Silence and  Speech 

שקט ודיבור

The tongue has the ability to facilitate good and evil. A person can achieve through his speech what he cannot achieve with any other limb. 

Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said to his servant Tavi: Go and buy a good cut of meat for me from the marketplace. Tavi went and bought him tongue. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said to him: Go and buy a bad cut of meat for me from the marketplace. He again went and bought him tongue. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel asked him: What is this, that when I say to you a good cut of meat, you buy tongue for me, and when I say to you a bad cut of meat, you also buy tongue for me?  

Tavi explained to him: Good is from the tongue and bad is from the tongue. When the tongue is good, there is nothing better than it,<footnote data-num="211"/> and when it is bad, there is nothing worse than it.

Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi prepared a meal for his students. He brought before them soft tongues and hard tongues. They selected portions among the soft ones and left the hard ones. He said to them: Consider what you are doing. Just as you select the soft ones and leave the hard ones, your tongues should be the same.<footnote data-num="212"/>

Rava said: For one who seeks life, it is in his tongue; for one who seeks death, it is in his tongue. 

There was an incident involving the king of Persia, who became ill. The doctors said to him: There is no cure for you unless they bring you the milk of a lioness, and we will prepare a remedy for you. One man spoke up and said: I will bring you the milk of a lioness if you wish, but give me ten goats. The king told his servants to give the goats to that man, and they gave them to him. 

The man went to a lions’ den and a lioness was there, suckling her cubs. On the first day, he stood from afar and cast one goat to the lioness, and she ate it. On the second day, he drew slightly nearer and cast another goat to her. He did so, drawing closer each day, until he was able to play with the lioness, at which point he took some of her milk and returned to the king.  

When he was halfway to the king, he saw in a dream that his limbs were arguing with one another. The legs said: None of the other limbs can compare to us. Had we not walked to the lions’ den, the man would not have been able to take the milk. The hands said: There is none like us; had we not acted, there would have been nothing.<footnote data-num="213"/> The heart said: Had I not provided the counsel,<footnote data-num="214"/> what use would any of you have been? The tongue responded: Had I not stated the matter to the king, what would the rest of the man have done?

All the other limbs responded to the tongue: How dare you compare yourself to us! You are situated in a place of darkness,<footnote data-num="215"/> and you do not have discernment like the other limbs. The tongue said to them: Today, you will say that I control you.

The man heard this exchange and then went to the king and said to him: My lord, the king, here is the milk of a female dog. The king was enraged, and commanded the man be hanged. As he walked to his death, the other limbs began to weep. The tongue said to them: Didn’t I tell you that you lack substance? If I save you, will you acknowledge that I am superior to you? They answered: Yes. The man said to those about to hang him: Return me to the king; perhaps I will be spared. They returned him to the king, and the man asked him: Why did you command to hang me? The king said to him: You brought to me the milk of a female dog [kalba]! The man said to him: What do you care, provided that you are cured? Furthermore, a lioness is also called kalba.<footnote data-num="216"/> The king’s servants took some of the milk and sampled it, and found it to be the milk of a lioness. The other limbs said to the tongue: We concede to you that you were right.

This is the meaning of: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21). <source>(Vayikra Rabba 33; Arakhin 15b; Yalkut Shimoni 2:721) </source>