**Yiddish - the Language of Exile**
Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda saw the revival of the Hebrew language as one of the stages of redemption. Therefore, despite knowing Yiddish well, he refused to speak in this language. He emphasized that although Jews spoke in this language, in truth it is nothing but ancient German. He always said that we must speak in our language, the holy language. When a person entered and began to converse with him in Yiddish, the Rabbi answered him in Hebrew. However, when Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda noticed that his interlocutor did not command Hebrew, and that there was importance to the conversation with him, he would converse with him in the Yiddish language.
**Precision in Language**
Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda was very precise in his language, and careful not to use definitions that were not appropriate or accurate.
For example, he did not use the expression: "strict [מקפיד] in commandments", since strictness is not a desirable trait, therefore he said: "careful in commandments".
Our Rabbi opposed the expression "segment" [קטע] in relation to holy books. "Severing" [קטיעה] is a negative expression of tearing, and thus the word "segment" sounds as if there is a part torn from the completeness of the Torah - whereas about the Torah it is said that it is "perfect, restoring the soul". He preferred, therefore, to use the word "paragraph" [פיסקה], which has no negative connotation of disconnection.
Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda expressed his protest against the names "United States" and "Soviet Union" [ארצות הברית וברית המועצות]. His opinion was that the use of the word "covenant" in connection with gentiles is not correct. We are the children of the covenant, whereas the gentiles, even if they are circumcised - are called uncircumcised. Likewise, the land of the covenant is specifically the Land of Israel and is not found across the ocean. Therefore, he used to say "America" and "Russia".
Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda did not use the word "tomato" [עגבניה], because it is a language of sorrow, and it is connected to sin and disgrace. Therefore, he said and wrote: "tomato".
He would not write "היסטוריה" but "הסתוריה", because the events of the days are essentially a review of God's ways in managing and organizing what happens in the world. Everything that happens in the world is done under providence and guidance of God, but it is hidden from our eyes, and therefore it is in the aspect of "hidden God" [הסתר י-ה].
Every word from him was weighed and calculated. It happened that something was quoted in his name, and he denied it and noted that he did not say that expression, since he is responsible for what comes out of his mouth.
And just as his words were precise, so he educated his students not to say things casually.
One of the veteran students recounted that when he was a young student, he said something that should not have been said. The Rabbi caught him on his tongue and asked what he said. That student understood that he had spoken inappropriately and replied: "I spoke nonsense", but the Rabbi did not let go. He said there is no speaking nonsense, and one must weigh every word and every matter one says.
**It's Good Now Too**
When a student would say to him: "Good morning", the Rabbi would ask: "In the afternoon it's not good? It's always good, why say good morning?" His opinion was that one should prefer the use of the greeting "peace", and this we learned from an explicit Mishnah in Tractate Berakhot (Chapter 9, Mishnah 5).
The expression "it will be good" did not find favor in the Rabbi's eyes. He would say: "Now it's good, and God willing it will be even better".
Dr. Aharon Mundshein recounted: When Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda met a student and inquired about his well-being, and the student would say: "Blessed be God", the Rabbi would respond with a smile and ask: "Blessed be God good, or blessed be God not good?"...
**Do Not Say Burden**
Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda did not agree to use the word "burden" [משא] for delivering words of Torah. In his opinion, it could imply that words of Torah are a burden, a heavy load. Therefore, he said that words of Torah are "words of truth" and not burdens.
And on this matter, Rabbi Avihu Schwartz recounts: A memorial service was held for one of the great rabbis, and they printed a notice stating that Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda HaCohen Kook would deliver a משא.
The Rabbi did not go to the memorial, and when he was full of pain, he took a Bible in his hand and said to us: "Here, in Jeremiah (23:38) it is written 'do not say burden'. And suddenly people become 'balebatim' over me, and write 'burden', without asking me at all. These are just words of culture and fluff, unnecessary honors. There is no place for this. This is emphasis and arrogance to call words of Torah 'burden'. Therefore, I refrained from going, despite the great honor of Torah that obligated my attendance".
**Positive Speech**
Rabbi Zalman Melamed recounts: The Rabbi had clean language. If someone was sick, he would not speak about the illness or the "sick person", the language was always positive. When his sister, Rebbetzin Batya-Miriam Re'anan, was terminally ill, and it was known that these hours might be her last, he asked: "Does she still have a connection to life?"...
He would not say about someone that he is seriously ill, but would say that he "needs healing".
The Rabbi taught us that the speech a person utters from his mouth - creates creations, and therefore one must be careful and watchful very much in speech.
