Vows for Hashem: Every Permitted Act a Mitzvah

1“Moshe spoke to the heads of the tribes of Bnei Yisrael, saying: This is the thing that Hashem has commanded. If a man makes a vow to Hashem …”¹ The Rishonim, the early commentators, ask why this passage does not begin as the Torah does everywhere else, “Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying.”² We must also ask what “This is the thing that Hashem has commanded” means. The words imply that making vows is a mitzvah and a virtue. Yet Chazal spoke at length against vows,³ as the verse says, “It is better that you not vow than that you vow …”⁴

2aMy holy father and teacher, zt"l, explained the Midrash on this verse, “If a man makes a vow …”: “This is what is written, ‘His days are like a passing shadow.’”⁵ At times, he said, a person feels a longing and a fiery enthusiasm to serve the Creator. But he must examine himself to see whether it truly comes from holiness. He may be lax about permitted desires in matters of reshus, the things that are neither commanded nor forbidden, and the yetzer hara wants to cover this up with the enthusiasm, so that he will not feel that he has sinned by following permitted desires. That is why it makes him look, in his own eyes, like a servant of Hashem. So he must examine himself thoroughly and not rely on such enthusiasm. What matters most is to know what may be done and what may not, for whatever goes beyond what is necessary and sufficient counts as forbidden.

2bWith this he explained Chazal's teaching “If you have learned much Torah, do not claim credit for yourself, for that is what you were created for.”⁶ If a longing came over you and you learned much Torah, “do not claim credit for yourself”; instead, examine the matters of atzmecha, “yourself,” meaning your optional, private affairs. “For that is what you were created for,” lechach notzarta [read as “for so were you formed”]: from the moment man was formed, the yetzer hara has been within him. The enthusiasm may be the yetzer hara's ploy, a cover so that you will not feel how great a blemish lies in indulging permitted desires.

3This, my holy father said, is the meaning of “If a man makes a vow to Hashem.” When a longing for avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem, comes over a person, he takes something upon himself the way one takes on a vow: “This is upon me.” Then there is serious reason for concern, since the enthusiasm may be the yetzer hara's cover. That is why the verse adds, “or swears an oath”: he must remember the oath he was made to swear before he came into this world, “Be righteous and do not be wicked.”⁷ Above all, “to bind a prohibition upon himself”: he must remember what is forbidden and what is permitted. “He shall not profane his word,” lo yachel, a word related to chullin, the mundane: nothing is merely mundane. As is well known, everything is either a mitzvah or a sin.⁸ This is what the Midrash hints at with the words “This is what is written, ‘His days are like a passing shadow.’” A “day” alludes to the brightness that sometimes comes to a person. But it may be “like a shadow,” with the yetzer hara covered and hidden inside it. The main thing is to be meticulous in permitted, optional matters and to act as the Torah wishes. One must also pray to Hashem, blessed be He, to be saved from this pitfall. Those are his holy words.

4aWe may take this further and use it to explain the verses here. We know that there are matters of mitzvah and matters of reshus. A person tends to think that only matters of mitzvah are for the honor of the Creator. He sets little store by optional matters, thinking: what has this to do with a mitzvah, or with nachas ruach, giving satisfaction to the Creator? This is a great mistake. In fact, nothing is merely optional: every optional act is either a mitzvah or a sin.

4bIf a person does what he needs, in the measure that is truly necessary, it is a mitzvah. When he eats, sleeps and attends to other such optional matters as his life requires, he must do all of them with the intention of honoring the Creator. As Chazal said, expounding the verse “Hashem made everything for His sake”: “A person washes his face, hands and feet every day for the honor of his Maker.”⁹ In everything he truly needs, a person must keep in mind that all of it is for the sake of His honor, blessed be He. So too, every morning we say a full blessing, with Hashem's Name and His kingship, “Who gives strength to the weary.”¹⁰ For only through the strength Hashem gives us after sleep, and through eating, are we able to serve the Creator. In the same way, everything a person does in this world according to his need belongs wholly to the Creator. But if, Heaven forbid, he does more than he needs, it counts as a sin.

5Chazal warned about this when they said, “Be careful with the reshus, the authorities, for they draw a person close only for their own need.”¹¹ That is: be careful in matters of reshus, the optional things, and do not make the world's mistake. People turn to optional matters, to a person's needs in this world, and draw close to them only “for their own need”; it never occurs to them that such things can be done for the Creator's honor. This is wrong. A person should fix in his mind the thought we saw above: whatever he does that he truly needs is not for his own need, but entirely for the Creator's honor.

6For this reason nidrei zerizin, vows of zeal that a person makes to spur himself on, are permitted, and even praiseworthy, when they concern the honor of the Creator, blessed be He. This holds even though it is forbidden to make a vow in the first place [as the Tur explains from the words of Chazal, even one who fulfills his vow is called wicked and a sinner].¹² Such vows include “I will rise early and learn this chapter,” and the like,¹³ for a person must make use of every moment and every hour for His honor.

7This is what the Midrash means: “‘If a man makes a vow to Hashem’: this is what is written, ‘His days are like a passing shadow.’” The words “If a man makes a vow to Hashem” refer to the vows a person makes to spur himself on. He makes them because “his days are like a passing shadow,” and he must make use of the time.

8This is why the verse says “If a man makes a vow to Hashem” in words that can be read as a command, “A man shall vow a vow to Hashem.” There is virtue in vowing when the vows are “to Hashem,” vows of zeal that spur a person on to a mitzvah for the Creator's honor. That is why the verse says “to Bnei Yisrael” [and not only “to the heads of the tribes”]: to teach that all of them should make vows of zeal. And it says leimor, “saying,” meaning: say it to the generations, that they too should do so. This lets us explain why the passage does not open with “Hashem spoke.” The vows the Creator chiefly wants people to make are vows “to Hashem.” Vows in which a person forbids himself permitted things are not for His honor, so “Hashem spoke” was not said of them, since that would imply that they are. But when a person makes a vow “to Hashem,” such as “I will rise early and learn this chapter,” of which Chazal said, “He has vowed a great vow to the God of Israel,”¹⁴ this is something Hashem has already spoken, so there is no need to say “Hashem spoke” again.

9This lets us explain why the Torah opens the parshah of vows with the words “This is the thing that Hashem has commanded.” They hint that in everything a person does, he must remember that it is not simply an optional matter. As long as he does only what is necessary, all of it is “what Hashem has commanded,” truly a mitzvah, and he should keep in mind that he is doing it for the Creator's honor.

10We truly need to keep this in mind at all times. Whenever we do an optional act that we need, we should intend to do it for the Creator's honor, and we should use our time for Torah and prayer. Through this we will be privileged to see fulfilled what the tzaddikim who wrote the Tiferes Shlomo and the Zera Kodesh explained on the words “And rebuild Yerushalayim, the holy city, speedily in our days.”¹⁵ “In our days” can mean “through our days”: through our days we will bring near the building of the Beis HaMikdash, by doing all our deeds for the Creator's honor.

11May it be His will that the verse with which the Midrash closes this parshah be fulfilled speedily, with the coming of the Redeemer: “And the redeemed of Hashem shall return and come to Zion with song, and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall attain gladness and joy …”¹⁶ Amen.