It must be pointed out that there are two types of “speech”. There is actual speech and inner speech, which cannot be heard by others. As explained before, when we refer to speech, we are referring to G-d’s speech. For this reason the faculty of speech is called Malchut (Kingdom). When a king speaks it is tantamount to action. When a king says, “Move this mountain”, the mountain moves. However, if a king only desires something in his thought or in his heart but does not express it in speech, he cannot hold anyone accountable for not doing his will. When the king desires something in his mind, this is “Thought of thought” and when he desires something in his heart, this is “Speech of thought”. However, because he did not express it in actual speech, it does not become actualized.
Now, forty days before a child is born, his entire life is determined for him. Every detail of his entire life, who he will marry, where he will live, how much money he will make, even what piece of chicken he will eat on the Shabbat of a certain week of a particular year, has already been determined. Everything came into actual speech and has, therefore, been decreed. However, whether a person will be righteous or wicked is not predetermined, as the Talmud states, “Whether a person will be righteous or wicked, He (G-d) did not say.” It was not brought out into actual speech. Because of this there is the possibility of repentance, for if G-d actually said it, repentance would be impossible.
However, although G-d did not actually speak it, He nonetheless thought it, on the level of “Speech of thought”. This causes a person to have a natural tendency and predisposition toward good or evil. This is evident from the story of Yaakov and Esav. Yaakov was righteous, whereas Esav was wicked. Their father, Yitzchak, favored Esav over Yaakov. The commentaries explain that this was because Esav fooled Yitzchak into believing he was righteous. However, if Esav was righteous, was Yaakov not just as righteous? This being the case, why did Yitzchak favor Esav? The reason is because Yitzchak knew that in thought, G-d had determined that Esav would be wicked and that Yaakov would be righteous. When Esav fooled Yitzchak to think that he too was righteous, Yitzchak regarded him as being much greater than Yaakov for having overcome his natural tendencies, whereas Yaakov already had a natural predisposition toward righteousness. He felt that Esav’s accomplishment was greater and therefore more praiseworthy.
We see that there are two types of speech. There is “Speech of speech”, which is actual speech and there is “Speech of thought”, which is not a revealed speech. When one thinks something in his mind or feels something in his heart, he does not necessarily have to reveal it to others in speech. This is the matter of, “The heart did not reveal it to the mouth.”
In Kabbalah, actual speech is called Dibur, whereas, “Speech of thought” is called Amirah. Now, as explained earlier, the source of actual speech is higher than the source of speech of thought. This can be understood from the verse in the Torah where G-d tells Moshe to speak (Daber) to the men, and to say (Emor) to the women. The reason for the difference in terminology is because of the fact that men relate more to Chochmah whereas women relate more to Binah. (As is known, women were given an additional portion of Binah.)