Once someone asked me for matchmaking purposes about a certain young man, and I replied that the young man is a "wild man". Afterward, I wondered in my heart if I was right in this expression, I asked Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda how I should have expressed it. He replied that I should have said: "He needs correction in character traits".
**I Do Not Descend**
And Rabbi Yosef Badichi added: Our Rabbi was careful in his language from saying expressions that could have a negative meaning, even the most remote.
One day after morning prayer, I called a taxi, and the Rabbi began to walk toward the stairs. When he was at the top of the staircase, the Rabbi stopped to talk with a young man who approached him. I saw that the taxi had arrived, and I informed the Rabbi, saying: "The taxi has already arrived, the Rabbi needs to descend the stairs". The Rabbi immediately responded and said loudly: "I do not descend!"...
Rav Tzvi Yehuda would arrive every day from his home in the "Geula" neighborhood to pray the morning prayer in the yeshiva hall with the students. One day when he returned from prayer to his home, the taxi driver accidentally passed the entrance to the courtyard of our Rabbi's house, and said: "We need to make a retreat backward". Immediately our Rabbi corrected him and said: "We need to make progress backward".
Rabbi Ben Zion Kopeld recounted: One could learn from the Rabbi the weight of the written or spoken word, as a result of caution in guarding the tongue.
When the "Gush Emunim" movement was established, Rabbi Moshe Levinger and Rabbi Chanan Porat asked Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda to use some of the yeshiva students in their activities. When the Rabbi approved this, the organizers approached several students, and the joint activity began. After some time, differences of opinion arose between the yeshiva students and the leaders of "Gush Emunim", and the latter came with their complaint to the Rabbi. His suggestion was that they formulate the things in writing and bring him the document. When the document was brought, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda sat with them for a long hour and scrutinized every word they put in writing. He asked about every expression what exactly its intention was, and thus a mostly new document was accepted...
**Lack of Precision Requires Correction**
One student recounted: When I was a 9th-grade student in the yeshiva for youth, we published a bulletin called "Aleh Ra'anan", and one time we conducted an interview with Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda.
Among other things, we asked him about yeshivot gevohot and hesder yeshivot, and it was written there that the Rabbi expressed regarding hesder yeshivas the words: "not good".
Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda saw this and requested that we be called urgently. I came to him and saw him shocked to the depths of his soul. He said: "I did not say not good! There is no not good!" and continued: "It needs correction".
Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda treated the bulletin with full seriousness, even though it was written by young students and appeared in handwritten duplication. Of course, we corrected the things...
**Avoiding a Negative Answer**
Rabbi Avraham Remer recounted: Once, the head of one yeshiva had the idea to give a lesson in "Merkaz HaRav" yeshiva, and asked one of his students to request Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda's consent. The Rabbi answered: "I do not know". And when the student asked what to answer that rabbi, since he cannot give such an answer, the Rabbi answered: "It is not my way to answer negatively, therefore I say: 'I do not know'".
**Delicacy of Style**
Rabbi Avihu Schwartz recounted: Once, the kitchen manager of the yeshiva, his cousin Rebbetzin Batya Kelav, approached Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda and asked him to sign a notice she wrote for the students. The notice had instructions for the students regarding precision in meal times, prohibition on taking utensils out of the dining room, and more.
The Rabbi read it and said to her: "Well, good, this is fine", but she replied that without his signature, this notice has no value. With great reluctance, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda told her that the style of the letter is a bit foreign to him. They deleted and changed and omitted until the main requests remained without the warnings: "Do not take utensils from the dining room" etc. Then the Rabbi asked that they rewrite the notice so he could sign it when it is clean of errors.
Rabbi Tzfania Drori recounted: There was great tension in the yeshiva when acts of theft were discovered, and many personal items disappeared. We hid our money and valuables under beds and stairs, among clothes and in them - but to no avail, the thefts continued. Suspicion fell on one of the students, a new immigrant who had recently arrived in the country.
When the Rabbi heard the whispers of the yeshiva boys about the new student, he went up on the stage and began to cry out: "In the yeshiva they speak lashon hara. Yeshiva boys sin in guarding the mouth! How do they utter such words". The Rabbi's words shook us. The flame of the Rabbi's face and the immense excitement with which he spoke about the prohibition of evil tongue penetrated deep into our hearts.
We set ambushes during gathering times and then the thief was caught. It was not that student, but a young teacher who came to the yeshiva occasionally. It turned out he was the thief...
