Parshat Matot – Masei
by RABBI AVI COHEN | July 22, 2025 10:46 pm
It is difficult for us to appreciate the power of our speech since we live in a materialistic world, where actions, which we can see and evaluate, take on greater importance than speech, which seems to be just a string of utterances with no visible impact. Our world subscribes to the notion that “actions speak louder than words.”
Our Sages teach us, however, that the effects of our speech are far more impactful than the effects of our actions. We perform actions in a specific place at a specific time; speech, on the other hand, which contains a spiritual component, once unleashed goes everywhere. And its impact can last for years.
Man received the power of speech with his creation. The verse (Genesis 2:7) says:
וַיִּיצֶר יְדֹוָד אֱלֹקִים אֶת הָאָדָם עָפָר מִן הָאֲדָמָה וַיִּפַּח בְּאַפָּיו נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים וַיְהִי הָאָדָם לְנֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה:
7) And Hashem formed man from the dust of the earth, and He blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.
Rashi comments on these words:
לנפש חיה – אף בהמה וחיה נקראו נפש חיה אך זו של אדם חיה שבכולן שנתוסף בו דעה ודבור
A living being – Even the animals are called “living beings,” but this living being called man is the most alive of them all, for he was endowed with intelligence and speech.
Onkelus (the Torah’s Aramaic translation) translates the words“נפש חיה” as “לרוח ממללא” – a speaking being.
The power of speech defines man as a spiritual creature and puts him in a different category than animals, who may communicate but who do not “speak.” Speech is what gives expression to the hidden, undetectable thoughts in one’s mind and allows him to share what’s on his mind with others. Because the power of speech was given to man to articulate the ideas and thoughts in his soul, it is a spiritual power breathed into man by Hashem and comprises a part of his soul.
The Kabbalists point out that when Hashem breathed life into Adam, the breath that went into him came from within Hashem himself, so to speak. Therefore, because Hashem is completely spiritual, so, too, was the breath that Hashem breathed into Adam. This “breath of life” is what creates speech as it passes through our voice-box when we vocalize our thoughts.
Being a spiritual power, speech can penetrate heaven’s spiritual realms and generate holiness or, unfortunately, if abused, unholiness. A person generates holiness when he uses his power of speech to pray to Hashem, to learn the holy Torah, to comfort those in mourning, to complement or to encourage the downtrodden. Such words penetrate the very heavens and cause a tremendous surge of holiness that causes the angels to rejoice. That explosion of holiness trickles back down to earth in the form of goodness and benefit to the world. We have no clue how much good is created with every prayer that we offer, with every word of Torah that we learn, and with every word of kindness that we speak.
When the Jewish people stood at Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, the Torah tells us (Exodus 20:15):
טו) וְכָל הָעָם רֹאִים אֶת הַקּוֹלֹת
15) And the whole nation saw the voices
The Sages (Midrash Yalkut Shimoni Yitro 300) explain (regarding “seeing” the voices), They saw what could be heard.
The Jewish people were on such a high spiritual level that they were able to see the sounds of Hashem’s words as a spiritual reality. Although now also, our words contain a spiritual reality, we are not on the level to see it.
The Mishna in Pirkei Avot (5:1) teaches us:
א) בַּעֲשָׂרָה מַאֲמָרוֹת נִבְרָא הָעוֹלָם
The world was created with ten statements.
Hashem created the world through speech. Many verses in Tanach refer to this. The blessing of שהכל נהיה בדברו – “shehakol nihyah bidvaro,” which we recite before eating some of our foods, means “everything came about through Hashem’s word.”
The Hebrew word for a thing or an item is דבר – davar. The word דבר comes from the word דיבור – dibur, which means speech. What does an item have to do with speech? The answer is that every item that exists is evidence to a word that Hashem spoke to create it. Nothing could exist had Hashem not included it in one of the ten pronouncements that He used when creating the world.
