Holding On to Fleeting Inspiration: Vows for Heaven's Sake

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 …”¹ The Rishonim, the early commentators, ask why the passage here does not begin, as it does everywhere else in the Torah, “Hashem spoke to Moshe.”² We must also look closely at the phrase “the heads of the tribes,” rashei hamatos. Why does the verse not say “the princes of the congregation,” as we find in several places in the Torah?³ The words “This is the thing” need explaining as well, and Chazal and the commentators discuss them.⁴

2aWe can explain all this through a teaching of my holy father and teacher, zt"l, on the Midrash “‘If a man makes a vow …’: this is what is written, ‘His days are like a passing shadow.’”⁵ What does this verse have to do with the parshah of vows? My holy father explained it through the words of my holy ancestor of Ostrova, zt"l: the letters of yidor, “he vows,” are the initials of Ya'azov Rasha Darko, “Let the wicked one forsake his way.”⁶ We know the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov, zy"a, on the heavenly voice that goes forth from Mount Chorev every day.⁷ The thoughts of teshuvah that come to every person each day, he said, are that voice; but a person must work to make them a fixed part of his heart.

2bThis is the meaning of “His days are like a passing shadow.” Even when a person receives clarity and inspiration as bright as day, like the sun at noon, it still passes. The main thing is to work until it takes a fixed place in his heart. That is also what “Let the wicked one forsake his way” means: a person must truly forsake the way of the wicked and hold fast to the good for all time. But all this depends on the middah, the character trait, of shemiras habris, guarding the covenant of the flesh in purity, and the Torah points to it here with the words “he shall not profane his word.” If a person does not profane his speech, and guards his mouth and his tongue, then, since the covenant of the flesh corresponds to the covenant of the tongue,⁸ he is privileged to guard the covenant, and so to stay firmly fixed in the good. Those are his holy words.

3This idea lies at the root of the whole subject of vows. As is well known, Chazal teach, and the halachah rules accordingly, that “it is better that you not vow than that you vow …”⁹ Chazal go to great lengths to stress how grave the sin of vows is: they said that for the sin of vows a person's sons and daughters die while they are young, Heaven forbid.¹⁰ Even so, there are cases in which vowing is a mitzvah. As the Gemara says, “One who says, ‘I will rise early and learn this chapter, I will learn this tractate,’ has vowed a great vow to the God of Israel.”¹¹ Such a vow is a mitzvah because it spurs a person on. It is not only permitted but praiseworthy and fitting, as the Ran explains there.¹² From this we learn how great a thing it is to take on kabbalos, personal resolutions, modeled on vows, to strengthen oneself in mitzvos and in Torah.

4[We find something similar in the Reishis Chochmah.¹³ A person should be strong in his avodah, it writes, like a sturdy pillar that does not totter. If he has begun some service, such as coming early to the synagogue, he should not abandon it on any account, and he should “bind a prohibition upon himself” to fulfill that mitzvah. As Dovid HaMelech says in the psalm, “Who may sojourn in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy mountain?”¹⁴ And there he says that one of the middos of such a person is “He swears to his own harm and does not retract.” The Radak and the other commentators explain that “swears to his own harm” means harming his body with fasting and mourning and holding back from pleasures, and likewise depleting his purse for charity, for a mitzvah and the like. “And does not retract”: he does not go back on what he swore, even though it harms his body. This is like Dovid's words “I have sworn, and I will fulfill it, to keep Your righteous ordinances.”¹⁵ In the same spirit, vows in general are “a fence for abstinence,”¹⁶ helping a person stand firm. So far his words.]

5All this matters especially when we find ourselves in a time of “And I will surely hide …”¹⁷ The verse doubles the verb, haster astir, and the holy Baal Shem Tov explained that the hiding is itself hidden, a concealment within a concealment. At such a time a person urgently needs to take on resolutions and fences, to strengthen himself in Torah and mitzvos and spur himself on.

6aOur verse hints at this. Its silence about “Hashem spoke to Moshe” points to a state of concealment, when Hashem's presence is not felt. That is why a person must strengthen himself with fences and resolutions, like vows. It is also why the verse mentions “the heads of the matos” and not “the princes of the congregation.” The word matos is related to hatayah, “inclining.” It hints that the heads of the tribes of Bnei Yisrael must incline the people's hearts toward their Father in Heaven. How? Through vows: they must teach the people to make their inspiration last by means of resolutions and vows.

