The Highest Function of Man

Our speech is the function that mainly distinguishes man from animal. The spoken word is, or should be, somethink noble, spiritual, Divine.
To defile human speech by obscene and unclean talk means to kill shame and modesty in man.
What did the prophet of Isreal, so many thousands of years ago, declare as the final degradation?
"Every mouth speaks nevailah (obscenity)." (Isaiah 9:16)
The root naval expresses the withering and dying of an organism.
In the moral sphere, the word nevailah indicates the withering and dying of the spirit.

- from Masterplan by Rabbi Aryeh Carmell pg 115


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