Through the mouth of the upright You are exalted; And with the lips of the righteous You are blessed; And by the tongue of the pious You are sanctified; And among the holy You are extolled. In the assemblies of the myriads of Your people, the House of Israel. For it is the duty of all beings, before You, Adonai, our God and God of our ancestors to thank, to extol, and to praise; to glorify, to exalt and to honor; to laud, even beyond words of song and praise of David, son of Yishai. Your servant, Your anointed.148, A Sephardic Daily and Shabbat Siddur by Hazan Isaac Azose (Seattle, 2002) Through the mouth of the upright You are exalted: This alludes to an important ethical teaching: one who makes his mouth and tongue impure with forbidden foods and forbidden language such as gossip, falsehood, obscenity, mockery, and the like. Also, one who lays an ambush in the heart of others, (Jer. 9:7) walking in darkness with evil thoughts, arrogance and hatred and similar qualities is not fit to praise God because his mouth and tongue and his guts are evil and abominable weapons which are impure. How can one serve God with holiness and praise when he speaks with scorn and blasphemy and then comes before God with song and praise. A person who speaks with obscenity cannot speak holy words when his lips are burning with the demonic realm. Such a person cannot speak to the King of Glory when his inner being is filled with such filth149 in ilicite thought. How can such a person come close to God? Regarding such a person, we say, “Through the mouth of the upright,” that is, a person with a sweet and gentle mouth. For the upright are humble, as is said, “One might have thought that one who speaks words of Torah has the right to be arrogant. Therefore, the verse states: “Judge with equity [meisharim] the sons of men.”150 Thus, “In the mouths of the upright” means, the humbles whose words are all good and gentle. “You shall be exalted,” means that with their mouths they can elevate God’s blessed name. With the lips of the righteous, for the lips of the righteous person knows the will of the Creator and that which is fitting in their mouths. And the tongues of the pious, are holy and fit to speak of holy matters. A pure tongue is holy and it can sanctify God’s name with songs and praise. And among the holy. Because holiness dwells within their inner being, they are freed from the vanities of the world and its ugliness. Also the word bikerev, “among”, means in the community of the holy ones, You shall be praised. Those who strive to be holy will take this to heart so that their hearts are torn into twelve parts. Then the heart of the individual will be turned and their conscience darkened for is not the tongue the tool of service connecting human beings and God, so to speak? It is with his tongue that a person prays, studies and blesses God. Most of a Jew’s service in this bitter exile is with the tongue both day and night, until midnight. How can a person sully himself in the streets, speaking forbidden things like worthless people, longing to speak gossip and reveal the blemishes of others. And even more, trying to release his tongue against the sages of the generation, tearing apart those who fear God… One way or another, his tongue is quick to speak foolishness and falsehood, filling his mouth with jest. While he conducts business he is full of lies and he uses deception to ensnare his customers. He fires arrows at the buyer to capture them so he can ensnare them. He does not realize that he is destroying himself so that at the end of the day people will know that his tongue is impure from all sorts of impurities. In the end his tongue makes his body like a piece of treif meat for he is becomes senseless,151 - senseless and Neveilah - an animal carcass he becomes impure and an abomination and disgusting! How can one possibly serve God with this polluted tool? How can such a person pray to God? Certainly his prayer would be like offensive incense (Is. 1:13) offered with a utensil that is made detestable! Rabbi Moses Alshekh152. His major field of interest was halakhah but, acceding to requests to preach on Sabbaths, in the course of preparing his sermons he occupied himself also with Bible exegesis. (JE) writes about this at length in his homilies. Therefore, one should quickly confess his transgressions and promise to be careful going forward. He should cleanse his tongue with regret and with humility he should heal himself with Torah, as it says, “A healing tongue is a tree of life, but a devious one makes for a broken spirit.” (Pro. 15:4) Then he will be able to approach God with offerings and serve God with a pure utensil made of the finest God, which is righteousness,

This also alludes to communal leaders.153 We have heard about this problem in the villages in cities around Poland. Rabbis of Poland including the author of Tevu’at Shor154, a digest of the laws of ritual slaughter – sheḥitah and terefot – with an extensive commentary entitled Tevu'ot Shor. " (JE) (Masechet Taanit, P. 116) and in Sefer Kav Hayashar155 (lit. The Just Measure) authored by Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kaidanover (1648–1712), is one of the most popular works of musar literature of the last 300 years. The title of the work alludes to the number of chapters it contains (קב = 102), as well as the author's name הישר = הירש ]First published in 1705 in Frankfurt am Main, it has appeared in over 80 editions, in nearly every country in the world. It was famous for uplifting the spirits of Jewish communities in Europe after the Chmelnitsky Massacres of 1648-1649. (Wikipedia) writes about this problem at length. We have seen what was said above about the average person, then what can we say about such leaders? When he approaches as an intermediary between God and the people, he does so with weapons from the demonic realm. He causes the multitude of Jews, stragglers of Israel ((Deut. 25:18) to fail who depend on him. Woe to such a leader and woe to his soul. He takes an oath while taking from the communal funds since he is the communal emissary. Rather than bringing merit to his community, he stirs them up like coals. His prayers fly to the impure air of the demonic realm, and as a result the community is misled both within and without. He steals their souls and their money as he fills his hands with silver and gold coins from the general holy community. While serving them he mocks the community because his prayers and reading is misleading towards the Sitra Achra, the demonic, for it is marked by his impurity and his disdainful and despicable language/tongue. He is a broken utensil,156, utensil, is also used to describe synagogue leaders who are sometimes referred to as Kelei Kodesh. that is disgusting and filthy. It is a utensil without blessing since he steals their money and their souls, leaving them empty without either a voice or meaning. This is alluded to when one says, “Through the mouths of the upright You shall be exalted.” This refers to religious leaders who serve communities of thousands of Your people, the house of Israel. They are upright, righteous, pious and holy whose mouths praise God, the King of kings of kings, the blessed Holy One. For, it is the duty of all beings, before You, Adonai, our God and God of our ancestors to give thanks. But not everyone who wishes to take the Name of God can do so. Therefore, there arise in the community people who are wholehearted and upright…who can give thanks and praise on behalf of the community. There is an allusion to this in the language, Through the mouths of the upright. The names Isaac and Rebecca are encoded in the prayer to be frontlets before our eyes. Isaac and Rebecca poured out their prayers with richness but they acted with humility and a broken heart before God. And if Isaac and Rebecca did so, so that the Holy One desired their prayers by pouring out their prayers with prostrations and devotion, what can we say? It is fitting to learn a lesson from them - that we should lift up our hearts toward God in heaven just as Isaac and Rebecca did so that God heard and answered them and their prayers bore fruit.