I heard that the President used nivul peh and people are upset about it. I don't get excited about such things. We all know that not only does the President use vulgar language but so do his critics and so does the entire culture. Prime time TV is filled with vulgarities [or at least it was in the 1980's when I watched TV and I understand that teshuva shleima has not yet been carried out]. Li-zchus Donald Yochanan Ben Fred - some illuminating words about the severity of nivul peh from a Rebbi [and relative] of mine, HaRav Zave Rudman Shlita.
-----------------
The Gemara in Shabbos discusses the depth of the sin of vulgarity - ניבול פה - at length, and it is worth citing it to see how severe it is.
Due to the sin of vulgar speech, troubles abound, and harsh decrees are renewed, and the youth among the enemies of Israel, [a euphemistic reference to Israel], die, and orphans and widows cry out for help and are not answered, as it is stated: “Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall He have compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is ungodly and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks wantonness. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still” (Isaiah 9:16). The Gemara explains: What is the meaning of the phrase: But His hand is stretched out still? Rabbi Ḥanan bar Rava said: Everybody knows why the bride enters the wedding canopy. There is no secret revealed. Nevertheless, anyone who speaks vulgarly about it, even if they, on High, sealed for him a decree of seventy years of good fortune, they will reverse it to bad fortune because of this sin. And Rabba bar Sheila said that Rav Ḥisda said: Anyone who speaks vulgarly, they deepen Gehennom for him, as it is stated: “The mouth that speaks perversity is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein” (Proverbs 22:14), i.e., Gehennom is deepened for one who speaks vulgarly. Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: Even one who hears vulgar speech and is silent is punished, as it is stated: “He that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein,” even if he himself does not speak at all.
Given the severity, I would like to present an approach in understanding this which is based on the Rambam’s concept of לשון הקודש.
The Rambam writes that the reason Hebrew of the Torah is called לשון הקודש is because there do not exist words for the baser functions of a human. The Ramban disagrees, but I would like to present a way to understand according to the Rambam.
HaShem created the world using לשון הקודש. Each one of the creations was created by HaShem uttering its name in לשון הקודש. That name encompassed all of the aspects of that creation. HaShem’s speech is action – ברוך אומר ועושה – and through this speech all was created. When Adam was created before the sin, every bodily function was normal and even holy. Just as one is not embarrassed to breathe in public, Adam and Chavah were unclothed and not embarrassed. Further, all of the excretions from the digestive system did not exist. There was no waste since all of the world was complete, and there were no extra or bad parts to excrete. The food of the world was like the Manna that had no waste. When Adam and Chavah sinned this changed. They brought the ‘bad’ that till then had only existed in the small cornered off part of the world ‘The Tree of good and evil ’, and made it a part of themselves. As a result, death was brought into the world.
Adam sinned in two ways. First was in the process of procreation. As a result, the uncovering of the parts of the body connected to the physical process of procreation became a source of embarrassment, as a direct result of the sin. Now the process of procreation is not perfect. For Adam and Chavah, their every act of procreation created a child, but now there was waste, not every act creates a child, nor does every potential life in a woman’s body reach life. That non-actualized life is actually a miniature death. It is a potential life that does not reach fruition.
Secondly he sinned through eating, and brought the concept of waste products from eating into the world. The Halacha is that when uttering the Name of HaShem or other words of Torah and Tefilah, one must distance themselves from human waste products. That is since those wastes are only a result of the sin, Holiness cannot abide them, and must be distanced from them. Those objects are unclean because of the sin.
The Gemara teaches us that after the sin, Adam did not speak לשון הקודש but Aramaic. This is a language that is similar to Hebrew, but mixed and confused. It is the perfect language for a world of confusion.
We find that the words of cursing that are used reflect those two aspects of the world. They either are vulgarities of the digestive process or of the reproductive process. That is since the sin, those are the places of embarrassment. Just as in their appearance after the sin the exposure of those parts of the body brought Adam and Chavah embarrassment, so too in speech the exposure those parts of speech are an embarrassment. In the לשון הקודש prior to the sin, the words for those actions were קודש just as the body parts and the actions did not need to be covered. Only now, since they are affected by the sin we need to realize the impurity in them and treat them accordingly.
That is why the Gemara in Shabbat says, “All know why a bride enters the Chupah, but whoever sullies his mouth and says it, even if he was decreed for seventy years of good will be changed to bad.” Really procreation is the purpose of the world, the world was created to reproduce, but now we cannot say it. Yakov is who is described as the form of Adam before the sin, can say it. Yakov says, “Give me my wife so I can come to her.” Yakov is pure enough to say it. But we are in the grips of the sin and cannot.
The word of ניבול פה is connected to the word נבלה – a dead body that is impure and cannot be eaten. Death and impurity did not exist before the sin, such a state is the result of the sin. One who speaks about such things is making their speech dead.
That idea can be taken further. When HaShem created man, the final step that is called Nishmas Chaim, the Neshama of life, which was speech. The Targum translates that phrase ‘the spirit of speech’. And as Chazal write, HaShem breathed into man from Himself. When one speaks about the matters that are a result of the sin which brought death to the world, they are making their mouth a dead body- the opposite of the life that HaShem gave.
The Maharal in explaining the Gemara in Shabbas and in Kesuvos, writes the following ideas. (See also נתיב הצניעות פרק ד.) One can also speak words of heresy, why is vulgarity so severe? All other sins of speech, the speech hurts someone, or comes to express a sin that a person is doing with another aspect of himself. Vulgarity can even be if no one hears you, it is the expression of degradation in the highest realm of what a person is. As the Chazal says, even if it is something that is well known, but degrading the highest aspect of a person, their speech, causes this result. That is the result of vulgarity. We take what is the highest part of the person, and once again connect it to the sin of Adam. Instead of having the shame of the result of the sin, and acting accordingly, we flaunt the sin. True Teshuva is when one has regret for the sin. Only when the world has regret for the sin, and does not publically expose it, can Teshuva for the sin of Adam come.
