GEN246 Speech differentiates human beings from other living beings and, in the Jewish view, makes us similar to God. In the Torah, God is said to have carried out the work of creation through speech, and the Rabbis later describe the Divine creation as having taken place through “Ten Sayings” Ethics of the Fathers 5:1. The second creation narrative’s account that “man became a living being” after God blew into his nostrils [this verse] is rendered by the Aramaic Targum Onkelos as “and it [=God’s breath] was in [the first] man as a speaking spirit.” Human speech can be creative, like God’s; witness the Jewish legal recognition that through speech human beings can change –re-create—the statuses of people (e.g., through vows of Naziriteship), animals (e.g., through designation as sacrifices), or things (e.g., through designation as tzedakah, charity). Human speech can also be the equivalent of murder Baba Metzia 58b. Of human beings, then, it can justifiably be said that “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” Proverbs 18:21 and that “When [the tongue] is good, there is nothing better; when bad, there is nothing worse” Leviticus Rabbah 33:1. OXFORD 433

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN242 Harmful abstinence resembles the ways of the foolish gentiles who not only refrain from what is unessential but also deny themselves what is essential and chastise themselves, [often] in strange ways which the Eternal total rejects.  The Sages have said … Ta’anit 22b: “Into a living being” means that it is your duty to sustain the soul that I implanted within you. PATH 97-98

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN245 Someone who only speaks loshon hora [evil speech] occasionally is guilty of a serious sin.  But those who habitually gossip about the faults of others are guilty of a much graver sin, since they contemptuously and repeatedly disregard one of God’s commandments.  Habitual offenders can often be found sitting around making disparaging remarks about others: “Reuven is a good-for-nothing, just the other day he…” “Don’t think that Leah is so special; she comes from a family that…” “Do you know what I just heard about Shimon?”  Our Sages have labeled these people baalai loshon hora (habitual speakers of loshon hara).  The Talmud Erchin 15b states that someone who constantly speaks loshon hara commits sins greater than idolatry, adultery, and murder.  The enormity of constantly speaking evil of others is such that a baal loshon hora loses his share in olam haboh (the world to come) unless he does tshuvah (repentance) Jerusalem Talmud Pe’ah 1:1.  The invention of the telephone has made it possible for someone to become a baal loshon hara in the very comfort of his own home, without expending excessive energy.  Beware of loshon hora when speaking on the telephone.  If the person with whom you are conversing insists on relating loshon hora, you should rebuke him.  If this is not possible, find an excuse to hang up – “Excuse me, something has just come up,” (the loshon hara) – and discontinue the conversation.  PGYT 31-32.

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN240 A person who speaks against others is inferior to animals.  Onkelos defines the words “a living soul” (nefesh chaya) as a soul which can speak.  Man, then is elevated above all animals for God has given him the ability to speak.  However, this unique faculty elevates man only when he uses it for a worth purposes.  Someone who misuses his speech by speaking against others is considered lower than a beast.  A beast cannot destroy through talk, whereas man can slay with his tongue.  PLYN 24

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN247 See [[GEN33]] Genesis 1:20 living SACTAB 216

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN243 R. Yossi said: “An individual is not permitted to mortify himself with fasting, lest he be cast upon the mercies of others, and they not have mercy upon him.  R. Yehudah said in the name of Rav: “Whence does R. Yossi derive this? From the verse: ‘And man became a living soul’ – the soul that I gave you, keep it in life.” Ta’anith 22b  TEMIMAH-GEN 16

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN249 The story of Eden begins by pointing us toward the close relationship between humans and the earth: “And YHWH [the Name of God that can only be pronounced by breathing with no vowels, thus “Yahhh, Breath of Life”] formed the adam [human earthling] from the adamah [humus-earth] and blew into his nostrils the breath of life; and the human-earthling became a living being.” [this verse]. … What “adam” and “adamah” teach is deeply different from what the world “environment” teaches. The “environment” is in the “environs” –out there, separate from us. The very words adam and adamah are intertwined, and they should teach us not only about language but about the reality that language tries to describe in words.” (By Arthur Waskow, "Jewish Environmental Ethics: Intertwining Adam with Adamah") OXFORD 402-3

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN248 Judaism regards life as of immeasurable value.  In the most famous formulation of this belief, a passage in the Mishnah teaches: “Whoever saves a single life, it is as if he saved an entire world.” Sanhedrin 4:5  The Rabbis based this teaching on the fact that God created humankind with only one person, Adam. Had he been killed, all humanity would have been destroyed; and, if he were saved, all humanity would survive.  Because God deemed it worth creating the world for the sake of one person, Judaism reasons that each person’s life, like Adam’s, is of infinite value.   TELVOL 2:379-80

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN250 There is … one fundamental problem with regard to a clear analysis of the halakhic position which views time of death as being simultaneous with cessation of respiration. Is cessation of respiration to be equated with death itself, or is it merely a physiological symptom enabling us to ascertain the time of death? Couched in different terminology, are respiration and life itself one and the same, so that the absence of respiratory activity, by definition, constitutes the state of death? Or is life some ephemeral and indefinable state or activity which cannot be empirically perceived but of which absence of respiration is a reliable indication? There is some prima facie evidence indicating that lack of respiration and the state of death are, by definition, synonymous. The Sages inform us that the soul departs through the nostrils, thereby causing respiration to cease and death to occur. Pirkei de-Rabbi Eli’ezer, ch. 52  [See also Yalkut Shimloni, Lekh Lekha, no 77] observes that after sneezing one should give thanks for having been privileged to remain alive. Torah Temimah, Genesis 7:22  The Yalkut, noting that the first mention of sickness in Scripture occurs in Genesis 48:1, remarks that prior to the time of Jacob sickness was unknown. It is the view of the Sages that illness became part of man’s destiny in answer to Jacob’s plea for prior indication of impending death in order that he might make a testament before dying. Before the days of Jacob, according to the Yalkut, an individual simply sneezed and expired without any indication whatsoever that death was about to overtake him. The Yalkut can readily be understood on the basis of the verse “ … and He blew into his nostrils the soul of life” [this verse]. In the narrative concerning the creation of Adam, the soul is described as having entered through the nostrils. According to the Yalkut, the soul departs through the same aperture through which it entered; hence terminal sneezing is associated with the soul’s departure from the body. Apparently, then, respiration and life both cease with the departure of the soul.  [See also, Genesis 7:22 ROSNER 280-1] ROSNER 284-5GEN248zz

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN257 The power of words is everywhere acknowledged in the Jewish tradition.  God created the world by speech.  When Genesis says that God breathed into man and made him a “living soul” [this verse], the classic rabbinical translator, Onkelos, renders it as a “speaking soul.” God reveals Himself to man in words, the words of the Torah, and, in response, man approaches God with words.  Words are also the major instrument of contact between man and man – in all his transactions, whether intellectual, cultural, or mercantile. For men words are the means of creations, and also of destruction. They can clarify and they can confuse; they can stimulate and they can intoxicate. They may be a blessing; but they are often a curse. The heart of Jewish worship, the Amidah, opens with a prayer for pure speech: “O Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare Your praise.” And it concludes with a prayer for self-control in speech: “My God, keep my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking falsehood.” Since speech is the cement of society, loose tongues can weaken its structure subtly but critically. The dangers of gossip, slander, and tale bearing have been widely discussed in Jewish ethical writings.  GOODSOC 56

SHOW FULL EXCERPT