Silence is not creation

It occurred to me the other day that it makes no sense to talk on Shabbat.

God created the world in six days and on the seventh he rested and did no creation How did he create? He talked and as he spoke the world came into being. We are created in God's image, and, as many kabbalists have pointed out, every time we speak we create. Which is a strong incentive to watch one's words very, very carefully as they have immense power. On shabbat we are commanded to neither create nor destroy. Since words are creation, why do we talk on Shabbat? It would make sense for it to be a day of silent contemplation and meditation so that we take a break from the role of continuously creating the world (another kabbalistic idea).

On the surface this idea seems silly, I mean, hey, we're Jews, we talk. But it seems to make sense.

I asked my friend Yoni about it and he said that there is a discussion in the Jerusalem Talmud about whether it is permitted to say "shalom" to someone on shabbat. This would imply that their practice was to be silent on Shabbat, and they concluded that it's maybe, reluctantly permissible to greet another person on Shabbat.

And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God ceased from all the work of creation that he had done.
Genesis 2:3

This is the first time God does not speak during the week of creation, but God blesses and makes it holy in silence. Two possibilities present themselves: either there are two different types of speech, one with the power of creation and one for blessing, or speech is for creation and silence is for blessing and making holy. It would imply that our words create, while our intention is what is important for blessing and making holy. So words could either create a good or a bad thing, holy or mundane, and it is our intention that determines how if it will be holy and a blessing to the world.

Menachem recently described to me the difference between God's nature and God's ability. It is within God's ability to create and destroy, to make both Good and Evil, but it is God's nature to Love and bless. Much as we see in the Human realm, the mirror of God, that we can do wonderful things and terrible abhorrent things, and it is up to us to decide. We struggle to give our good nature control over our ability so that we can be a blessing to the world. This idea dovetails nicely with what I'm describing above: our speech can do things, but our intention is what determines if it a blessing or a curse.

This is a good reason that all people walking the spiritual path have to spend a lot of time working on themselves and always look inward at their intentions and emotions to make sure they stay on the path.

In my own experience, I think there also exists speech that has power and speech that does not. One is done while connected to God, while the other is done without. When I work with my clients and am responded to something they have said, I always try to make sure I am connected, so that my words are healing. The same is true of writing, some of it is done with power and some of it is just words. This a longer discussion that I will get back to in another post.