The Male Vow
30: 1-2
The male vow DIG: What is the difference between a vow and an oath (to see link click Fi – The Fulfillment of Oaths and Vows)? Why should vows be quickly fulfilled? How does a person swear falsely today? What does Yeshua say about making a vow or taking an oath?
REFLECT: How do you feel when someone breaks their word to you? Why? Why is speech so powerful? Why is speaking the truth and keeping your word so essential? Why do you think God places so much importance on vows? What does that say about God and His promises?
Parashah 42: Matot (Tribes) 30:1 to 32:42
(See my commentary on Deuteronomy, to see link click Af – Parashah)
[In regular years read with Parashah 43, in leap years read separately]
The Key People are Moshe, tribal heads, Midianites, Israelites, Phinehas, the kings of Midian, Balaam, Eleazar, army officers, Levites, Reubenites, Gadites, Joshua, family leaders, the half-tribe of Manasseh, Amorites, Bashan Machirites, Jair and Nobah.
The Scenes include Midianite towns, Mo’av, the Tabernacle, Jazer, Gilead, the list of captured towns, the kingdoms of Sihon and Og, the towns rebuilt in the east, Havvoth Jair and Nenath/Nobah.
The Main Events include mitzvot about husband/wife, father/daughter vows, slaying Midianites and Balaam, dividing plunder, no casualties, the gift of gold, the request for grazing territory east of the Jordan, the warning not to discourage conquest, the tribe of Gad’s pledge to help fight in the west and the land granted to the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, east of the Jordan River.
The principal for today is that vows and oaths are meant to be kept,
because we are ambassadors of the Messiah (Second Corinthians 5:20).
This section was probably placed here because vows were mentioned at the end of the previous chapter: You are to offer these to ADONAI at your appointed times in addition to your vows and voluntary offerings (29:39a). This connection is further strengthened by the fact that the payment of vows generally took the form of an offering: whether these are your ‘Olah Offerings, Grain Offerings, Drink Offerings or Peace Offerings (29:39b).687 The subject of making vows is dealt with quite frequently in the Scriptures (Leviticus 5:4-6, 7:16-18, 22:17-25 and 27:1-19; Numbers 6:1-21 and 15:1-10; Deuteronomy 12:11 and 17; Psalm 66:13-15; Malachi 1:14 and Matthew 5:33-37).
Vows and Oaths (Numbers 30:1-2): Moses said to the heads of the tribes of Isra’el, saying: This is what ADONAI commands: When a man makes a vow (Hebrew: neder for a positive vow, to do something) to the LORD or takes an oath (Hebrew: shevu’ah) to obligate himself by a pledge (Hebrew: ‘issar for a negative vow, to keep from doing something), he must not violate (Hebrew: yachel, meaning to pollute or defile the sacred) his word by failing to fulfill it, but shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. These mitzvot are traditionally interpreted to mean that any utterance should be regarded as binding in a vow-like formula. For example, “If such-and-such happens, I’ll eat my hat.” The standards of Torah would suggest that if “such-and-such” did happen, that person should look into getting a new hat. The command to do according to all that goes out from your lips requires that we fulfill every obligation that we have spoken, whether it is an oath, a vow, a promise or just a statement (to see link click Fi – The Fulfillment of Vows and Oaths).
As a precaution, traditional Jews often hedge their statements with plenty of “God willing” and “B’li Neder,” which means “without an oath.” For example, “When I am feeling a little better, God willing, I will wash the car, b’li neder.” The “God willing” acknowledges ADONAI’s sovereign hand in our affairs. The “b’li neder” recognizes that even our best laid plans often go astray.
The mitzvot regarding keeping one’s vows, oaths and utterances teaches us about the nature of the Holy One. If He commands us to be true to our every word, even those words spoken casually, then He is certainly true to His own Word. He has spoken, He cannot disobey His Word, reverse it or abolish it (see The Life of Christ Dg – The Fulfillment of the Torah). His integrity is absolute. Unlike mankind, there is no disconnect between the utterance of God’s mouth and God Himself. A man may say words that are not true, but every word spoken by our Lord is the very truth of the Father. His Divine Word cannot be understood as something separate from Him. The morning prayers of Baruch SheAmar declare, “Blessed is He Who speaks and does; Blessed is He Who decrees and fulfills; Blessed is He Who has mercy on earth . . . who lives forever and endures to eternity; Blessed is He who redeems and rescues – Blessed is His Name!688
Dear Heavenly Father, Praise You that every word spoken by You is true and totally trustworthy. What a comfort it is for me to look up lovingly to my heavenly Father and see a completely trustworthy Father who always keeps His word and who always is right there by my side, ready to help and to guide me. For God Himself has said: I will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5c). Thank you for Your promise to give the righteousness of Messiah to those who love you so they may be able to enter heaven to live with you eternally. He made the One who knew no sin to become a sin offering on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (Second Corinthians 5:21).
