I heard after the holiday of Sukkot [the Tabernacles Feast], October 5, 1942, Jerusalem
We must take caution with “depart from evil” to keep the four covenants.
The covenant of the eyes, which is caution from looking at women. And the prohibition on looking is not necessarily because it might lead to a thought. The evidence of this is that the prohibition applies also to a hundred-year old man. Rather, the real reason is that it extends from a very high root: This caution is because if one is not careful, he might come to look at the Shechina [Divinity].
The covenant of the tongue—to be vigilant with truth and falsehood. The scrutinies that exist now, after the sin of Adam HaRishon, are scrutinies of true and false. However, prior to the sin of the tree of knowledge, the scrutinies were about bitter and sweet. Yet, when the scrutiny is about truth and falsehood, it is completely different. At times, it begins sweet and ends bitter, which means that there is a reality of bitter which is nonetheless true.
For this reason, we must be careful with changing our words. Although one thinks that one is only lying to one’s friend, we should know that the body is like a machine: As it is accustomed to walk, so it continues to walk. Therefore, when it is accustomed to falsehood and deceit, it is impossible for it to walk by another way, and this forces man to proceed with falsehood and deceit when one is alone, too.
It turns out that one must deceive himself and cannot tell himself the truth at all, since he does not find any special preference to the truth.
We might say that he who thinks that he is deceiving his friend is really deceiving the Creator, since besides man’s body there is only the Creator. This is because it is the essence of creation that man is called “creature” only with respect to himself. The Creator wants man to feel that he is a separate reality from Him; but other than this, it is all “The whole earth is full of His glory.”
Hence, when lying to one’s friend, one is lying to the Creator; and when saddening one’s friend, one is saddening the Creator. For this reason, if one is accustomed to say the truth, it will help him with respect to the Creator. That is, if he promised something to the Creator, he will try to keep his promise, since he is not used to changing his word, and by this he will be rewarded with “The Lord is your shade.” If one keeps and does what he says, the Creator, too, will keep “Blessed is he who says and does” in return.
There is a sign in the covenant of the tongue, not to say all that can be said, since by speaking, one reveals what is in one’s heart, and this gives a hold to the external ones since as long as one is not perfectly clean, when he reveals something of his interior, the Sitra Achra [other side] has power to slander above and mock his work. She says, “What kind of work is he giving upward, since his whole intention in this work is only downward?”
This answers a great question: It is known that “a Mitzva induces a Mitzva,” so why do we often see that one falls from one’s work? As we have said above, the Sitra Achra defames and slanders his work, and then descends and takes his soul. That is, since she has already defamed above and said that his work was not clean, but that he works in the form of reception for oneself, she descends and takes his spirit of life by asking, “What is this work?” Hence, even when one is awarded some illumination of the spirit of life, he loses it again.
The advice for this is to walk humbly, so she does not know about his work, by way of “He does not reveal from the heart to the mouth.” Then the Sitra Achra, too, cannot know of one’s work, as she only knows what is revealed by word or action; this is what she can grip.
We should know that pain and suffering comes primarily through those who slander. Hence, we should be as careful as we can with speaking. Moreover, we should know that even when speaking mundane words, it still reveals the secrets of one’s heart. This is the meaning of “My soul went out when he spoke.” This is the covenant of the tongue with which we must take caution.
And the keeping should be especially during the ascent, since during the descent it is hard to walk in great degrees and cautions.