**Certain in His Language**
Rabbi Yitzchak Ben Shehar recounted: In response to a certain question I asked Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda, he did not answer me, but said: "Have you ever heard me say something bad about someone?" Over the years, I learned to appreciate this answer greatly. Blessed is the Rabbi, a public figure, who can boast to his student with such a declaration, which essentially says that he never spoke ill about anyone. Blessed is the Rabbi who is confident that indeed his student did not hear anything bad from his mouth!
**Know About Whom You Speak**
Rabbi Yisrael Mizrachi recounted: The Rabbi was careful not to hear a story disparaging any student. When they approached to tell him something disparaging about an ordinary student, he would say: "Do you know about whom you are speaking? About the continuation of the Oral Torah!"...
**I Do Not Hear**
Rabbi David Chai HaCohen recounted: Once, a journalist considered anti-religious came to visit our Rabbi to interview him. During the conversation, he said inappropriate things about religious people and asked a provocative question. The Rabbi responded and said: "I do not hear". The journalist asked the question louder, and again the Rabbi said to him: "I do not hear". And the journalist raises his voice and repeats his question in a shout, and still the Rabbi dismissed: "I do not hear". The students who were waiting outside for the lesson to start heard the loud voices coming from the room and did not understand the reason for the shouts in the Rabbi's house.
This happened several times, the interviewer shouting, and the Rabbi claiming he does not hear, until suddenly the journalist realized that there is no physical technical problem here, but when insults, curses, and reproaches are uttered - the Rabbi's ear is sealed and he does not hear...
**Unnecessary Complaint**
Rabbi Menachem Libman recounts: Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda's guarding of the tongue was wondrous. There is no doubt that caution in speech, together with devotion to Torah, are what caused every word he uttered to capture hearts and be engraved deep in the soul.
In the first months of settlement in Judea and Samaria, the permission to carry weapons on Shabbat was not yet clarified or widespread. When I visited on one occasion, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda told me that someone wrote him a letter, and among other things complained that we carry weapons in Hebron on Shabbat. I replied that on that Shabbat when that Jew was in Hebron, we did carry weapons on our way to the Cave of the Patriarchs, but on subsequent Shabbatot we stopped carrying weapons.
The Rabbi wondered: "So why did he write to me?", I answered that on that Shabbat we carried weapons. But the Rabbi repeated and asked: "So why did he write to me?", and I did not understand why the question repeated, what is not understood. Only later did I understand that he meant to say: "That Jew could have told you, and his words would have been heard, why does he write this matter to me in a letter?"...
**My Way of Guarding the Tongue**
Rabbi Aryeh Stern recounted: When the yeshiva was in "Beit HaRav", a certain incident occurred that stirred the spirits in the yeshiva. Then, lashon hara began to be heard among the students and avrechim.
The matters reached Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda's ears, and despite the fact that there are no organized ethics studies in the yeshiva, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda instituted that every day at noon, all yeshiva students would study the book of Rabbi Yisrael Meir from Radin, "Guarding the Tongue".
The Rabbi often emphasized the great value in studying the book "Guarding the Tongue" by our master the Chafetz Chaim regularly. He repeated that he does not require studying a specific tractate in the yeshiva, because a person learns only where his heart desires, but this subject he does require studying every day, before afternoon prayer.
To this day, the note hangs in the yeshiva with Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda's instruction to study guarding the tongue.
**Constant Correction in Guarding the Tongue**
Rabbi Eli Sadan recounted: After several times we repeated the book "Guarding the Tongue" at noon, we approached the Rabbi and asked him if we could study another book, since we studied and repeated and studied "Guarding the Tongue". The Rabbi answered with a question: "Do you no longer have anything to correct in guarding the tongue?!"...
When he noticed that the study of guarding the tongue had slackened, he removed the old note he wrote and wrote a new note in its place, with a new date, "Return and establish it", to encourage all students to continue studying guarding the tongue.
**How to Correct the Yeshiva?**
Rabbi Avraham Remer recounted: Once we approached Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda out of a desire to correct and improve the situation in the yeshiva. We approached the Rabbi and said to him: "There are many idlers in the yeshiva".
The Rabbi wondered: "Many? How many is many? One hundred, two hundred, three hundred?" We said: "There are perhaps ten". The Rabbi rebuked us: "So why do you say many? Go immediately and study 'Guarding the Tongue'".
We said to him: "Rabbi, okay, we were not precise in language, but we want to correct the yeshiva, there are idlers in the yeshiva".
"Idlers? What are idlers? They don't study at all, or study an hour or two, or perhaps study ten hours? Who is considered an idler in your eyes? Go study 'Guarding the Tongue'".
