‘Words’ - the Bee Gees (1968)
“You think that I don't even mean
A single word I say”
In our lives, we utter a lot of words.
Sometimes, we mean what we say, but often we don’t.
We say them for effect, because we are happy, because we are unhappy, because we are disappointed, because we are angry.
Because we want to make someone else feel better about themselves.
Because, sometimes, we want to make ourselves feel more accomplished.
How many of the words that we say, do we really mean?
In the last year, we have seen numerous examples of quotes from politicians that have made the headlines - for the wrong reasons.
Whether they come from the Prime Minister or leader of the opposition, or even from the President of the United States, they cause hurt to many of us who hear them.
We ask ourselves whether the apologies that are sometimes issued, really come from the heart or, are a result of expediency and the desire to "brush" these thoughts under the proverbial carpet.
וּתְשׁוּבָה וּתְפִלָּה וּצְדָקָה מַעֲבִירִין אֶת רֹעַ הַגְּזֵרָה.
In the Routledge Machzor, if you look at page 150, we can see that the words are translated as
But repentance, prayer and righteousness avert the severity of the decree.
The problem is that the Hebrew words have been mistranslated.
Hebrew as a language uses a system of where each word is made up a Hebrew three letter root.
Teshuva - has the root of Shin-Vav-Bet - read as “Shuv” - which means “ to return”. So Teshuva literally means “to return” - if we are not repenting, where are we returning to?
Tefilla - comes from the root of Tet Pey Lamed - which means “connection” - so instead of praying, we are connecting - with whom or what?
and Tzedaka - which we understand to mean charity, comes from the root “tzedek” - righteousness. Where is the word for charity?
Let’s look back at the prayer - Gd is telling us what is going to happen on Rosh Hashanah - we are being inscribed in a book - we hope in a positive manner - and today, on Yom Kippur, by the end of the fast, our fate for the coming year will be sealed.
Yet, here we are, at the end of this crucial prayer - returning not repenting, connecting instead of praying and being righteous, with nary a though to Tzedaka!
So perhaps the Bee Gees have got it right!
“You think that I don't even mean
A single word I say”
Every machzor I have read, mistranslates these words.
or does it?
Yom Kippur is unique in that its entire focus seems to centre on words and the power of words. Many of us dedicate precious hours in shul, vocalising thousands of words from the start of Kol Nidre, all the way through to the end of Neilah.
One of our greatest Rabbis Yisrael Meir Kagan, better known as the Chofetz Chaim (d.1933) spent most of his life writing about Lashon Hara - the misuse of words which results in tale-bearing and slander and how we need to train ourselves to improve the way we speak.
Are we not all guilty of speaking lashon hara?
At the heart of the Yom Kippur service is the vidui - the confessions that we say through the Al Cheit prayers.
If you look through the individual confessions, it soon becomes apparent that the most common errors that we make, are propogated through the improper use of words.
eg
P186 - 4th line done.....we have sinned before thee with utterance of the lips
a few lines further down....we have sinned before thee in speech
later on.....we have sinned before thee by impurity of the lips
followed by.....foolish speech
and scoffing....and evil speech (page 187)....and utterences of the lips
So, words do mean something.
Looking back at the explanation of Teshuva, Tefilla and Tzedaka , maybe we can understand them in a different way.
First teshuva. The return.
The Beatles famously asked Jo Jo to “get back to where he once belonged” - by trying to regain that long lost place where we too once belonged - we need to look into ourselves. We need to return to our inner child, before life took us down mistaken paths.
Through considering the words we utter, either in jest, or anger or even unwittingly, perhaps, we too can repent. Repentence ensures a return to the best people that we can aspire to be.
Similarly so with Tefilla. The mistranslated 'prayer word'. If we recite our prayers properly, in whichever language we feel most comfortable in (although Hebrew is the best option if we can!), we boost that wi-fi connection between our souls and Gd. Tefilla, the prayer IS the connection. It is wired from our brains to our souls and it then routed out through our mouths. If you want your devices to work properly, you need to ensure that you have a strong, unbroken signal. Just ask the people down the road at GCHQ!
And finally Tzedaka - the acts that we do for others, not because we want to, but because we have to - is the right thing to do. Charity is not an option. It is a necessity. Tzedaka is the way that we show, in practical terms that our role on this earth is to be there to help our fellow brothers - both within the Jewish world and without.
When we give to others, we give as much back to ourselves - perhaps not in monetary terms, but on a much deeper, spiritual level.
The genius of the Hebrew language is to integrate these three powerful ideas - “return”, “connection” and “righteousness” into the concepts of “Repentance”, “Prayer” and “Charity” because without the former, the latter can’t be achieved.
To repent, we have to return.
To pray - we have to connect
To give charity - we have to do the right thing.
As we proclaim these three fundamental phrases, let us also consider how we can guard our tongues over the next year. If we do, the Al Cheit confessions will mean so much more to each and every one of us and will bring us closer together.
It is no accident that the three actions complete the prayer.
After everything that has been listed - from births to deaths and from a quiet to a troubled life - all the negative components in the decree can be overturned, if we contribute to our society by working on ourselves and at the same time, giving to others.
Maybe, we should leave the last word to the Beatles who told us to:
”Whisper words of wisdom” so that we should 'let it be'.
Let it be a year of considered words, positive results and for each and every one of us - a wonderful fate, sealed in the book of life, good health and success in each endeavour that we engage in.
Chag Sameach.