Mattot - Numbers 30:2-32:42

I Solemnly Swear...

There are two words most commonly translated as "swear" or "vow" that used to have different implications but are today treated as though they are the same.

In the Torah, a shavua is an oath that changes the halcachic status of an object. For example, "I hereby make a shavua that chocolate is forbidden to me for a month." In this case, while chocolate is OK to consume, normally, now it is forbidden, and to violate that vow would result in corporal punishment. This is similar to someone who becomes a nazir, who makes a shavua to cause the components of grapes (the juice, fruit, and even the skins) to be forbidden.

Rabbinically, the process of making a shavua requires one to hold a Torah scroll and make the vow before witnesses. In the Torah, such a form would be an anachronism (a Torah scroll, one that contains all five books, never existed during the time of the stories).

In the Torah,a neder is a vow, although in general use, a neder is part of common speech as an expression of a simple "promise". In Jewish communities it is common to hear such expressions as, "I'll be at your house at noon, bli neder", and the ending expression means "that's not a promise". While that may seem to be an odd way to agree to something, it's pretty common usage.

Part of this avoidance of making promises comes with what an oath, or a shavua is, both the Rabbinical form as well as the Biblical form. Since violating a shavua (or a neder) can result in some very painful ramifications, this avoidance has filtered into the mindset of Jews, even though there is no longer a physical punishment.

But can you break an oath without being punished?

According to the Torah, if you are a girl who lives at home, or if you are engaged or married, then your male guardian can annul the oath if he doesn't want it to take effect. However, he has to do it on the day that it was said by the girl or woman. Keep in mind that the girl or woman was considered property, and so the owner has the right to annul the oath of his property.

But what about men?

According to this week's parasha, there is no annulling of a vow, and this bothered the Rabbis. It bothered them for several reasons.

The first is that if you make a vow to climb Mount Everest, and you realize a couple of years later that you are never really going to do it, and you die before you ever attempt it, you have broken your vow. This is a grave sin and it will affect your stay in Gehinnom (purgatory), your reward in the "World to Come", and your being judged at the "End of Days".

So the Rabbis reinterpreted verse 30:3, which reads: 

"If a man makes a neder to Yahweh, or he makes a shavua to make a prohibition upon himself, he shall not yacheil his word; according to whatever comes from his mouth, he shall do."

Rashi interpreted yacheil as "that which profanes", so he would read it as "and he will not profane his word", meaning, keeping one's word is a sacred duty. Other's, such as Onkelos and the Jewish sages, saw the word to mean "nullify", as in "and he will not nullify his word", meaning, one cannot undo a vow.

However...

They interpreted that to mean, "If it says that one will not nullify, then that must mean that there is a way to nullify!"

The Ramban agreed with the sages who held differently than Rashi, and indicated that te method of nullifying were only given to the elders, because if it was given to the people, then nobody would keep their word, or they would treat their word lightly.

And this is why most Synagogues,on the eve of Yom Kippur, have this ceremony to nullify ones vows, so that if God ("He who chooses who will live, and who will die") chooses death, then these unfulfilled vows won't count.

This ceremony is Rabbinical, and requires that there be at least one Torah scholar in the court of three (and some say four) who will hear the group chant a text that was prepared many centuries ago for just such an occasion.

And there you have it.

Out of misogynistic view of women, they had a way out of a vow. And the sages, wanting the same for men, came up with a creative alternative to break one's vows as well.

Speaking of vows and testifying (which is related to the word "testicle"), let me leave you with this one verse from Genesis: