The Peleh Yoetz relates a frightening story about a Jewish comedian who spent his life on stages telling off-colored and inappropriate jokes. When he was an older man he lay in a comatose state dying from his final illness, with the Chevra Kadisha (group of individuals that tend to the needs of the dead) sitting around his bed awaiting the inevitable. All of a sudden the man sat up with a start and began to scream wildly, "Get away from me! Can’t you see them coming to drag me away? They’re going to tear me to pieces. Their running and waving pockets of fire at me, they want to destroy me for all the terrible things I’ve said!" The Chevra Kadisha tried to calm him but he was completely out of control. Finally after a few minutes he sank back into his comatose state, immobile as before.
    During the next three days, as people came to visit him he would scream horrifying threats at them too, "Don’t think you are going to get away from it! They’ll punish you too; you should have stopped me from saying all those jokes." To others he screamed, "You paid to come hear me say all those sinful jokes, they’ll get you too." On the third day he finally passed away and was buried.
    Yaakov stood before Yitzchak after he had been sent by his mother Rivkah to precede Eisav and receive the holy blessings that Yitzchak wanted to give. Rivkah dressed Yaakov in Eisav’s special skins and sent him to Yitzchak with a specially prepared meal. Yaakov walked in and gently approached Yitzchak and with tremendous respect and reverence said that he had come to receive the blessings. Yitzchak heard the sweet and respectful tone of voice and was confused. He knew it was not the way of Eisav to speak so politely. He drew Yaakov close and felt the roughness of his hands and stated, (27:22) "Hakol kol Yaakov v’haydayim yidei Eisav- The voice is the voice of Yaakov and the hands are the hands of Eisav."
    The commentators are troubled by Yaakov’s behavior. Why did he indeed not change his manner of speech to speak with the gruffness of Eisav? Yaakov risked having his mask nearly exposed; would it not have been simpler to speak like Eisav for a few moments and not plant any doubt in Yitzchak’s mind?
    Rabbi Moshe Feinstein zt’l explains that Yaakov could not bring himself to speak in the vulgar manner of Eisav even for a few moments. Yaakov would not even entertain the thought of having his pure mouth speak in the disrespectful manner that Eisav was so accustomed to, even with the threat of receiving a curse instead of a blessing.
    
    The statement of Yitzchak was more than a mere comment of confusion. Yitzchak was also relating the secret to the descendants of Yaakov to defeat the descendants of Eisav in all future generations. The word "Hakol" is written without the letter ‘vov’ so that it can also be read as "Hakal-it is light". Thus, the pasuk is stating, "If the voice of Yaakov is light/weak, then the hands of Eisav will be strong". As long as Klal Yisroel davens to Hashem and seeks His assistance in all facets of life, we are untouchable and protected. But when we become lax in these areas, Hashem grants the hands of Eisav power to oppress us, to remind us that we have forgotten our role and purpose.
    At times we wonder why our prayers are not as potent as we might expect. [Though Chazal say no prayer ever goes unanswered, we know that certain prayers have greater potency than others depending on the concentration and purity of the person praying.] I once heard a humorous but powerful parable that helps shed some light on this perplexity.
    There was once a woman who was preparing for a Shabbos Kiddush she was hosting in her home after davening. Among all the other dishes and delicacies she was preparing, she decided that she wanted to make a truffle. The only problem was that making a truffle requires a certain type of round bowl and she could not find one. She frantically called her neighbors, friends, and acquaintances but no one owned such a bowl.
    That Shabbos at the Kiddush, her neighbor was shocked to see a magnificent truffle sitting in the middle of the cake table. While eating a piece, she walked over to the hostess and asked her how she was able to make the truffle without the necessary bowl. Her neighbor smiled and replied, "Well you know I was really dejected when I realized I wasn’t going to be able to make the truffle. While I was moping around my house, I spotted my three-year-old son’s potty sitting on the floor. I picked it up, examined it, and realized it was the perfect size and shape for a truffle. I washed it out a bit and with some effort, presto! I had my truffle." The neighbor’s smile faded quickly. She spit out what was in her mouth and ran out of the house in horror.
    Although we may daven with tremendous emotion and concentration, which undoubtedly adds tremendous potency to our prayers, we still may be lacking a great deal from the potency our prayers could attain. For though we may presenting a beautiful truffle of prayer to Hashem, we are using our mouths that are often no less than potties, in that they speak unkind words, inappropriate words, and Loshon Hora, and that is the vessel used to create those prayers.
    
    When Klal Yisroel were on their way out of Egypt during the exodus, the pasuk states (Shemos 11:7), "Ul’chol B’nei Yisroel lo yecheratz kelev l’shono- And to all of the B’nai Yisroel a dog did not bark its tongue." The Kotzker Rebbe explained the pasuk homiletically by reading the word "kelev" as "kilayv-like the heart". Thus the pasuk is stating a hidden message that for all Jews, the tongue barks what the heart is feeling. This means that the topics one speaks about and the words he chooses to use reflect his true essence and what he really feels deep down.
    A Jew must be wary that his mouth is his key to the greatest spiritual treasures. Therefore he cannot speak the way others do. For the essence of a Jew is the power in his voice and the purity in which he speaks.