Not only that, but Hashem’s original ten utterances are still extant! They are what continue to give existence to the entire reality that we observe. If they would stop for even a moment, so would the entire world. Words are what created, and continue to create, our existence. This idea is expressed in the words of the verse in Psalms (119:89).
פט) לְעוֹלָם יְדֹוָד דְּבָרְךָ נִצָּב בַּשָּׁמָיִם
89) Your words Hashem, forever remain standing in heaven.
We obviously have no understanding of the power of Hashem’s words and their ability to create and maintain the creation, but we do see that it was Hashem’s tool for creation. When Hashem breathed the breath of life into man, which included the ability to speak, He also gave our words the power to create.
This week, we will read the double portion of Matos and Masei. From the opening topic of Matos, vows and oaths, we also see the spiritual power of our speech. The verse says (Numbers 27:3):
ג) אִישׁ כִּי יִדֹּר נֶדֶר לַידֹוָד אוֹ הִשָּׁבַע שְׁבֻעָה לֶאְסֹר אִסָּר עַל נַפְשׁוֹ לֹא יַחֵל דְּבָרוֹ כְּכָל הַיֹּצֵא מִפִּיו יַעֲשֶׂה
3) If a man takes a vow to Hashem, or swears an oath to establish a prohibition upon himself, he shall not desecrate his word; according to whatever comes from his mouth, shall he do.
This verse introduces us to the Torah topic of vows and oaths.
Whereas a vow relates to an object, an oath relates to the person who uttered the oath. An example of a vow is when a person designates an item that he is permitted to eat, say, a piece of chocolate cake, and proclaims, “This piece of cake is forbidden to me like a sacrifice!” The law of the Torah is that this pronouncement renders the food forbidden to eat exactly like a sacrifice, which is forbidden to eat. So, if he now eats that piece of cake he has “desecrated his word.” An example of an oath is when a person swears not to do something that he is permitted to do: “I swear that I will not eat that piece of chocolate cake!” Once again, he is not permitted to eat the cake because doing so will “desecrate his word.”
That “simple” vow uttered on the piece of cake astoundingly prohibits it as if it were a strip of bacon. Just as if a person who is about to eat a piece of bacon is warned by witnesses not to eat it, and he eats it anyway the court will punish him with 39 lashes, so too, a person who ate something that he vowed not to eat, receives the same penalty. Similarly, if he did the action that he swore not to do, and, thus, desecrated his words, he will also receive 39 lashes. All that because he uttered a few words!
On the other hand, speech’s power of creation can also create holiness. A person who wanted to donate a sacrifice to the Temple just needed to say,”הרי זו עולה” – “this animal is an Olah sacrifice,” which would sanctify the animal and render it a sacrifice. If a person wanted to donate an item to the holy Temple, all he needed was to say, “הרי זו הקדש” —“this item is sanctified (to the holy Temple!),” and the item would immediately become Temple property and forbidden for personal use.
The Talmud tells us:
אמירתו לגבוה כמסירתו להדיוט
His pronouncement to Hashem transfers it to the hands of the sexton.
How did this happen, all he did was speak? We see how just a few words uttered accomplishes so much!
This is exactly the profound message that the laws of vows and oaths teach us – the power of our speech. The Torah teaches us that speech is not just the medium through which human beings communicate with each other like the whining and clicking of whales or the chirping of birds. Human speech has the power to create. When a person decides to use his power of speech to render something forbidden to himself, his words create a Torah ban forbidding him to use it, and when a person decides to use his power of speech to render something holy, he creates that item into a reality of holiness.
This is the secret to why the awesome holiday of Yom Kippur begins with the prayer Kol Nidrei –All my vows. The word “nidrei” is the plural form of the word “neder,” which means vow.
