Rabbi Joshua Kullock
Kol Hakehila
Guadalajara, México
One of the subjects most interesting to our tradition is speech and its effects. Unlike those who support a vision of language as a tool to describe reality, in Judaism language is understood as the creator of reality. God creates the world through speech, and we are called to do the same every day through our own actions, including a responsible use of language.
In the first of this week’s parashiot, the Torah speaks about vows and promises. It is written: “When a man voweth a vow unto the Lord, or sweareth an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth” (Num. 30:3).
Technically speaking, vows were divided into two large categories: on the one hand, people voluntarily decided to keep from doing certain things not usually prohibited; among others, eat certain fruits, drink alcohol, or cut their hair. On the other hand, people made a vow to the purpose of bringing an unrequested offering to the Temple in Jerusalem.
Nevertheless, and even against what we could think at first glance, the practice of making vows was viewed with distrust as of biblical times. That is why we read in Ecclesiastes: “When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for He hath no pleasure in fools; pay that which thou vowest. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay” (5:3-4). Hence it is that years later, the Talmud sages came to say that, “He who vows, even though he fulfils it, is designated a sinner” (Nedarim 77b).
Although it is difficult to assure that the rabbis may have considered those who vowed as sinners, the Talmudic hyperbole just serves to underline the fundamental place occupied by speech in Jewish tradition.
According to our sages, when we speak, we put everything we are at stake. Thus, it is not by chance that the Hebrew words neshamah (soul) and neshimah (breathing) share the same root: when speaking, which is nothing other than transforming our own breathing into sound, we are shaping our souls, which changes (along with our own identity) from the actions we undertake on a daily basis. And within those actions, the acts of speech occupy a preponderant place.
Those acts of speech, as we already said, serve to build our own reality. This reality, in turn, finds itself therefore in a continuous future/coming about, for it is us, the speakers, who will shape it depending on our daily decisions. And in this sense, vows and promises are important because they help us generate an island of certainty in a future always viewed as an almost infinite sea of different options. When we make a promise, we commit ourselves to the responsibility of fulfilling the given word. That is why, in the words of Dr. Rafael Echeverria:
Promises imply a mutually expressed commitment. If I promise something to someone, that person can count on it and expect us to fulfill the satisfaction conditions of my promise. This is not just a personal commitment, but a social one. Our communities, as an essential condition for social coexistence, endeavor to ensure that people fulfill their promises and, in general, sanction those who don’t. A large part of our social life is based on our capacity to make and fulfill promises. (Ontology of the Language)
From this perspective, we can understand the Torah’s insistence on our fulfillment of that which we promise: when we make a promise, we are generating expectations about the building of a specific future that will depend on our ability to carry out everything that we vowed to do. Otherwise, when we ignore the vows we make, we weaken a system which exists –among other variables – on the basis of the assumed commitment.
Therefore, having committed ourselves in the past, as a people, to the upholding of the eternal covenant that unites us to God, each one of us is, today, directly responsible for continuing to carry out this beautiful and unavoidable challenge.
Shabbat Shalom uMevorah!
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