6bThat is why the verse says “This is the thing that Hashem has commanded.” The word “this” implies a limitation. Ordinarily it is not good to make vows. But here the vow concerns what “Hashem has commanded”: a person strengthens and spurs himself on to Torah and mitzvos, for the honor of His Name, blessed be He. This, then, is “the thing” that is fitting to vow, and vowing it is a mitzvah. And with the words “saying: This is the thing …” the verse hints that the heads of Israel should instruct Bnei Yisrael, “saying: This is the thing that Hashem has commanded,” to take on resolutions and so strengthen themselves and be zealous in His mitzvos. This also ties the Midrash, read in its plain sense, to “His days are like a passing shadow.” When a person makes a cheshbon hanefesh, a searching account of himself, and sees where he stands spiritually [and how swiftly his days pass], he must spur himself on through vows.

7[¹⁸We can also explain this along the same lines, in a slightly different way. All of a person's days must be spent in teshuvah, as Chazal said: “Repent one day before your death. But does a person know on which day he will die? Rather, let him repent today, lest he die tomorrow; so all his days are spent in teshuvah.”¹⁹ Who can give a person the awakening to contemplate the rock from which he was hewn and return in teshuvah? It flows to him through the tzaddikim of the generation, who have the power to rouse a person to return to the source from which his soul was hewn.]

8a[This is what the Midrash means. Since our days pass like a shadow, we must do teshuvah, and the way to it is to take on vows and fences. But where does the awakening come from that lets a person properly contemplate the source from which he was hewn, and spur himself on to fulfill his duty as he should? To this the verse answers, “the heads of the matos.” They are the tzaddikim, the heads of the people, who incline the hearts of Bnei Yisrael to their Father in Heaven. That is why they are called “heads of the matos” here: the name hints that they incline the people toward the ways of life. The verse is instructing the heads of the people to teach Bnei Yisrael how to fulfill the whole Torah: through good resolutions for mitzvos and good deeds, in the manner of vows.]

8b[This is the meaning of “This is the thing that Hashem has commanded.” At first glance nothing at all was commanded here, since “it is better that you not vow.” But the words refer to vows made for a mitzvah, to spur oneself on. The holy Ohr HaChaim explains in a similar way the doubled wording yidor neder, literally “vows a vow”: it refers to both optional vows and mitzvah vows, and for the mitzvah vows it says “a vow to Hashem.” That is the gist of his words.²⁰ In this way the verse teaches how to strengthen oneself and be zealous in doing all the mitzvos of the Torah: by making “a vow to Hashem.”]

9This is the meaning of the title nekiyei hada'as, “the clean-minded of Yerushalayim,” that we find in Chazal, with Rashi's comment that their speech was brief.²¹ At first glance this needs explaining: why should a clean mind show itself in brief speech? The explanation is that a person must know when to speak and when not to speak. It is like vows, where one must distinguish between one case and another: when to vow and speak and when not. And “if there is no da'as, understanding, from where is there havdalah, distinction?”²² That is why Chazal said that the clean-minded are brief in speech.

10May Hashem grant that we know how to say only what is needed, take resolutions upon ourselves to spur ourselves on, and be privileged to guard our tongue and to guard the covenant. Then we will see fulfilled in us what the Kedushas Levi, the Tiferes Shlomo and the Sfas Emes explain on “He shall not profane his word; according to all that comes out of his mouth he shall do.”²³ They read the last words as speaking of Hashem. If a person guards his tongue and does not profane the power of the mouth and the tongue, he is privileged to see the Holy One, blessed be He, do all that comes out of his mouth. Through this power we will be granted salvations and consolations. For Chazal said that Yerushalayim and the Beis HaMikdash were destroyed through the sin of baseless hatred and lashon hara, evil speech;²⁴ so may Hashem make us worthy of repairing it by guarding our speech.

11[²⁵We know that we must repair what caused the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash. So it falls to us, especially in these days, to take on resolutions in Torah study, in the manner of “One who says, ‘I will rise early and learn …’” We must also accept rebuke from parents and teachers, and in this way at least make a start at returning in teshuvah. For, as is well known, the letters of Tammuz, the name of this month, stand for zemanei teshuvah memashmeshim uva'im, “the times of teshuvah are fast approaching.”]

12May the Holy One, blessed be He, help us attain this, and may we be privileged to see salvations and consolations with the coming of the righteous Redeemer. Amen, may it be His will.