Let us imagine the palace of a king. The king sits in the luxurious hall and waits for his lunch to be served. Indeed, immediately, the chief chef of the palace arrives and places before the king a plate upon which are fine delicacies, the work of his hands to be admired. But the king becomes angry and furious. Why? Because the plate upon which the foods are placed is dirty. Yet the chef, instead of apologizing, explains to the king that this plate was used by the cleaning staff to remove the waste from the table during the previous meal. At that point, the king’s anger is surely greatly intensified. For this is a disgrace to the king of the highest order, and the chef, although he merely presented the king with his meal, is sentenced to death for his terrible audacity.
Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai said that if he had been present at the giving of the Torah, he would have requested from HaKadosh Baruch Hu that from then on Bnei Yisrael should have two mouths: one for the study of Torah and the other for all other needs. But after some time, Rebbe Shimon retracted his words, because he saw that people struggle to guard even one mouth from forbidden speech. So if they had two mouths, they would struggle even more to guard them. Therefore, he said, it is good that a person has only one mouth.
Our parasha teaches us the power of the mouth. A regular person stands and says two words: “Behold, I am a Nazirite.” At that moment, he becomes sanctified, and all the laws of Nazirite status apply to him—even though outwardly there is no visible change in his appearance. Yet the two words he spoke changed his very essence, and now he is someone else.
We have just received the Torah, but Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai teaches us an important principle: in order for the Torah to remain with us and endure, the mouth must be clean. For if the mouth is not clean, we are truly like that chef who serves the king his meal on a filthy dish. The mouth, which presents Torah and prayer to Hashem Yisbarach must be pure. And the “Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh” says: “I found that the pious ones of Israel wrote that the mouth of one who studies Torah is considered like a sacred vessel used for service in holiness, for there is no sanctity like the sanctity of Torah. Therefore, it is forbidden to speak even mundane words with it, even if they do not contain anything forbidden.”
- Tiv HaTorah - Naso
