“Of all clean beasts, you shall take for yourself seven pairs and of beasts that are not clean ...”

“A person should never utter an unworthy word, for has not the Torah written eight extra letters in order to avoid an unworthy word.”

 

In the Sidrah of Noach we find for the first time that some animals are ‘clean’ and some animals are “unclean”, but not in the usual sense of the words it referred to which animals would be kosher for us to eat and which were not, for as a holy nation we were commanded to eat only such food which God considered fit for us.

 

Our Sages of blessed memory were quick to notice an unusual thing in the Torah in connection with mentioning the word Tameh (unclean).  In fact the Torah does not mention it here at all, but it refers to it here in a roundabout way, as “that which is not clean” instead of simply stating Tameh, which would have saved quite a number of unnecessary words.  This is very significant, our Sages tell us.  It teaches us to avoid “bad” language,  As a Holy Nation, we must be clean and pure, not only in our thoughts and actions, but also in the words we use.

 

It is self understood that a person must wear clean clothes  have a clean face and clean hands etc.  Anyone with a bit of intelligence would be ashamed to go out with dirty clothing.  Even amongst the animals  there are those animals who take up a great deal of time to keep themselves meticulously clean. But whereas with animals Keeping themselves clean has nothing to do with their Intelligence but is part of their instinctive natures the human being understands that he has to be clean in every way and this is how he is brought up from childhood on.

 

If this is so concerning the external matters of a person such as keeping his clothes clean, his house and street clean  this should most certainly apply to the internal aspects of a person  such as his thoughts and his words.

 

Air and water pollution have become household words.  Everybody talks about them, is worried about them.  In the last few years  millions of pounds have been spent in a campaign to clean up the environment-  The concern of public health officials for the air we breathe and for the water we drink Is very Commendable.  One might have expected that the concern for Spiritual health would be no less than the concern for physical health.  For Just as there is a physical environment in which people live, so there is a spiritual environment in which people lived both have to be clean and healthy.  Unfortunately the pollution of the spiritual environment does not seem to produce the deep concern that it should,  Dirty books dirty films, even dirty Jokes are as much pollutants of the spiritual atmosphere as carbon monoxide from motor vehicles and refuse discharged into streams are pollutants of the physical environment.

 

While it is a costly business to improve air quality and clean up the physical environment, it would not cost anything at all, in terms of pounds and pence, to keep the spiritual environment clean.  All that is required of each and every one of us is to Keep our mind and our thoughts clean.

God created man to be master over his thoughts and over his words.  It is true that to control one's mind is difficult-  A human mind is constantly active. When a person thinks, his mind and his thoughts run on and an unclean thought can enter his mind.  But the person has an alternative - to change this thought with another one.  To control one's tongue from speaking unclean words is a much simpler matter.  God created “locks” on the tongue - Ones teeth.  A person can bite his lip and Keep quiet.  The lips are also “locks”.  Another idea is t o fill one's mouth full of water, but alas, that is not very comfortable.

Language is the most precious gift that the Creator gave us humans, which distinguishes us from the lower animal world-  Let us keep our language clean.