On Tuesday night, June 18, community members gathered at the Bukharian Jewish Congregation of Hillcrest to hear an inspiring shiur by Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser, well-known speaker and author, on the topic of watching our words.
The shiur was l’ilui nishmas Ula Zulaikh and it was hosted by Chazaq.
Rabbi Goldwasser began by pointing out that people often say they aren’t important, so their words are not important. This is a grave mistake. The Navi Amos taught that our words create things.
“A person has to watch every word,” Rabbi Goldwasser warned. When someone watches his language, then nothing bad happens to him.
He shared a story that happened to him. He saw a former student in a store, and a woman was in the store who looked like someone who was homeless. The woman said to the girl, You should get married.”
Rabbi Goldwasser told his student to say “Amein,” which she did. Three weeks later, Rabbi Goldwasser received a call from this student. Her phone had not rung with a shidduch for a very long time, and then it did, and she went out and she saw it was promising. She asked to come with the person she was dating for a brachah from Rabbi Goldwasser.
Rabbi Goldwasser shared, “Our words matter a lot. Hashem gave us tremendous power with our words. With the words you say, you can bring brachah to your family and to klal Yisrael. We also see the power of words in t’filah.”
When you watch your words, then your words have the power for good.
The Talmud says to never open your mouth to the Satan. Rabbi Goldwasser explained that this means to not make negative predictions. Don’t say a negative prediction. Rather, say a positive one and this will bring good into your life.
He shared a story that Rav Elchonon Wasserman Hy”d explained, which showed that a person with a holy mouth has the power for his words to come true.
Rabbi Goldwasser taught that you shouldn’t let the brachah of a simple person be light in your eyes. “A blessing from anybody is important.” He said that our words can gain us the entire world even one time.
It’s important to always use clean words and to avoid onaas d’varim. You should not ask a ger or a baal t’shuvah about his or her past. You should never say anything embarrassing that would cause a person to feel uncomfortable in any way. Sometimes you may need to change the truth to avoid hurting someone.
The more careful we are with another person, the more careful Hashem is that we won’t be hurt.
“The power of our mouth is protection against our enemies!”
When a person speaks lashon ha’ra, the Chofetz Chaim teaches that his mitzvos go to the person he spoke about, and the aveiros of the person spoken about go to the person who spoke.
Whenever we do something, we should always say “im yirtzeh Hashem.” Everything is with Hashem’s help.
“Use the power of your mouth to bless others.”
It’s so telling that, on Hoshana Rabbah, when we are sealed for the year, we beat the willow, which symbolizes the lips. The key to brachah for the year is to do t’shuvah for what we said with our lips. All blessing in the world is with the lips.
This shiur can be viewed on www.TorahAnytime.com.
By Susie Garber
