and sometimes inside....] talking. Then davening ends and the phones come out. Blabber-blabber-blabber-blabber.

I get on the bus. Half the people are talking on the phone and another quarter to each other. Blabber-blabber-blabber. Everywhere I go - blabber-blabber-blabber.  Radio - blabber-blabber-blabber. All day - every day. So much blabber. Billions upon billions upon billions of unnecessary words are spoken daily.

Here is a point of which many are not aware. According to Torah - every word is holy and must thus be measured. If the word NEED NOT BE SAID - then it SHOULDN'T BE SAID. It is not forbidden but a terrible waste and misuse of our most human quality that separates us from animals. ויהי האדם לנפש חיה - לרוח ממללא  - man is defined as a speaking creature. The sin of lashon hara and nivul peh is not so much because of the damage it causes but because it is taking the holy faculty of speech and using it for evil. Even when the speech is not evil but neutral it is still an unnecessary use of a faculty which can bring so much good to the world.

The reason that the tzadikim make a decree and Hashem fulfills it [צדיק גוזר והקב"ה מקיים] is because they are careful about every word that comes out of their mouths. Thus, when they say something - IT COUNTS! [Rav Kook has a number of breathtaking passages in Volume 3 of Oros Hakodesh from page 276 and on. If you read them it may change your life forever...]

The tremendous volume of wasted speech in our generation, may explain why the "spilling of seed" is also so pervasive. The bris ha-maor is innately connected to the bris ha-lashon. Since people have zero regard for the sanctity of speech, that attitude spills over to the realm of the sanctity of seed.

Let us guard our [bris] milah and our [verbal] milah!