The Exile of Speech

Abstract The rabbis considered that a ‘pathology of speech’ in humans brought about the Biblical Flood. Lockdown has reminded us of new threats to our future. In the language of science, positivist certainties have given way to quantum probabilities, often expressed reductively as data. The data-driven society maintains the illusion of individual freedom, while concentrating power in the hands of the few, subjecting the diversity of the many to a standardised norm. The sages also sought to apply a single rule for all, but honoured diversity by training in the art of making careful distinctions. Recent neurological research views the brain as formed by the bodily needs of survival and the common culture of the group. The evolution of language is better understood as the application of conceptual metaphor to the governance of individual and community. This fits well with the rabbis’ understanding of how the misuse of language endangers our collective well-being.