SC 2010- 2: Silence

Today I shift to item 2 in my spiritual curriculum for 2010. As mentioned earlier in the blog I'm using a Mussar technique that will cycle me through 13 traits this year (work on a trait for a week then move on 4 times).

My new topic is silence. My phrases are:

• Shimon would say: I have found nothing better for the body than silence. Pirkei Avos
  
• The main way to merit eternal life is by guarding one's tongue. Vilna Gaon
  
• Shammai would say: Make your Torah study a permanent fixture of your life. Say little and do much. Pirkei Avos

Given that the first thing we see G-d do in the Jewish Bible is speak and create it seems to me that our speech... when we speak, we are imitating G-d and potentially creating realities... What can result from what comes out of our mouths is taken far too lightly I think.

My daily work will involve attempting to talk much less often and to be much more circumspect about what comes out of my mouth... when I think on this topic I always remember Jesus' words in Matthe...

¹⁶"Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them. ¹⁷"Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? ¹⁸But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' ¹⁹For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. ²⁰These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.' "

James dedicates a chapter to this topic and his thinking is steeped in the teachings from the book of Proverbs...

¹Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. ²We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.

³When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. ⁴Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. ⁵Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. ⁶The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

⁷All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, ⁸but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

⁹With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. ¹⁰Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. ¹¹Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? ¹²My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

I'll also be reading this week in David Wolpe's book, In Speech and Silence.

I smile to think I would share my Mussar work on silence in blog by writing such a long winded blog... truly ironic... You will not hear again from me (silence) until next Saturday or Sunday when I move to topic three in my curriculum: Enthusiasm.