כָּל נִדְרֵי. וֶאֱסָרֵי. וּשְׁבוּעֵי. וַחֲרָמֵי. וְקוֹנָמֵי. וְקִנּוּסֵי. וְכִנּוּיֵי. דְּאִנְדַּרְנָא. וּדְאִשְׁתַּבַּעְנָא. וּדְאַחֲרִימְנָא. וּדְאָסַרְנָא עַל נַפְשָׁתָנָא מִיּוֹם כִּפּוּרִים זֶה. עַד יוֹם כִּפּוּרִים הַבָּא עָלֵינוּ לְטוֹבָה. בְּכֻלְּהוֹן אִיחֲרַטְנָא בְהוֹן. כֻּלְּהוֹן יְהוֹן שָׁרָן. שְׁבִיקִין. שְׁבִיתִין. בְּטֵלִין וּמְבֻטָּלִין. לָא שְׁרִירִין וְלָא קַיָּמִין
This prayer declares that all vows and oaths that we will make from this Yom Kippur until next Yom Kippur should be void. We regret them even before we make them, and we do not want them to be binding.
What do vows and oaths have to do with Yom Kippur? Why have the Sages chosen this matter as the introduction to the year’s most solemn day?
The answer is that on Yom Kippur, we spend the whole day praying to Hashem – using the power of speech – and beseeching Him for forgiveness. But before we approach Hashem with our prayers, we need to recognize the awesome power of our speech and its ability to create! Armed with this most powerful weapon, we can feel confident that we will succeed in our goal of receiving forgiveness for our sins.
On Yom Kippur (as well as every other day), it is also appropriate to consider the power that our speech has, to hurt others and cause them pain. When we think about this, we realize that Hashem will only forgive us for the sins that we have committed against Him. As far as violations that we have committed against others, we must receive forgiveness from those individuals directly. So, until we mollify the person whom we hurt, we are wasting our time asking Hashem for His forgiveness. When we contemplate how much hurt and pain our words can cause, we will be sure to ask forgiveness and try to appease the offended person.
As we noted at the onset, in our dealings with others especially, our words can be more hurtful and destructive than our actions.
If a person kills another in cold blood, with a warning and in front of witnesses, the court will execute him for his crime. Yet when the murderer ultimately leaves this world, he will have a place in the world to come. If one embarrasses another in public, however, he cannot be executed for his crime, but he will lose his place in the world to come. Which crime is worse? We can deduce the answer from the accompanying punishment. This world is but a temporary one; the world to come is an eternity. Why is it worse? Because embarrassing someone in public kills the victim’s essence. You haven’t killed his body; worse, you have actually killed him, the soul inside the body. He wishes that he didn’t exist so that he could escape the acute embarrassment that he is feeling.
The Talmud (Chagiga 5b) relates a frightening concept. The verse says (Amos 4:13):
יג) כִּי הִנֵּה יוֹצֵר הָרִים וּבֹרֵא רוּחַ וּמַגִּיד לְאָדָם מַה שֵּׂחוֹ
13) Behold, He crafts the mountains and creates the wind, and tells a person what he spoke.
מאי מה שיחו אמר רב: אפילו שיחה יתירה שבין איש לאשתו מגידים לו לאדם בשעת מיתה
The verse says that they will tell a person “what he has spoken.” To what does this refer? Rav explains. Even a small statement said between husband and wife will be held against a person at his judgment. Wow!
Our speech is so important and so powerful that even a minor slip that had a hurtful effect on our spouse will be counted against us.
At his wife’s funeral, R’ Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (1910-1995), Rosh Yeshiva of Kol Torah in Jerusalem, a Torah leader who was also known for his pleasant ways and good heart, stood by his wife’s bier and said softly, “You know that I have no need to ask your forgiveness. We always lived in mutual respect and harmony, and I never insulted you whatsoever.”
One of Rabbi Auerbach’s disciples, today a Rav in Los Angeles, related the following: “The funeral was over and I was privileged to drive the Rosh Yeshivah home. I couldn’t hold myself back and asked him, ‘Excuse me for asking the Rosh Yeshivah a personal question on this difficult day, but I am a young student and I have a desire to learn. How can it be that the Rosh Yeshivah never said an insulting word to the Rebbetzin in all of his married life of over fifty years? Did the Rosh Yeshivah always want what she wanted? Did everything she did always find favor in your eyes?’