What a costly and precious gift You gave! How wonderful Your promise of mercy and compassion to those who fear You. He has not treated us according to our sins, or repaid us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His mercy for those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so ADONAI has compassion on those who fear Him (Psalms 103:10-13). What a wonderful and trustworthy heavenly Father You are, who always keeps all His promises! I love You and desire to live my life pleasing You. In Messiah Yeshua’s holy Name and power of His resurrection. Amen
Fulfilling one’s vows quickly (Deuteronomy 23:21-23 and Ecclesiastes 5:4): The Bible makes it clear that we are under no obligation to make a vow. If, however, we do make a vow, we must be quick to pay it. Tardiness in fulfilling the vow is regarded as a sin. When you make a vow to ADONAI your God, you are not to delay in fulfilling it, for ADONAI your God will certainly demand it of you, and your failure to do so will be your sin. If you choose not to make a vow at all, that will not be a sin for you; but if a vow passes your lips, you must take care to perform it according to what you voluntarily vowed to ADONAI your God, what you promised in words spoken aloud (see the commentary on Deuteronomy Eg – Keep Your Word). According to Ecclesiastes 5:4, delaying payment of a vow is something only a fool would do: When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it; for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow! This commandment is certainly applicable to us. We might vow to give a certain amount of money to a particular ministry, or promise to do a certain thing for the Lord. When we do, we should fulfill it quickly.
The Sages teach that when a person who made a vow to bring a sacrifice or gift to the Temple and leaves it unfilled has transgressed the commandment once the three pilgrimage festivals have passed by (see the commentary on Exodus Eh – Three Times a Year Celebrate a Festival to Me). The extra time was allowed for the person vowing a sacrifice because he would not have the opportunity to fulfill the vow until he went up to the Temple. The pilgrimage feasts afforded him three such opportunities.
However, in the case of one who has vowed to give to charity, he is obligated to give it as soon as possible. Raba said, “If a person vows to give alms to the poor, he is required to do so immediately. What is the reason? Because the poor are standing in waiting.” That much might appear to be obvious, but a person might think that, since charity is mentioned in the passage dealing with offerings, the alms need not be paid until the three pilgrimage festivals have elapsed, as in the case of offerings . . . The sacrificial offerings are dependent on the festivals, but giving charity is not, for the poor are waiting (b.Rosh Ha’Shanah 6a).
Like all the commandments, the prohibition on tardiness when paying a vow teaches us about the very nature of God. The mitzvah is a reflection of the nature of its Author. For it certainly seems like Ha’Shem is often tardy in keeping His promises and covenant oaths, but if that were so, then He could not issue a mitzvah which tells us to be prompt with the same. The Apostle Peter reminds us: The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (Second Peter 3:9). In fact, ADONAI will fulfill all of His vows to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob before the three pilgrimage festivals have passed. The Feast of the Passover was fulfilled by the death of Messiah; the Feast of Shavu’ot was fulfilled by the birth of the Church and the great harvest was begun; and the Feast of Sukkot will be fulfilled by the Messianic Kingdom and all the nations will ascend to the King in Jerusalem.689
Swearing falsely (Matthew 5:33-36): A child will sometimes justify breaking a promise by saying, “I had my fingers crossed.” Adults generally resort to more subtle methods, but the effect is the same. “I never said I would do it today, I just said I would do it” . . . and that sort of thing. A person who vows to abstain from sweets might later ask himself, “Did I really say that I wouldn’t eat those cookies? Surely it was just brownies that I had in mind.” We are full of creative rationalizations for our dishonesty.
In the First Century, there were apparently a few adept rationalizations as well. The Master quotes two passages from the Torah that were apparently used with each other to imply that only vows made in the Name of ADONAI were binding. Again, you have heard that our ancestors were told, “You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord” (Matthew 5:33 quoting Leviticus 19:12 and Num 30:2).
