The Most Unique Mechanism of Humans

Immense resources are invested each year in an attempt to solve the greatest puzzle of all: the mystery of creation.

Man and earth, skies and seas. Expanses of grass, low shrubs, and towering evergreen trees. Stunning flowers - some fragrant, others predatory. Swarming insects, flying birds, others creeping, walking, or swimming. And in the cosmos, millions of suns, galaxies, and stars...

How was the universe created, and what is the secret of the wonderful harmony within it? Are there defined codes common to all that are the secret of existence? If there is indeed a hidden cipher in our world, can it be discovered?

In the oldest Kabbalistic book, Sefer Yetzirah, it is explained that the universe was created with... letters!

This principle is also the foundation on which the Zohar is based, according to which the twenty-two Hebrew letters are the formula composing all parts and details of the universe, through different combinations of the letters, and this is also the secret of man's name and its influence on the person.

This, of course, requires explanation. But let us first begin by contemplating the articulation of the letters - the essence of speech itself.

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Numerous, complex, and wondrous mechanisms combine to create the human body - that intricately structured organism filled with ingenious miniature systems: an imaging system for environmental recognition, a mechanism for sound reception, information storage cells, lever and movement systems, scent absorption, taste diagnostics, anti-bacterial defense systems, genetic codes hidden within every cell, and more.

And what is the most unique and wondrous system of all??

Amazingly, a deep, objective examination will reveal that it is precisely the mechanism of speech that we take for granted and almost never consider as having something special - that is the most unique and wondrous human trait. This mechanism grants us the extraordinary and human-exclusive ability to speak in words, operating through a complex system capable of creating diverse syllable sounds from breath escaping the mouth, combining them into meaningful words that join into sentences with imbued thoughts and ideas. Additionally, this magical mechanism is based on a higher ability, also exclusive to humanity – thinking in meaningful words.

Without these wondrous systems, we would all communicate as animals do, solely through grunts and body movements. There would be no conversation with words, no expression of thoughtful ideas, nor any writing. As without words, there are no sentences and no writing. In such a situation, we would have no means to transfer and receive complex information. We would not be able to educate and be educated properly in morals and character improvement, nor engage in any cooperative activities through conversation. In other words: without speech, we would be like all other animals.

Indeed, in his book "The Origin of Humankind," researcher Richard Leakey writes that after discovering animals capable of creating tools, using symbols, and even recognizing their reflection in the mirror - "only the human-exclusive ability of speech remained untouched. Thus, linguists are the final defenders of human uniqueness."

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Yet, the big question remains open: How does an exhalation of air turn into words and sentences imbued with thought? What is the source of this extraordinary ability in humans? Though speech becomes second nature, and we take it for granted, if we distance ourselves momentarily from this habit, we uncover an enormous enigma filled with wonders. Firstly, the very ability to think in words (!) with meaning, generating new ideas through them and expanding understanding across all branches of wisdom and sciences - a capability unseen in any animal. Additionally, the ability to move mouth parts serving for eating: teeth, lips, and tongue, in a special technique creating all necessary phonetic sounds from the air exhaled from the respiratory tract; connecting them into words and sentences carrying a message, and transmitting them through the air to another's ear - a complex organ designed to perfectly capture sound wave vibrations in the air, converting them into a brain-received message.

Even various animals typically produce phonetic sounds. However, each naturally emits only certain letters. For example, the rooster: the letters K, R. The ox: letters M, O. The sheep: letters M, H. The bird: letters Tz, F. The snake: the letter S. In contrast, humans are the only beings naturally capable of emitting the sounds of all letters, collectively forming comprehensible speech. This impressive and unique ability also requires explanation.

After this lengthy introduction, let's proceed to explain these matters according to Jewish sources.

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According to the mystical teachings, the ability to speak words does not belong to the material, physical world of the body (like eating and drinking), but to the spiritual system of the supernal soul.

This explains the Torah's statement that man is the only creature created somewhat resembling its Creator. As it is written, "And He created man in His image, in the image of Hashem He created him." Clearly, this does not imply physical resemblance, but similarity in the two abilities distinguishing humans from all other creations, in which they resemble their Creator, namely: the abilityof choice, and the ability of speech. Obviously, divine speech is unlike human speech. The creator is not a body and has no likeness to any body. Rather, the expression of divine will is equivalent to speech for us. Our speech is a tangible and gross metaphor for divine speech ('will' is equivalent to speech in thought, while the expression of will is speech in words. 'Statement' is the tip of thought, like the 'tree's branch' is the tree's tip, and 'the garment's hem' is its edge). Similar expressions appear in the Torah on other topics, such as "A land which Hashem your God is constantly watching over," meaning everlasting vigilance, without physical eyes. And: "And My anger will be kindled against them on that day," indicating the execution of judgment.

Just as the creator formed creation by His will through expressed speech - as detailed in the Torah's Genesis chapter - so He endowed man, the crown of creation, with the extraordinary ability not present in the shallow world of other living beings - to think in words and speak. Unlike animals, who belong to the natural world, thought and speech belong to the spiritual realm, the world of the soul. Therefore, humans, who received a soul created in the image of Hashem, possess this divine and wondrous ability inherent in their soul. Indeed, like divine speech, human speech is capable of creating reality, as further explained.

Thus, in the elucidation of the verse on human creation: "And Hashem God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul," Onkelos translates "and breathed into his nostrils the soul of life, and man became a speaking spirit". Meaning, the breath of life became a speaking spirit in man. Thus, when the Torah states that with the entry of the soul into the body, man became a "living soul," it means he became a "speaking spirit." Because what distinguishes man from other animals is the high soul he received, which is manifested in the ability of speech, originating solely in the soul. This wondrous spiritual ability is where the human soul resembles its Creator.

Therefore, mankind, placed at the peak of creation’s makeup: mineral, botanical, and animate, is called "speaking".

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