790. Be Careful with What Comes Out from Your Lips

“Be careful with what comes out from your lips.” “Remember and keep were said in one utterance.”

“Lips” means Malchut, which is the acceptance of the burden of the kingdom of heaven. This requires great care because acceptance of a burden does not pertain to remembering, for remembering is something that is done with the intellect, while keeping pertains to something that is done in practice, and one must keep oneself from failing in that practice, or he must keep himself so as to observe that practice, or it will be an obstacle to him.

This is the meaning of “what comes out from your lips.” This means that things that the lips utter, meaning whose root comes from faith, need keeping. This pertains to faith, meaning things that faith asserts are regarded as “what comes out from your lips.”

“Remembering” pertains to the quality of Torah, which means light. This is the meaning of “All that there is in keeping, there is also in remembering.”

This means that to the extent that one is in a state of “keeping,” meaning that he has a grip on keeping, which is called “faith,” to that extent he can be rewarded with the light of Torah, called “remember.” One who does not have a grip in the quality of keeping has no attainment in the quality of remembering.