Parashat Shemot - A Powerful Tool

Three times a day we stand before Hashem in prayer, we entreat Hashem for health and prosperity and praise him through the words of our mouth. We begin these tephilot saying, “Hashem sephatai tiphtah uphi yagid tehilatecha” – “Hashem, open my lips and my mouth will utter your praises.” The purpose of this line is to show our understanding of the fear that we should have when talking to Hashem. We are worried that our fear and reverence of the Almighty may suppress our prayers from leaving our mouths, and therefore we ask Hashem to assist us by opening our lips so that we may release our prayers.

Upon finding Moshe, Pharoh’s daughter realized that he was still an infant and needed to be nursed. Rashi tells us that Moshe would not nurse from any of the Egyptian women that Pharoh’s daughter brought him to, and he was not nursed until Moshe’s sister Miriam suggested that he nurse from a Hebrew woman. Moshe was destined to speak with the Shechina and so he could not nurse from the milk of the Egyptian women. In a Gemara in Masechet Sotah (12b) Rashi tells us that Hashem will only teach torah to him who distanced himself from impure milk. The impurity of the milk of the Egyptian women was unfit for a mouth that would later converse with Hashem.

From Moshe we can learn the importance of purity of our mouths. Whether it be drinking impure milk, eating non Kosher, speaking lashon hara, nivul peh, or even just speaking with a negative attitude to another person, we should realize that we are using the same mouth that we use when we pray to Hashem. When we use our mouths improperly our Tephilot appear to be contradictory. How can we take the same tool with which we transgressed Hashem’s commandment by speaking lashon hara and use it to pray to Hashem?

We realize that keeping our mouths pure is an extremely hard task and so we pray to Hashem to open our lips and enable us to utter His praise. Along with the assistance of HaKadosh Baruch Hu we still must make our own efforts to understand that our mouth is meant to be used in the way in which Hashem commanded us to use it. May we all continue to improve our relationships with Hashem by using our mouths properly, and in this zechut may the Mashiah come and utter the words of redemption bimhera beyamenu.