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The Real Reason You Were Given a Voice (It’s Not For Schmoozing)
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You were given a voice for a reason — and it wasn’t just to fill space. In this teaching, Rabbi Efrem Goldberg challenges the comfortable assumption that staying quiet is always the responsible choice. While restraint can be wisdom, there are moments when silence is not humility but avoidance — when clarity is required and hesitation carries real cost. This is a serious reflection on purpose, responsibility, and the weight that comes with the ability to speak. Not every word needs to be said. But some moments demand it — and missing them changes everything. 🔔 Subscribe for Torah insight, Emunah, and perspective with @RabbiEfremGoldberg
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Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
It's convenient that we also have speech
to talk to one another. But if you ask
why was speech created, what's its
original purpose and intent is to talk
to Hashem. Why? Because only when man
said, "Hey, could someone make it rain
around here? Nothing's growing.
Nothing's happening. How do we fill the
garden?" Hashem said, "Good. Now that
you asked, I'm ready to give." It
doesn't take a lot of courage to have a
paid sabbatical.
When the paycheck is still being
transferred to your bank account, it
doesn't take enormous courage. But when
the farmer observes Shmita, and we've
been privileged in our community to host
farmers who observe Shmita, when a
farmer observes, they shut it all down.
There's no income. There's nothing
flowing in. And they say, "What am I
going to eat? How am I paying the bills?
How am I paying?" Hashem says, "Don't
worry. I got your back. I'm going to
give you enough in the sixth year to
cover the sixth year, the seventh year,
and the eighth year." Wow. What a
promise. which parathetically some bring
as evidence that the Torah was written
by Hashem, not man. Because in a
religion, if man wrote the Torah and
made that promise, don't worry, in the
sixth year, you'll grow enough for the
sixth year. How long would that religion
be around?
>> Six years. Because if in the sixth year
it didn't grow enough for those three
years, and you couldn't control it, then
people would say, "It's a joke. That's
not a real religion. Some man made it
up." only only the omnipotent infinite
almighty God who can make good on that
promise would actually make that promise
which he makes. So why the Torah
formulated in when a person will say
what am I going to eat? Why didn't the
Torah simply tell the farmer observe
Shmita and take a deep breath, relax in
the sixth year, you're good to go. You
got enough for six, seven, and eight.
Why does it have to be precipitated? Why
did it have to be prompted by the
farmer's going to say, "What am I going
to eat? What am I going to eat?" So,
there's a lot of answers to that
question. We've studied some of them.
One of them is that we only receive the
only flows when we ask for it. BU has
shea upstairs. Hashem has so much for us
but he doesn't transfer he doesn't give
us we studied this as well. We each have
a trust fund in heaven but doesn't give
us access to the heavenly trust fund
filled with blessing and the bless the
blessing is not necessarily material and
physical. It's not necessarily measured
in dollars. The trust fund could be good
health and truly could be all kinds of
things but Hashem says you can't access
it without asking. I want a relationship
with you. So you don't get it without
the relationship. You need to ask.
That's why when Hashem created the
world, he created a world with an
ecoycle where it was supposed to rain.
There's precipitation. There's
evaporation. I've just used all the
fancy words I know for the ecosystem. I
just exhausted my knowledge of that
area. But there's some system where it's
supposed to rain. But Hashem didn't
press go. He didn't press start on it
until when? Day six. Why? Who came on
day six? Man. And what did man do on day
six?
He davened because God gave man the
power of speech. What differentiated
man?
God breathed life into us. And
translates as
he gave us the power of speech. What
differentiated man from animal is the
power of speech. And why did we need to
speak? When Hashem created the world and
deposited man in it, to whom were we
speaking? There's no one around. Who are
we talking to? No,
>> the answer is there was someone around
and the origin of speech, the original
purpose of it was to talk to whom?
>> The whole purpose, the whole origin.
It's convenient that we also have speech
to talk to one another. But if you ask
why was speech created, what's its
original purpose and intent is to talk
to Hashem, to talk to the Shalom. That's
why that's why we have the power of
speech. That's why we were given speech.
Speech differentiated us from man. So
even though Hashem created the heaven
and earth and he created fields and
fruits and vegetables and trees and he
created water and evaporation and
precipitation and rain, he didn't press
start or go. He didn't begin to make it
rain until when? Day six, the creation
of man. Why? Because only when man said,
"Hey, could someone make it rain around
here? Nothing's growing. Nothing's
happening. How do we fill the garden?"
Hashem said, "Good. Now that you asked,
I'm ready to give. I need you to ask."
Not because Hashem has some ego, but he
craves and he wants the relationship.
He's got all kinds of unimaginable
beyond our comprehension blessing
waiting for us. And he's waiting for us
to pour out our hearts to him in order
to transfer it to us. And how it gets
transferred, sometimes we can see
clearly and other times it feels like
he's not transferring it. Where is it?
But he knows what he's doing and how he
does it and he's waiting for us. He's
waiting for us.