7. So even lifeless things, like the flute or harp, if they do not articulate a distinction in the notes, how will it be known what is being played on the flute or on the harp?
8. Indeed, if a shofar gives an unclear trumpet call, who will prepare himself for krav (battle)? [BAMIDBAR 10:9; YIRMEYAH 4:19]
9. So also unless you by your lashon (tongue) render an intelligible dvar Torah, how will the thing being uttered be known? For you will be merely speaking into the air.
10. There are doubtless many kinds of foreign languages in the Olam Hazeh, and not one is meaningless.
11. If, therefore, I do not have da'as of the meaning of the language, I will be to the speaker a foreigner and the speaker will be a foreigner to me. [BERESHIS 11:7]
12. So also you, als (since) you have a zeal for the matanot of the Ruach Hakodesh, endeavor to abound in them for the edification of the Kehillah (Congregation).
13. Therefore, the speaker in a lashon (tongue), let him offer tefillos that he may give the pitron (interpretation).
14. For if I daven (pray) in a lashon, my nashamah davens, but my sikhliyut (rationality) lies shemitah (fallow).
15. Nu? (Well?) I will daven [in leshonot] with my nashamah, and I will daven also with my seichel; I will sing [in leshonot] with my nashamah, and I will sing niggunim also with my seichel.
16. Otherwise, if you make a bracha [in leshonot] with your neshamah, how will the am ha'aretz, who have no idea what you are saying, answer the "Omein"? [DEVARIM 27:15:26; DIVREY HAYAMIM ALEF 16:36; NECHEMYAH 8:6; TEHILLIM 106:48]
17. For indeed you make the bracha well enough, but the other is not being edified.
18. Modeh Ani Hashem that I speak in leshonot more than all of you,
19. but in kehillah I want to speak five words with my sikhliyut (rationality), that also others I may instruct with a dvar hora'ah (word of teaching), rather than speak ten thousand words in a lashon (tongue).
20. Achim b'Moshiach, be not yeladim in your machsh'vot (thoughts); be infantile in kavvanah ra'ah (malice), perhaps, but in your binah, be mature. [YIRMEYAH 4:22]
21. In the Torah it stands written, KI BELA'AGEI SAFAH UVELASHON ACHERET YEDABER EL HAAM HAZEH...V'LO AVU SHMO'A ("Then with ones of foreign lip and with strange tongue he will speak to this people... but they were not willing to listen" --YESHAYAH 28:11-12), says the L-rd.
22. So then the leshonot (tongues) are for an ot (miraculous sign), not to the ones believing, the ma'aminim in Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, but an ot (miraculous sign) to the Apikorosim; but divrei hanevu'ah (words of prophecy) are not for the Apikorosim, but for the ones believing, the ma'aminim in Moshiach.
23. If, therefore, the kehillah has a farbrengen gathering and all speak in leshonot (tongues), and then in walks the am ha'aretz or the Apikorosim, will they not say that you are all meshuggah?
24. However, if all speak forth divrei hanevu'ah (words of prophecy), and then in walks some Apikorosim or am ha'aretz, such a visitor is brought under conviction by all, he is brought into mishpat (judgment) by all,
25. What is hiding in his lev (heart) becomes manifest, and, having fallen on his face, he worships Hashem, declaring that G-d is among you (Zech 8:23; Isa 45:14; Dan 2:47).
26. Nu? Well? Achim b'Moshiach, when you come together, each one has a mizmor (hymn, psalm), a musar (teaching with an ethical point), a dvar hisgalus (a dvar of revelation), a lashon (tongue), or a pitron (interpretation) of a lashon (tongue); let all things be for edification.