DEUT266 Rabbi Akiva said: … a fence to wisdom is silence. Pirkei Avot, Perek III, mishnah 17. … If you have wisdom, protect it with a fence of silence. It has been well said, "The wise man knows what he speaks, but the fool speaks what he knows" (Joseph Hayyim Caro (1800-1895, Minhath Shabbath (commentary on Avoth), Krotoschin 1847, ad loc.). People who do not pause to consider have a natural tendency to blurt out everything they know. More often than not, this is unwise and indiscreet. Often, in the give-and-take of social intercourse and ordinary conversation, it is better not to reveal yourself completely. It is more prudent to remain somewhat a "mystery," somewhat unknown, rather than to be someone that everyone takes for granted. But ultimately, as the wise Solomon says, "there is a season for everything… a time to keep silent and time to speak" Ecclesiastes 3:1, 7). The teaching of our mishnah is well taken in matters of everyday conversation, in our normal social relations. When it comes to Torah, however, another principle applies: "And you shall speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk on the way…" [this verse]. In studying Torah it is necessary to give expression and articulation to thoughts, that they should become clear, and fixed in the memory. Here we should indeed speak up, to fill our tongue and mind and heart with the words of God.