פירוש: כי הנה התהוות אותיות הדבור היוצאות מה׳ מוצאות הפה אינה דבר מושכל

This means: The formation of the letters of speech which proceed from the five organs of articulation15 is not an intellectual process.

The letters do not emanate from the soul as a result of any intellectual imperative.

ולא מוטבע בטבע מוצאות הללו להוציא מבטא האותיות

It is also not inherent in the nature of these organs [that they must] pronounce the letters

על ידי ההבל והקול המכה בהן

— by means of the breath and the sound that strikes them —

על פי דרך הטבע, ולא על פי דרך השכל

by either a natural faculty or by an intellectual faculty.

כגון השפתיים, על דרך משל, שאותיות בומ״פ יוצאות מהן

With the lips, for example, by means of which the letters beit, vav, mem and pei are uttered,

Since the lips are the most visible of the organs of speech, the Alter Rebbe chooses for his example the letters which they form; one can readily see that pronouncing these letters is impelled neither by the nature of the lips themselves nor by the faculty of intellect.

אין הטבע ולא השכל נותן ליציאת מבטא ארבע חלקי שינויי ביטוי אותיות אלו על פי שינויי תנועת השפתים

neither nature nor the intellect compels the utterance of the four varying types of pronunciation of these letters in accordance with variations in the movement of the lips,

שמתנוענעות בהבל אחד וקול אחד, הפוגע בהן בשוה

which are moved by the same breath and the same sound that strikes them equally.

Since the letter beit and the letter vav, for example, are both formed by the same breath and the same sound, the distinction between them must be made by the movements of the lips: when the letter beit is pronounced the lips are pursed in one way and when the letter vav is pronounced they are pursed differently. This being so, one would expect that it would take a conscious mental effort to move the lips in one specific manner to pronounce the letter beit and in another specific manner to pronounce the letter vav.16 Alternatively, if it were dependent on nature, the speaker would naturally want to move his lips in the different ways necessary for the formation of one letter or the other.

ואדרבה, שינוי התנועות שבשפתים הוא לפי שינוי ביטוי האותיות שברצון הנפש לבטא בשפתים

On the contrary: the change in the movements of the lips depends on the difference in pronunciation of the letters the soul wishes to utter by means of the lips,

כרצונה לומר אות ב׳ או ו׳ או מ׳ או פ׳

when it desires to pronounce the letter beit, or vav, or mem, or pei, and the lips will instinctively and spontaneously move accordingly.

ולא להיפך, שיהיה רצון הנפש וכונתה לעשות שינוי תנועות השפתים

It is not the other way around, that it is the will and intention of the soul to make a change in the motions of the lips

כמו שהן מתנענעות עתה בביטויי ד׳ אותיות אלו

as they are moving now in the utterance of these four letters.

וכנראה בחוש, שאין הנפש מתכוונת ויודעת לכוין כלל שינוי תנועות השפתים בשינויים אלו

As is empirically evident, the soul does not at all intend or know how to intend the change in the motions of the lips [which articulate] those distinctions [between the various letters].

Since the soul neither intends nor even knows how to direct the lips to move in the manner required to form particular letters, it is obviously the mere desire to utter certain letters that results in the automatic movement of the lips in the appropriate manner.

ויותר נראה כן בביטוי הנקודות

This is even more evident with the pronunciation of the vowels.

שכשהנפש רצונה להוציא מפיה נקודת קמץ, אזי ממילא נקמצים השפתים

For when the soul wishes to utter the kamatz vowel, the lips spontaneously become compressed,

ובפתח נפתחים השפתים

and with the patach vowel the lips open17 — of their own accord,

ולא שרצון הנפש לקמוץ ולא לפתוח כלל וכלל

and not at all because of the will of the soul to compress or to open [them].

ואין להאריך בדבר הפשוט ומובן ומושכל לכל משכיל

There is no need to go any further into a matter which is simple, comprehensible, and intelligible to every intelligent person,

שמבטא האותיות והנקודות הוא למעלה מהשכל המושג ומובן

namely, that the pronunciation of the letters and vowels transcends the apprehended and comprehended intellect,

אלא משכל הנעלם וקדמות השכל שבנפש המדברת

but rather derives from the hidden intellect, and the primordial stage of the intellect which is in the articulate soul.

ולכן אין התינוק יכול לדבר, אף שמבין הכל

This is why an infant cannot speak, even though it understands everything, for speech does not result from revealed and apprehended intellect, but from the more rarefied “hidden intellect” which in the infant has yet to be developed.

We thus see that the letters of speech derive from Chochmah. This, then, is the meaning of “the ‘father’ who founded the ‘daughter’”: Chochmah is the “father” or source of the letters of speech, which are called the “daughter”, or the Sefirah of Malchut.

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