We suggested to him: "Rabbi, we want to improve the yeshiva, we have an excellent plan how to correct the yeshiva".
And he replied to us decisively: "There is a way - to add light. To add study, to add building, to add Torah - that is the way! The way is not in voicing criticism of others".
**Caution Against Evil Tongue on the Public**
**Sometimes It Is Forbidden to Blur**
Rabbi Menachem Froman recounted: The Rabbi was very strict about guarding the tongue. But there was a case where we learned that sometimes one must "call the transgression by its name".
There was in the yeshiva a scholarly avrech who suffered from a severe mental problem. I remember that once we spoke about him in the Rabbi's presence, but we expressed ourselves delicately, using the title "rabbi", since we were very careful not to utter lh"r about him, a prohibition the Rabbi was so strict about.
When the Rabbi heard the conversation and how careful we were in our language, he remarked that according to our words, he is mentally ill! Despite being so careful about lh"r, he taught us here that sometimes one should not be delicate, but call the problem by its name and define it decisively. And when things are clear - it is easier to relate and treat them.
Love of the Holy Language Letters
Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda used to write Tzviyehuda, with one yud, and not with two yuds one next to the other, because this form is used for the Divine Name. In later years, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda was pleased to discover that the head of the Volozhin yeshiva, Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin - the Netziv, also did so.
**Love of the Hebrew Letter**
When they presented him with bread whose wrapper had English writing, he turned the bread so that only the side with the Hebrew printing would be seen.
**Letters in the Trash**
Rabbi Yair Uriel recounted: Once I walked with Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda toward Ben Yehuda Street, and when we arrived at an electrical goods store, he took out from his black bag a simple light bulb and asked me to enter the store and buy a new bulb. I left the store with both bulbs in hand, the old and the new, and then the Rabbi asked me to return to the store and throw the old bulb into the trash bin there.
I did as he commanded, and when I came out, he explained why he made the strange request to throw the bulb specifically in the store. On the bulb are written Hebrew letters, he said. The regular household trash is dirty and sometimes filthy, whereas the trash in the electrical store is usually clean. Therefore, it is preferable, the Rabbi concluded, to throw the bulb in the store due to the holiness of the letters on the bulb.
**Hebrew Letters in the Bathroom**
Rabbi Shabtai Zelikovich recounted: We felt at home in Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda's house. Once, one of the friends bought an air freshener for the bathroom, which was a kind of container placed in the bathroom with holes from which a perfumed scent emanates.
When we came to the Rabbi's house next time, the container was upside down. The scent-emitting holes faced the wall, and the scent was barely noticeable. The guy who saw this turned the container with the holes toward the space, but to our great surprise, when we arrived for the next lesson, the container was again directed with the holes to the wall.
It turned out that the Rabbi was the one who directed the air freshener with the holes to the wall. On the container, on the side of the holes, were printed Hebrew letters, and Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda wanted that Hebrew letters, due to their holiness, not be seen in the bathroom space.
Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda emphasized the importance of using the Hebrew date and would mention the response of the Maharam Schick, a student of the Chatam Sofer, who was very strict on this matter.
He protested against those who call the Christian calendar "the civil calendar". Indeed, when our people were in exile, a minority in a Christian country, it was the calendar of the Christian majority. But in the State of Israel - the Jewish people are the majority of the state's citizens, so our calendar, the Hebrew one, is in truth the civil calendar!
When they brought him an invitation to an event or celebration with a Christian date noted - he would not participate in the event!
On Israeli postage stamps, a Hebrew date is noted, including the year from the creation of the world. The Rabbi said that this is sanctification of the Name, that Israel Post declares with every letter sent: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth!"
And when they advanced or delayed Independence Day due to the holiness of Shabbat, he would say: "This year the entire state declares on the holy Shabbat 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth'".
**The Well-Known Notice**
Rabbi Aryeh Stern recounted: On the 3rd of Elul 5725, on the thirtieth anniversary of the passing of our master Rabbi Kook, a massive rally was supposed to be held in Tel Aviv, organized by the religious council, in memory of our master the Rabbi. The main speaker was supposed to be Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda, who saw great importance in holding it as expressing the public's connection with the figure of the Ra'aya. Large notices were pasted in the streets of Tel Aviv, and the program was published in newspapers.
But when Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda saw the wording of the notice, his eyes darkened. On the notice, a foreign date was published. The Rabbi decided, despite the great importance he saw in holding the rally, not to participate in it. The many and extensive persuasion efforts did not help, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda did not come to the rally.
