Shabbos Parashas Ki Seitzei - 5778

Shabbos Parashas Ki Seitzei - 5778

Rabbi Hal Miller

If you refrain from vowing, there will be no sin in you. [Devarim 23:23]

Rabbeinu Bechaye asks why the Torah had to tell us this. Why would we

think there might be a sin in failing to vow? Perhaps we might not understand

what a vow actually is.

The verse that follows ours tells us, "What emerges from your lips you shall

guard and you shall carry out." So what might emerge from our lips? Our

personal desires, would be a good response. A vow is our own desire for

something, couched in terms of how we would like to think it might be good for

someone else as well. A vow is putting our own will before that of others. But

in Pirkei Avos, we read [2:4] "Treat His will as if it were your own will, so that He

will treat your will as if it were His will. Nullify your will before His will so that He

will nullify the will of others before your will." The first part of this Mishnah could

be seen as supporting our desire to get something we want, but the second part,

nullify your will before His will, tells us that this is wrong.

Ramban points out that those who offer sacrifices that they vowed are in fact

rewarded, that the vow facilitates a mitzvah. What this argument misses is that

someone who brings those voluntary offerings without a vow also receives that

reward. The only difference is that usually we are better rewarded for things we

do that are obligatory than for things that are voluntary, and arguably, the vow

makes this voluntary sacrifice into an obligatory one. But this is not the case.

Nechama Leibowitz says that the Torah is expressing a wish that we not fall into

the position of spontaneous outburst, and thus should avoid vowing. She says,

"Man should not indulge in high-sounding resolutions in earnest of his good

intentions and then, failing their realization, console himself with the thoughts of

altruism that originally prompted him. Thus if one vows and fails, there is sin,

even though the same activity or lack thereof would not have been a sin had he

not vowed.

The Gemora in Nedarim [22a] has an interesting implication. Shmuel said, one who

vows, even if he fulfills his vow, is called wicked. R'Abahu said, from where is this

derived? From "but if you forbear to vow, it will not be a sin in you", which implies

that if you do vow, it will be a sin. The same argument appears later in 77b.

Rav Hirsch writes that making vows is similar to erecting a bama, a private altar,

in a time when such is forbidden, because both actors think they can do something

special for God, beyond what He has commanded. This is yet another example of

what killed Nadav and Avihu, Aharon's two sons who offered a fire offering they

were not commanded to offer.

The Torah gives us lots of commandments. We are supposed to fulfill each and

every one. We are not supposed to expand on the list, even with the best of

intentions. It has become common practice for Jews to use the phrase "bli neder"

(without vowing) whenever they mention something they plan to do. Although this

follows from our verse, it also points back at the person saying it as bordering on

making a vow. We need to keep closer track of our words to make sure that nothing

we say could be confused with making a vow, then the "bli neder" is not necessary.

This is good practice anyway--watch our words, especially in Elul.