<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">The Kabbalists made an interesting play on the word “Pesach.” <br>They explained that “Pesach” is a combination of the words “<i>peh sach</i>” (the mouth speaks).<br>Accordingly, the redemption from Mitzrayim was also a redemption of the faculty of speech.<br>For this reason, they say we commemorated Passover with the oral mitzvah to retell the story<br>of the Exodus. We also find that Moshe, aware of this dimension of the Exodus, attempted to <br>disqualify himself by protesting: <i>“I am not a man of speech.</i>” [Sh’mot 4:10]<br><br>On this topic, Rav Kook wrote in a passage entitled “Redemption of Speech” [Orot Hakodesh vol lll, p.285]:<br>“<i>Sometimes we can sense the ties between our speech and the wolrd. This is the beginning stage of redeeming speech from its exile</i>."<br><br><br>I recently came across the following novel insight regarding why the meraglim did not meet with G-d’s approval.<br>The answer given to this question as to why it didn’t lead to His approval, leads to an understanding of the role of language (speech) in real life.<br>We are under the impression that language is an avenue of communication between people. But, this being granted, <br>language is not without its built-in faults. Consider the statement by Rudolf Arnheim, German born author, art and film theorist, <br>and famous Gestalt psychologist (1904-2007):<br>“I have found that as soon as you have a concept for something, you start to exclude it from the checkup of continued experience. <br>If you don’t constantly expose your concepts to experience, they rapidly become rigid and paralyzed. <br>They become lifeless cliches, fossils of experience.”<br>What a brilliant insight! This is exactly why we not only talk about but we relive the Exodus every year, as well as other <i>mitzvot</i>.<br><br>In our own literature, we have examples of language-transcendence which also point to this idea. <br>Thus, “<i>The service of the Torah is greater than the study thereof.</i>” (Berkhot 7b), <br>Study is a word-language exercise; service is the REAL experience of Jewish dictates. <br><br>“<span style="font-size: 14px;"><b>Talk is cheap. But with action, it becomes expensive</b></span>"<br><span style="font-size: 14px;">rw</span><br> </body></html>