גלות הדיבור

[In Egypt] the power of speech was in exile.

(10) But Moses said to the LORD, “Please, O Lord, I have never been a man of words, either in times past or now that You have spoken to Your servant; I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

(11) And the LORD said to him, “Who gives man speech? Who makes him dumb or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? (12) Now go, and I will be with you as you speak and will instruct you what to say.” (13) But he said, “Please, O Lord, make someone else Your agent.” (14) The LORD became angry with Moses, and He said, “There is your brother Aaron the Levite. He, I know, speaks readily. Even now he is setting out to meet you, and he will be happy to see you. (15) You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth—I will be with you and with him as you speak, and tell both of you what to do— (16) and he shall speak for you to the people. Thus he shall serve as your spokesman, with you playing the role of God to him,

(23) A long time after that, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites were groaning under the bondage and cried out; and their cry for help from the bondage rose up to God. (24) God heard their moaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. (25) God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.

And even if we were all sages, all discerning, all elders, all knowledgeable about the Torah, it would be a commandment upon us to tell the story of the exodus from Egypt. And anyone who adds [and spends extra time] in telling the story of the exodus from Egypt, behold he is praiseworthy.

You can shout loudly in a “ small still voice.” You can scream without anyone hearing you shouting with this soundless “small still voice.”

Anyone can do this. Just imagine the sound of such a scream in your mind. Depict the shout in your imagination exactly as it would sound. Keep this up until you are literally screaming with this soundless “ small still voice.”

This is actually a scream and not mere imagination. Just as some vessels bring the sound from your lungs to your lips, others bring it to the brain. You can draw the sound through these nerves, literally bringing it into your head. When you do this, you are actually shouting inside your brain.

When you picture this scream in your mind, the sound actually rings inside your brain. You can stand in a crowded room, screaming in this manner, with no one hearing you.

Sometimes when you do this, some sound may escape your lips. The voice, travelling through the nerves, can also activate the vocal organs. They might then produce some sound, but it will be very faint.

It is much easier to shout this way without words. When you wish to express words, it is much more difficult to hold the voice in the mind and not let any sound escape. But without words it is much easierץ

“I am in the midst of the exile” (Ezekiel 1:1). The inner, essential “I” – whether of the individual or of the community – appears within [an entity] only in relation to its holiness and purity [and] in relation to the degree of its supernal power suffused by the pure light of an elevated illumination, flaming within it. “We and our forefathers sinned” (Psalms 106:6). Adam sinned. He was alienated from his essence. He turned to the consciousness of the serpent and lost himself. He did not know how to give a clear answer to the question, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9), because he did not know himself, because he had lost [his] true “I,” with [his] sin of bowing to a strange god. [The nation of] Israel sinned. It “ran after foreign gods” (Deuteronomy 31:16). It abandoned its essential “I.” “Israel rejected goodness” (Hosea 8:3). The earth sinned [during the week of Creation]. It denied its essence. It constricted its power. It went after [limited] goals and purposes. It did not give forth all of its hidden power so that the taste of the tree would be equal to the taste of its fruit (Sukkah 35a). It raised its eyes to look outside of itself, to think about [its trivial] future, its “career.” The moon complained [at that time] (Hullin 60b). [As a result,] it lost its internal orbit, the joy of its portion. It was dreaming of a superficial beauty of royalty. Thus does the world continue to sink, with the loss of the “I” of every [entity] – of the individual and of the whole. Learned educators come and focus on the superficial. They too remove their consciousness from the “I.” They add straw to the fire, give vinegar to the thirsty, and fatten minds and hearts with everything that is external to them. And the “I” grows progressively forgotten. And when there is no “I,” there is no “He,” and how much more is there no “You.” The Messiah is called “the breath of our nostrils, the anointed one of God” (Lamentations 4:20). This is his might, the beauty of his greatness: [that] he is not outside of us. He is the breath of our nostrils. Let us seek Hashem our God and David our king. Let us tremble before God and His goodness. Let us seek our “I.” Let us seek ourselves – and find. Remove all foreign gods, remove every stranger and illegitimate one. Then “you will know that I am Hashem your God, Who takes you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am Hashem your God” (cf. Numbers 15:41).