Mattos-Masei - July 11, 2026 / 26 Tammuz 5786
This week’s double parsha opens with the laws of vows and oaths. While these concepts are related in that speech results in a change in legal status, halachically they are different in terms of the object or the person. While the Torah has provisions to ensure that oaths do not come between a husband and wife (I wonder how that could happen?), in general a person is required to keep to their word. As it states in the verse (30:3) “if a man will take a vow to G-d or swear an oath to establish a prohibition upon himself, he shall not desecrate his word…”
So, from here we see how important it is to keep one’s word that it even becomes halachically (according to Jewish law) binding. Yet we have offerings in the Temple that are brought from a vow. We have the concept of the Nazir, one who vows not to cut their hair or ingest grape products such as wine. However, as we know the world often gets in the way and one vows to do something and despite their full intent to do so, something occurs and they are unable to. In fact, the Talmud tractate on vows, Nedarim, quotes Rabbi Meir as saying that it is best not to vow at all, even to do something meritorious. We need to discuss vows because rightly or wrongly they happen and they are meaningful.
Extending this lesson to our daily lives, we often “swear to G-d” for everything from how bad our team performed or how bad traffic was. This can even extend to profanity which in the English language is often called “swear words” because of the seriousness of taking an oath to G-d and potentially resulting curse of leaving it unfulfilled. Many Jewish people have the custom of adding the words “beli neder” (meaning "without a vow") without vowing to any statement that could come across as a promise.
But why specifically discuss it here? We just discussed holiday sacrifices last week (and one of the last verses 29:39 did mention vow offerings) yet this discussion which then goes on to talk about the battle with Midian. There are several possible explanations, but I would like to posit that before battle is the perfect time to discuss this. English language historians will point out that certain “swear words” originated first in the military. It is in times of stress that we lash out in profanity and oaths.
When we get emotional at work, home and go into battle real or metaphorical we can often forget who we are and how a Jewish person is supposed to speak. Yet those are the times we need G-d the most to bring us back to our spiritual selves, calm our stressors, and find balance again in our lives. Let us take this week to remember this as we consider how we watched the USA lose to Belgium and hopefully controlled ourselves!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Josh