“He replied, ‘Of course not! Even twins who grew up in the same house have different opinions. Nevertheless, I never offended her. Whenever I felt an urge to remark about something that disturbed me, I would sit and think: With what compliment can I preface my words? How can I make my comment without hurting her? With what good word can I end off and leave a pleasant atmosphere between us?’
“He was silent for a moment, then added, ‘If I couldn’t find the proper formula, I would simply remain silent. But never did I utter an offensive word to my wife!’”
There is much to learn from the words of this holy rabbi.
There is, perhaps, a way to see the effects of our speech in a physical way.
A Japanese scientist, Dr. Masaru Emoto (d. 2014), has demonstrated that spoken words have a direct and verifiable effect on water, depending upon the type of statement made. Using powerful microscopes, Dr. Emoto conducted the following experiment. (He has published books with his findings.)
He took a cup of pure water drawn from a spring or river and placed it in a room. People in the room made either positive statements or negative ones. A small amount of water was poured into a Petri dish and frozen at -25°C for three hours. The frozen water was examined under a microscope with a magnifying power of 200x-500x in a room kept at -5°C. The visible results were amazing.
Love and appreciation You disgust me, I am going to kill you!
Our words indeed can cause real effects in this world and are so much more than mere “sounds” exiting from our mouths. Thus, when we recite a blessing on the food that we eat, not only are we shaking up the heavens with our sacred words, we may actually be affecting, in a very positive way, the food that we are about to consume.
The power of speech is the secret weapon of the Jewish people. With it, we can confront any crisis and overcome it handily. All we need to do is pray to Hashem to save us, and in response to our prayers, He responds with the necessary salvation. We understand that Hashem is all powerful and can do anything, and when we put our trust in Him, He responds to our prayers.
There is a way, however, to lose this ability. The Chofetz Chaim (Rabbi Yisroel Meir HaKohen Kagan D. 1933) writes:
ספר חפץ חיים – הלכות אסורי לשון הרע – הקדמה
וְעוֹד טַעַם אַחֵר לְגֹדֶל הַפְּגָם שֶׁבָּא עַל יְדֵי עָוֹן זֶה, כִּי עַל יְדֵי שֶׁאָדָם הוּא פּוֹגֵם אֶת לְשׁוֹנוֹ בְּדִבּוּרִים אֲסוּרִים, הוּא מוֹנֵעַ אַחַר כָּךְ כָּל דִּבּוּרִים שֶׁל קֹדֶשׁ שֶׁהוּא מְדַבֵּר מִלַּעֲלוֹת לְמַעְלָה
There is another reason that evil speech (Lashon hara and the like) is so malicious. Because through evil speech, one contaminates his mouth with evil words and with this he prevents holy words that he later speaks from going up to heaven before Hashem’s heavenly court.
The source for his statement is the Zohar, who explains the process in detail.
[תַּרְגּוּם – וּמֵרוּחַ הָרַע הַזֶּה תְּלוּיִים כַּמָּה מְעוֹרְרֵי דִּין אֲחֵרִים, שֶׁהֵם מְמֻנִּים לֶאֱחֹז בְּדָבָר רַע אוֹ בִּדְבַר טִנּוּף, שֶׁהָאָדָם מוֹצִיא מִפִּיו, וְאַחַר כָּךְ מוֹצִיא מִפִּיו דְּבָרִים קְדוֹשִׁים… כִּי אֵלּוּ רוּחוֹת הַטֻּמְאָה לוֹקְחִים דְּבַר טֻמְאָה הַזֶּה שֶׁהוֹצִיא מִפִּיו, וּכְשֶׁהָאָדָם מוֹצִיא אַחַר כָּךְ מִפִּיו דְּבַר קְדֻשָּׁה, מַקְדִּימִים אֵלּוּ רוּחוֹת הַטֻּמְאָה, וְלוֹקְחִים דְּבַר טֻמְאָה הַהוּא וּמְטַמְּאִים אֶת דְּבַר הַקְּדֻשָּׁה הַהוּא. וְהָאָדָם אֵינוֹ זוֹכֶה בָּהּ, בִּדְבַר הַקְּדֻשָּׁה, וְכִבְיָכוֹל נֶחְלָשׁ כֹּחַ הַקְּדֻשָּׁה]:
And from the evil force are created many prosecutors who are appointed to seize any evil speech or lewd comments that one makes, and when the person subsequently utters holy words, those evil forces take the profane words that were said and contaminate the holy words with them such that they are no longer fit to go to heaven and appear before Hashem’s Holy court. Hence, the person loses out on the holy words that he said and the power of holiness in the world is weakened.