The first passage He quotes in Leviticus 19:12 which says: Do not swear by My Name falsely, which is profaning the Name of your God; I am ADONAI. The second passage is Numbers 30:2, which says: When a man makes a vow to the LORD or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. Apparently, those who were misusing the passage to rationalize false oaths were reading it as if only vows made to ADONAI or in the Name of the LORD were binding. Therefore, by using other phrases such as “vowing by heaven,” “vowing by earth.” or even “vowing by Jerusalem,” they felt less bound to their vow. Yeshua soundly corrected this notion when He said: But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the City of the Great King (Matthew 5:34-35).
The same issue is at work behind the Master’s rebuke in Matthew 23:16-22. In that passage, those who had sworn by the altar or by the Temple felt that, since they had avoided directly using God’s Name, they were not bound by their vow. Woe to you, blind guides! You say, “If anyone swears by the Temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the Temple is bound by that oath.” You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the Temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, “If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.” You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Thus, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And anyone who swears by the Temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.
The Mishnah (see The Life of Christ Ei – The Oral Law) records similar oath-taking foolishness that were going on in the days of the Apostles. The following passage from tractate Nedarim contains three cunning ploys by which a person might make a deceptive vow and feel exonerated in doing so. If a person vows something to be korban, or dedicated to the priesthood, but then later says, “I did not vow it to be anything but a fishing net;” or if he vowed a gift dedicated to the Temple, but later says, “I did not vow it to be anything other than a gift fit for a king;” or if he vows, “Forfeit to the Temple is anything my wife might receive from me,” but later says, “I meant my ex-wife,” they are to be punished and treated strictly . . . so that they do not regard taking vows as a laughing matter (m.Nedarim 2:5).690
Do not swear at all (Matthew 5:34): The Master commands us not to swear at all. Some people take Messiah’s ban against taking oaths as contradicting the teachings of the Torah. It is not. The Torah’s mitzvot regarding oaths and vows place no obligation upon us to make vows of any type. Instead, they are warnings against making false vows or breaking vows and oaths. Regarding the practice of vowing to abstain from something otherwise permissible, the Sages said, “Are not the prohibitions laid down in the Torah sufficient for you, that you should seek to impose upon yourselves still other prohibitions” (y.Nedarim 9:1). Similarly, Paul took a dim view of self-denial in general. He said: Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence (Colossians 2:23).
The Sages regarded taking a vow or oath as risky business that was best avoided. Several passages from the Oral Law might be cited which seek to discourage people from the practice of taking vows.
Is it not written, “If you refrain from vowing, it would not be a sin for you?” And it is further written, “It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.” And it has been taught, “Better than both is he who does not vow at all!” This is the opinion of Rabbi Meir (b.Chullin 2a quoting Deuteronomy 23:22 and Ecclesiastes 5:5).
It was taught, “Never make a practice of vowing; for ultimately, you will violate the oath” (b.Nedarim 20a).
Rabbi Nathan said, “Whoever vows is as though he built a high place of pagan worship; and if fulfilled, is as though he burnt the incense on it” (b.Nedarim 60b).
There is also a great danger in taking an oath in God’s Name for purposes of verification. Though it was a common practice sanctioned by the Torah to take an oath in God’s Name to prove one’s honesty, the Sages discouraged it. A man might be so certain of the truth that he swears in God’s Name. Yet at the same time, he might be mistaken or misled. Better not to swear at all. In the First Century, the Essene community had sworn off swearing a vow or an oath altogether. Instead, they insisted on such a high level of integrity that their simple word was regarded as binding as an oath or a vow. Josephus writes of the Essenes as follows: Any word of theirs has more force than an oath; swearing they avoid, regarding it as worse than perjury, for they say that one who does not believe without an appeal to God stands condemned already (Josephus Jewish War 2.8.6).
It is obviously necessary to make some vows like marriage, and the Master’s prohibition should not be regarded as a ban on contracts or promises. Instead, we are to be a people of such immense integrity that our simple yes is to be equivalent to an oath taken in the Name of God. Our simple yes is to be as binding as an eternal contract between heaven and earth. We are to be a people of such integrity, that no further verification is needed from us other than a yes or a no. According to Rabbinic standards of the Master’s day, an emphatic yes or an emphatic no should be regarded as binding as an oath. Moreover, as Messiah commands us: Do not swear [a vow or make] an oath at all (Matthew 5:34a).691
But suppose a man makes a rash and foolish vow. Who may he turn to for release? The traditional Halachah of Judaism determined that a court of three Elders of Isra’el could release anyone from a vow or an oath, so long as another party was not involved by the oath (for example, marriage or business contract). The three Elders vows adopted for the sake of, or involving another party cannot be annulled by rabbinical court without the consent of the other party. But, an oath placed upon oneself could be annulled.
