The bachurim of Yeshivas Toras Chaim of Denver were frightened. For weeks, a local gang had been harassing them and had graffitied the yeshivah building many times. The hanhalah decided it was time to call the police.
An officer arrived, and asked to hear the bachurim’s experiences. “Depending on what the gang has been saying, it might be a hate crime,” he explained. “That is much more severe than a simple conflict between teenagers.”
But when questioned, one bachur after another could not bring himself to repeat the profanities that the gang had hurled at them. They simply replaced every expletive with a “beep.”
The policeman threw up his hands. “How am I supposed to write a police report like this?” he exclaimed. “I can’t report to the judge that those boys called you ‘beep, beep, beep Jews’!” Then his tone softened. “But the truth is, that that’s why we like you boys so much. Because of your refined speech, you seem much more human than other teenagers on the street.”
The Chovos Halevavos states that the mouth is the “quill” of the heart; it gives expression to the thoughts and feelings buried within. Through our speech, we reveal the tzelem Elokim, the Divine spark hidden inside each of us. When a religious Jew speaks with refinement, with respect for others, or in a way that demonstrates his elevated moral standards, he reveals the workings of his heart.
Reproduced from A Life Worth Living by Rabbi Shraga Freedman with permission of the copyright holders, ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications, Ltd.