What an astounding thought. A person can pray three times a day with great devotion, but if he spoke lashon hara, his prayers will never reach their mark because they will have become contaminated and are unfit to appear before Hashem.
The Chofetz Chaim concludes.
הֲלֹא נִרְאֶה בַּעֲלִיל מִזֹּהַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ, שֶׁכָּל דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה וּתְפִלָּה שֶׁלָּנוּ הֵם עוֹמְדִים בַּאֲוִיר הַשָּׁמַיִם, וְאֵינָם עוֹלִים לְמַעְלָה, וּמֵאַיִן תָּבוֹא עֶזְרָתֵנוּ לְבִיאַת הַמָּשִׁיח,ַ וְכַיּוֹצֵא בָּזֶה:
We see clearly from the words of the Zohar that all our Torah and prayers are lingering in the atmosphere, but never make it up to Hashem. So, from whence will come our aid for Mashiach to come and like matters?
The Chofetz Chaim is pointing to a real problem. Our most powerful tool is our ability to pray. We may gather a thousand people to pray for our soldiers in Israel or to free the hostages, but maybe only the prayers of three or four of them are actually making it up to Hashem.
Someone once put it this way. Would you use the golden spoon that you used to clean the toilet to serve your food?
There is yet another way that the ability to speak can become a most potent and powerful tool, and that is by refraining from speaking altogether.
The Talmud (Chulin 89a) states:
רבי אילעא אין העולם מתקיים אלא בשביל מי שבולם את עצמו בשעת מריבה שנאמר תולה ארץ על בלימה
Rabbi Elaa says, The world exists in the merit of those who seal their mouths in a moment of argument (and don’t respond). As it says in the verse, “Hashem suspends the world on the one who seals his lips.”
When a person is in an argument and has a strong desire to shoot back an insult or a dig to his opponent, and he seals his lips shut and does not utter it, the merit of that deed alone is sufficient to keep the whole world alive. Our sages also teach us that at that moment any wish that he requests from Hashem will be fulfilled.
The Vilna Gaon adds another element to the greatness of one who seals his lips.
אגרות מוסר – אגרת הגר”א ז”ל
וכל רגע ורגע שהאדם חוסם פיו זוכה בשבילו לאור הגנוז שאין מלאך ובריה יכולים לשער
And for every second that a person keeps his mouth closed, he merits the hidden light that Hashem hid away which no angel or other creation can fathom.
It would seem that not speaking may be an even more powerful tool than speaking. One could also use “not speaking” as an antidote to evil speech. Along with teshuva, by refraining from speaking evil when one has a great urge to do so, he cleanses his mouth from the evil things that he has said in the past, and will restore his power of speech to a pristine state.
In conclusion, the power to speak should not be taken lightly. Since we understand the power of the spoken word, let us not be people who speak without thinking, criticize without compassion, or joke at another’s expense. Rather, let us be among those whose words bring light into the world, who encourage, who comfort, who inspire, who pray.
If we truly wish to live a life of blessing, meaning and eternal consequence, we must begin by guarding and sanctifying our tongues.
May Hashem help us to do so.
Source URL: https://partnersjewishlife.org/parshat-matot-masei-2/