Healing Well of Miriam

ב״ה

…I will change the Nations [to speak] a pure language, so that they all will proclaim the Name of Hashem, to worship him with a united resolve. –Zephaniah 3:9

This one verse is a profound promise of Redemption.  In order to understand what that promise is we have to shift our thinking to that of the higher dimensional Redemptive mind.

What is this “pure language”?  Some of the Sages have taught that this is Hebrew.  With that thought, the nations of the world would then be speaking Hebrew, because they would have seen the error or their ways, come to the Torah, and converted.  Yet the next part of the verse casts a bit of doubt on this interpretation, because it says, “they all will proclaim the Name of Hashem.”  In the Hebrew text this is the ineffable Name, whose verbal pronunciation is forbidden to Jewish Hebrew speakers, as well, except for the High Priest in the Holy of Holies.  So, this “pure language” must be something else.

Adam was created a “speaking being.”  Does that just mean that he could talk?  The animals could also talk, because Chava was not at all surprised when the serpent engaged her in conversation.  The angels, too, could talk, yet their use of speech is again, different from that of Adam’s.  Hashem brought each of the animals to Adam to see what he would name it, and whatever he called that creature, that was its name.  Adam was able to see into the essence of the creature, its spiritual DNA, so to speak. The string of Hebrew letters (or corresponding vibrations that Adam could perceive) formed the name of the creature.  He was seeing into the creature for its spiritual definition, but also, the very speaking of that name had its own creative ability.  This was an ability that no other created being had—not terrestrial nor celestial, for even the angels did not have that creative ability of one made in the image of the Creator.  Adam was created a living being when the Creator breathed life into him, thus creating him in the image of his Creator—a creative being. 

In the story of the Tower of Babel we read that Hashem was not happy with the rebellious intention of the people, so He confused their language, dividing the one common language into seventy different languages of the seventy (root) Nations.  On the surface of the story, it seems like the language was confused simply to disrupt the project of the building of the tower.  They could no longer understand each other, so they ended up dispersing to other parts of the world.  Like the “fall of Man” and being expelled from Eden, this was another collapse.  It was not simply a situation in which they could no longer communicate, their Adamic speech had been disrupted—their power of creative speech had been diminished from it previously holy level (albeit less than that of Adam in the Garden) to one more mundane. 

Zephaniah’s prophecy promises that the speech of the people of the Nations will be elevated to a level of purity.  This is a promise of something that will be a indicative of Redemption.  The most powerful example of this type of speech, before there was ever any corruption in the world, is Adam’s naming the animals.  This is only an example, though.  It also involves what was meant when Adam was told to tend the Garden.  For all intents and purposes, the Garden sustained itself, so what did Adam have to do?  What was his role in working and guarding the Garden?  It was in his prayer communion with Hashem.  His words were meant to manifest the Will of the Creator in the physical world.

The one language became seventy.  Unity became diversity.  As I said, I do not see that the seventy languages will be done away with.  Rather, in that elevated state, something really amazing could happen.  Seventy is the numeric value of the Hebrew letter ayin; one is the numeric value of the Hebrew letter aleph.  Both are silent letters.  When Adam and Chava were created they were creatures of light—“ohr,” spelled אור (aleph, vav, raish).  When they were expelled from the Garden they were clothed in skin—“ohr,” spelled עור (ayin, vav, raish).   The difference of the aleph and ayin is Oneness (or unity) compared to multiplicity (or diversity).  One of the symbolic ideas in Redemption is that the ayin with be redeemed (or elevated) into the aleph.  The amazing thing that we could see is the seventy languages becoming as One, while still remaining distinctively seventy.  This is very similar to the idea of the seventy faces of Torah.  There are not many Torahs, but only one.  Those seventy faces are all still aspects of the One.  Even so, the seventy languages would be vessels of the One pure speech.  And, incidentally, this would be the catalyst for the seventy faces of the ONE Torah.     

While there was most definitely mundane, impure speech before the Tower of Babel, this story illustrates the fall of language, overall.  The question arises about the division of the languages.  Is there only one “pure, holy language,” implying that all others are profane?  When the people began speaking other languages, that, too, was a creation of the Creator.  It could be argued that Redemption reclaims and elevates all of Creation, and all of the things within Creation, with nothing discarded. With that understanding, we can see “pure speech” as something other than a specific linguistic, but rather the speech—the Adamic, creative speech—coming THROUGH the vessel of any one of the Nations’ languages. Hebrew, too, became a mundane language that will need to be elevated to the Adamic level, as well.  The Midrash says that after Adam named the animals, the Creator asked him: “What is My Name?”  Adam then named Him.  Once the speech of Mankind is elevated to its holiest state, the children of Adam can, again, speak that Name that Adam created.