Words that Heal, Refined like Silver

Ps. 12:6-7

One of my Passover duties as a child was to help polish teh silver cups that we would use to drink during Seder. Some of those cups had our names engraved on them, and some had words that echoed the messages of hope and liberation. As we drank through the sacred night, the polished cups and their worded messages were not just heirlooms and fancy vessels but also symbols for what we were drinking and why.

But it’s not just what goes into our mouths that matters but what comes of our mouths as well.

What comes out of our mouths are sometimes words that lift us up and sometimes words that lie and blame and hurt ourselves and others. At other times what comes out of our mouths are sighs, and moans. And sometimes - songs. 

This chapter of the PSLAMS if focusing on the power of what we say and how our speech that should always be free -- is also never free of consequences. What can we do to refine the ways we talk about and to each other? What words can help us elevate each other and the world we live in, as we speak and type all the time - instead of words that wound and kill? 

Our poet hears the people moan from deep inside poverty, desperate for some sort of salvation. It echoes the story told this week in Jewish homes and hearts - the Hebrews, reduced to slavery in the Land of Egypt, had no breath in them for anything but labor. When at last they managed to cry out, loud enough for all to hear and god to listen - the liberation began. 

This sigh that becomes the sign of active protest frames this psalm: 

מִשֹּׁ֥ד עֲנִיִּים֮ מֵאֶנְקַ֢ת אֶבְי֫וֹנִ֥ים עַתָּ֣ה אָ֭קוּם יֹאמַ֣ר יְהֹוָ֑ה אָשִׁ֥ית בְּ֝יֵ֗שַׁע יָפִ֥יחַֽ־לֽוֹ׃ אִ֥מְר֣וֹת יְהֹוָה֮ אֲמָר֢וֹת טְהֹ֫ר֥וֹת כֶּ֣סֶף צָ֭רוּף בַּעֲלִ֣יל לָאָ֑רֶץ מְ֝זֻקָּ֗ק שִׁבְעָתָֽיִם׃

“Because of the groans of the plundered poor and needy,

I will now act,” says GOD.

“I will give help,” God affirms to them.

GOD’s words are pure words,

silver purged in an earthen crucible,

refined sevenfold.”

Ps. 12:6-7

Some words are worthier than others -- and the ones spoken by The One Who Spoke The World into Existence -- as the Jewish sages like to call God -- are worth so much more. But what is actually said here about hope and about the waiting for divine salvation as our sighs don’t ever stop? 

There is one word in this psalm that is quite unique, and shows up just one time in the entire Hebrew Bible. Here it’s translated as ‘refined’ - referring to the divine speech as fine silver that goes through the process of smithing to become even finer. This metaphor says something to us about how language goes through mental stages and phases, its origin elusive, to become the actual words I am now writing and you are now reading. 

But what about this rare word matters to the question of the value of words? 

This Hebrew word ‘ba’alil’ has proven a challenge for commentators and readers from as far back as we can tell. 

The Aramaic Targum renders this Hebrew word as Aramaic be-khura’ – “in a furnace”. It’s quite technical, referring to the symbolism of the silversmith process. 

But other readers, with more poetic and maybe mystical minds, saw something different, linking linguistics to what liberation can be about when it feels so dark and hopeless - as on a moonless night. 

The Mishnah Rosh HaShanah 1:5, discusses the ancient ritual of seeing the new moon with your own eyes, reporting it to the religious leaders, who then announce a verified new moon. This was the old way of setting our calendar. The Mishnaic sages debated what to do when the holiday of the new year is to be on the first day of the month, with some legalistic challenges: 

 “Whether the new moon of Tishrei appearing as a crescent moon at the beginning of a New Year was seen clearly or was not seen clearly  by witnesses coming to Jerusalem to give testimony of their sighting of the New Moon, they can desecrate Shabbat on account of it… as it is priority to sanctify the new moon.” 

The word ‘clearly’ that the Mishna uses here to determine clear sightlines of the new moon is the same as our psalm’s unique use of the same word - b’alil.  Someone pointing at the new moon and using their words will be how time itself is marked by people.  That’s how powerful our words can be.  The 11 century translator and interpreter Rashi uses this to suggest that “b’alil” means ‘superior’ or ‘elevated’ - what happens when we look up, and when we step it up, and improve silver into finer silver, a simple crescent moon into a sight that brings about renewal. 

In Modern Hebrew we use ‘b’alil’, inspired by these generational readings, as a way to say - ‘well known, obvious, quite clear’. It has even entered the legal books as a term that indicates proof beyond doubt. 

However we handle tough times, as we do at this moment, our sighs and moans, words of protest and despair coming out of our mouths and so many that surround us - -- some words are still here to inspire hope. In the furnace of the world, reality is forged, and from suffering may still emerge a more pure, peaceful, helpful way for words and acts to ease our pain and help us rise above.

Will it be crystal clear or murky, hard to tell. But how much of it is up to us?

I raise a well polished silver cup, with my name on it, and another that includes the words the promise us peace, with clarity of purpose and commitment to hear all sighs, with empathy, and speak up, for greater good.

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