Watch Your Mouth!

On Yom Kippur, we will recite the prayer known as Viddui, the great confessional of our sins, errors, and mistakes. We don't say it just once but rather, ten times during the holiday. By repeating the Viddui, both in our personal prayers as well as in the communal prayers, we acknowledge the mistakes we have made so that we might understand why we committed them, atone for them, and resolve to refrain from repeating them in the new year.

The idea of confessing a sin appears in the Bible. In Numbers 5:6-7 we read: “A man or woman who does a sin toward a person, thus breaking faith with God, and that person realizes his guilt, he shall confess the wrong that he has done.” It’s place in the Yom Kippur service is codified in the Mishnah.   

As we read the Viddui carefully, we become aware that so many of the sins we confess were the result of irresponsible words. Simply put, we have engaged in far too much lashon hara, evil, slanderous, and harmful speech which dehumanized others and ourselves in the process. 

The Book of Mishlei (Proverbs) teaches that there are seven traits that literally God hates. They are, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that plans wicked thoughts, feet that run eagerly toward evil, a false witness, and one who sows discord among people. Consider this list. How many of these pertain to the irresponsible use of our voices? A dear colleague and friend of mine, Rabbi Brad Artson, recently wrote the following: "Speaking and thinking ill of another... gossiping and spreading rumors which harm the reputation of another… these activities are so widespread among our contemporaries that they no longer attract our notice at all. Yet they strike at the core of the kind of world that Judaism is trying to establish."

Learning to control our speech may be among the most important lessons that the Viddui prayer is trying to teach us. It points the way for each of us to do our part to create a better world for all. Is that not the best way to ensure that we and everyone around us can achieve the Shana Tova, the good year that we have been wishing each other and praying for?

A Midrash (Rabbinic legend) tells wandering merchant who came to the town square offering to sell the elixir of life. Large crowds surrounded him, each person eager to purchase eternal youth. The merchant would then take out his book of Psalms and simply show them the verse: "Who desires life? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from guile." (Psalms 34:13)

The story reveals a profound truth. Again, to quote Rabbi Artson, "By learning to channel and control our speech, we will transform our world from one of isolation and cynicism to one of community and trust."

Or in other words, watch your mouth, and you will elevate yourself, and the world around you.