What does “where there are many words, wrongdoing is never lacking” mean?
By Rabbi Shalom Landau.
Rabbi Landau explains King Solomon’s verse “B’rov devarim lo yechdal pesha, v’chosech sefasav maskil” as practical advice about speech. Problems aren’t solved with more speech, he says, and “if you stop your lips, you’re going to become wise.”
In A Soul at Peace, he notes that the two halves of the verse mirror each other. Many words bring wrongdoing, not only in saying something forbidden, but as a general rule. And it is from the one who holds back his lips that wisdom comes out.
The reason, he explains, is simple economics. When you speak constantly, listeners have to filter the noise to find your point; when you speak rarely, they treat every word as a signal. Silence, in his words, “isn’t weakness. It’s authority.”
Related concepts: Noise is not intelligence · The influence you already have
In A Soul at Peace: The Wisdom of Holding Back Your Words
Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level
Surface claim
Many words lead to harm; restrained speech brings wisdom.
Deepest human truth
Silence is not the opposite of speech. As Rabbi Landau writes, it is what gives speech its weight.
More questions from this teaching
More answers: Wisdom, Perception, and the Inner Life · All questions · Questions about Rabbi Landau and Rivnitz