The Power of Words

I am not sure what comes to your mind, when you hear the words, “And he spoke”, for me it is a mixture of thoughts that go through my mind.  Firstly, what did it sound like? Was there and echo? How loud was it?   Secondly, I think of the sound waves created, the propagation of these sound waves and finally, I think about the content intent emotion and feeling of the words, I then visualize the message as I perceive it to be.  Now there is a lot of information in these following verses, as I read them I see history being recorded, with a purpose, so that future generations become aware of the message, the intent and the setting under which the message was given, the emotions the rationale, all of which, I normally process, when I hear someone say, “He said to him….”

ה֥וּא אַהֲרֹ֖ן וּמֹשֶׁ֑ה אֲשֶׁ֨ר אָמַ֤ר יְהוָה֙ לָהֶ֔ם הוֹצִ֜יאוּ אֶת־בְּנֵ֧י יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם עַל־צִבְאֹתָֽם׃

It is the same Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said, “Bring forth the Israelites from the land of Egypt, troop by troop.”

27

הֵ֗ם הַֽמְדַבְּרִים֙ אֶל־פַּרְעֹ֣ה מֶֽלֶךְ־מִצְרַ֔יִם לְהוֹצִ֥יא אֶת־בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל מִמִּצְרָ֑יִם ה֥וּא מֹשֶׁ֖ה וְאַהֲרֹֽן׃

It was they who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt to free the Israelites from the Egyptians; these are the same Moses and Aaron.

28

וַיְהִ֗י בְּי֨וֹם דִּבֶּ֧ר יְהוָ֛ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֖ה בְּאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃ (פ)

For when the LORD spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt

29

וַיְדַבֵּ֧ר יְהוָ֛ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה לֵּאמֹ֖ר אֲנִ֣י יְהוָ֑ה דַּבֵּ֗ר אֶל־פַּרְעֹה֙ מֶ֣לֶךְ מִצְרַ֔יִם אֵ֛ת כָּל־אֲשֶׁ֥ר אֲנִ֖י דֹּבֵ֥ר אֵלֶֽיךָ׃

and the LORD said to Moses, “I am the LORD; speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I will tell you,”

30

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֖ה לִפְנֵ֣י יְהוָ֑ה הֵ֤ן אֲנִי֙ עֲרַ֣ל שְׂפָתַ֔יִם וְאֵ֕יךְ יִשְׁמַ֥ע אֵלַ֖י פַּרְעֹֽה׃ (פ)

Moses appealed to the LORD, saying, “See, I am of impeded speech; how then should Pharaoh heed me!”

Today's article is rather short, I just want to concentrate on verse 30, Moshe’s reply to HaShem.  “See, I am of impeded speech; how then should Pharaoh heed me!”, we as reader may identify with this situation, I am a nobody why should anyone listen to what I have to say, why would my actions or my objection or opinion would matter.  Regardless of who we are, what our intellect, education, social status we tend to think less of ourselves in most situations.  I am over generalizing , yes I know, there are the opposite situations that because some people are famous, they have this idea that what ever they have to say, is right and should be treated as gospel. For now lets leave it at that, as that will be a whole other article and rather lengthy one.

More often than not we are our worst judges, we tend to over analyze and put ourselves down, even for minor issues.  The question is why do we do this to ourselves, why the self deprecation? One possible answer is that we as individuals, tend to spend a lot of time in our thoughts, going over and replaying situations and events on a regular basis. No one knows our thoughts better than ourselves, and HaShem of course, but as far as the reality we live on, we know our hearts like no other person, deep thoughts that are reoccurring, habits, feelings, etc. This puts us in a position that we think we are our best judges, and then proceed to be quite harsh with ourselves, additionally we become disappointed with ourselves and feel that we are not good enough.  What I am describing is a cycle that repeats on a regular basis.  

Now to this behavior, we add more fuel, that even makes less worthy, and more judgmental with ourselves and we now start to transfer that self anger to others in the immediate circle, and to the rest of the world.  We tend to look for bad traits even if they do not exist, we seek to feed that anger by the thoughts we entertain, what we look at and what we feed our heart and mind.  Think about this for a moment , try if you can put yourself in Moshe’s sandals, He was, from his perspective, rejected by his mother, unwanted, then rejected by the royal house, then his people, to the point that he had to flee for fear of the repercussion of him killing someone in order to defend one of his people.  Here is another you grow up in a palace then you find out you are in all reality a slave.  Forty years have lapsed, you have an encounter in the wilderness that makes you return to face your past, deep in your mind, you know where you came from, but the recent experience tells you and gives you a new direction, what would be your first reaction? Like Moshe make excuses, try and avoid the direction that will change not just your life but the life of so many others?

Here is what this article is aiming at, like Moshe he was struggling with self image, he was convinced that he was not worthy of coming before Pharaoh to deliver HaShem’s message.  We have one of the few human beings that have the privilege to converse with HaShem and witness supernatural events like no other person in history after the flood.  What we think and spend time delving on, causes to either feel good about ourselves or brings us down, depression, self loathing, etc.  It is important to know that our words have power, they create, just like HAShem created the universe we exist, we create the world we live in.  You may be thinking, hang-on Rabbi, what are you saying that we are like G-d we can create, that’s borderline blasphemy.  Is it really? It is not blasphemy, and yes we create by the power of our speech and what we think on. 

If you think about it, what is speech, but a thought vocalized into a sound wave that is propelled into the universe for those that are close by to hear what is being declared, it really is a combination of chemistry, physics and the spirit, the Eternal Blessed be He hears and allows it to come about.  So the lesson from this verse 30 is, be careful on what you allow to enter your heart, which you then meditate and chew over and digest, that is feeding your spirit, which becomes a thought, which becomes a word, that is then created and manifested in your life. Sound is a pressure wave, (Air molecules are acted upon), which consists of alternating periods of compression and rarefaction. Here is another interesting fact sound waves can be cancelled or annulled, in the case of noise-cancellation a speaker emits a sound wave with the same amplitude but with inverted phase to the original sound. The waves combine or are added to each other to form a new wave, in a process called interference, and effectively cancel each other out.  This effect is called destructive interference. 

In the same manner thoughts have the same effect, which are then activated in the form of sound , i.e. speech, it has the same effect.  You have good thoughts and bad thoughts, good positive speech and poor negative speech.  In the case of noice cancelling the two waves are of equal and opposite amplitude, however if one is greater than the other the prevailing sound will be the that of greater amplitude, it is therefore imperative that your thoughts and words are the ones that build rather than destroy your soul.  This last bit of information is to let you think and ponder which reality you would rather experience. The word Abracadabra may derive from an Aramaic phrase meaning "I create as I speak." אברא כדברא Remember is not magic is reality.