The explanation for this amazing ruling is based on the words: he must not break his word. The Sages interpreted it to mean, “He may not break it, but others could dissolve it for him (b.Chagigah 10a quoting Numbers 30:2). It is a noble effort to find the scriptural authority of the rabbinical court to nullify vows; but in reality, there is no such proof. The Mishnah (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ei – The Oral Law) agrees that “the mitzvot concerning the annulment of vows float in the air and have no basis to rest upon” (m.Chagigah 1:8). This means that they have no scriptural foundation. They are simply a matter of the traditions of men (Mark 7:8). According to that tradition, if a person has taken a vow they regret taking upon themselves, they may convene a court of three elders functioning as a beit-din (court of law), and have the authority to lose the person from the vow, or, if they so choose, to bind the person to the vow.
The assumed power to bind or lose vows is the basis for a ritual called Hatarat Nedarim, or the annulment of vows. It is a ritual of introspection and spiritual meditation that some perform on the evening before Rosh Ha’Shannah and on the eve of Yom Kippur. The ritual is done twice during the high holy days because the Chachamin (the Sages, or Elders of Isra’el) consider it a serious matter to approach the Day of Atonement (see the commentary on Leviticus Ef – Yom Kippur) with a broken vow.
A person may have taken a vow upon himself during the course of the year, such as, “I will never again look with desire on a young woman,” or perhaps take an inadvertent vow, “I will never shop there again!” The Jews view vows of this type place a person in jeopardy before the judgment. As if one’s accumulated sins were not sufficient, they were creating more sins for themselves. In order to clean the slate before judgment, the ritual of renouncing such vows is carried out before the high holy days.
The ritual took on added significance in the troubled years of the Spanish inquisition (1478 to 1834), which saw whole communities of Jews forcibly converted to Christianity. Given the choice of confessing Christ or dying a slow, torturous death, many chose to renounce Judaism and accept Christian baptism. These forced converts would often live as “Christians” all year long, hiding their real faith, and then sneak to the synagogue to renounce the vows they had taken during the year. In addition, a great diasporic movement began and from 100,000 to 300,000 Jews left Spain and settled in different parts of Europe and the Middle East. When the state of Isra’el was recognized by the United States on May 14, 1948, and later recognized by the UN General Assembly on May 11, 1949, many Sephardic Jews returned to live there. In Sephardic communities around the world today, it is customary to repeal one’s vows twice each year; forty days before Rosh Ha’Shanah, on the nineteenth of Av; and forty days before Yom Kippur, on the first of Elul.
In the ritual on the eve of Rosh Ha’Shanah, a court of three elders is convened. The congregants, requesting the annulment of vows, specify that they do not seek annulment of vows that cannot be annulled (for example, marriage or business contract), but rather they request the annulment of inadvertent vows, oaths, nazarisms, prohibitions, cherem, korban types of vows, etc. In the ritual, the court responds as follows, “May everything be lost to you, may everything be permitted to you. There does not exist any vow, oath, nazarism, cherem, binding korban, excommunication or curse. But instead there is pardon, forgiveness and atonement. Just as the earthly court loses them, so may they be lost in the Heavenly Court (Annulment vows, Eve of Rosh Ha’Shannah liturgy).
Several parallels are immediately obvious between the court’s power to bind or loose vows and the words of the Master. Yeshua explicitly gave His apostles the power to bind and loose, and He did so in a legal context of an assembly of the court of law: Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven (see The Life of Christ Fx – On This Rock I Will Build My Church), where witnesses were called to testify (Matthew 18:16) and a formal court was assembled (Matthew 18:20). The authority of the Sages to lose, forgive, pardon, permit and atone, sheds light on another difficult saying of the Master. In John 20:23 He told His apostles: If you forgive sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained. Taken out of the rabbinical context of a court of law, this passage doesn’t make sense. But when we read in the Jewish context in which the Master spoke it, it is perfectly consistent with the authority extended to the Sages.692
Leave A Comment