Matot - Masei 5775 - English

By Rabbi Guido Cohen
Asociación Israelita Montefiore Bogotá, Colombia.

The beginning of the Parashah this week refers to the regulations applicable to vows and oaths.  The idea of a vow is a central idea in ancient Judaism, to such a point that the Talmud dedicates a long treaty to this matter.  Moreover, Jewish law presents several types of promises, vows and oaths, and each of them is regulated in a different way.  Behind each of these rules, there is an essential underlying value: the importance of the given word in our tradition.  

Promises are so important that in several cases we see how biblical characters make provisions to “liberate” the committed person of his or her responsibility in case it cannot be fulfilled.  One noteworthy example is the promise between Abraham and his servant to find a wife for Isaac.  

In this day and age, our verbal commitments are not always honored or kept as compulsory.  In fact, society has developed other instruments, such as signatures, thumbprints and documents to guarantee the effective adherence to what we have “promised”.  But there was a time when our word was enough.  Actually, when you “promise” one thing, according to the halakha, it becomes as mandatory as if it were written in the Torah, so long as the object of the promise is something susceptible of being promised.  

The phrase used by the Torah to warn us to keep our promises is “לא יחל דברו” (lo yakhel devaro), which means: he shall not desecrate his pledge.  Of all the verbs that could have been chosen, the Torah uses “desecrate”, and then it continues: “he must carry out all that has crossed his lips”.

The Sfat Emet, one of the great sages of Hassidic tradition, interprets this verse in a beautiful way.  The word “desecrate” in Hebrew is the opposite of “sanctify”, as we mention in Havdalah when we distinguish “bein kodesh le jol”.  In other words, to break a promise is to desecrate, to de-sanctify our word.  What this rabbi teaches us then is that the “normal” state of our words is sacred.  The human word is gifted with a dimension of sacredness.  Only when one disconnects words from actions, is the word profaned and transformed into the opposite of sacred.  

The ability to speak is in fact one of the attributes needed to fulfill many mitzvot.  Along with thought and action, these are the capacities through which we reach a life of holiness.  But when our word is not consistent with thought and action, then it loses its sacredness and becomes something trivial and even potentially harmful.  

DAVAR in Hebrew means at the same time thing and word.  It is as if the idiomatic foundations of our people could not conceive the possibility of a word disconnected from action, so every word in Hebrew is associated with something concrete and tangible.  It was through nothing more and nothing less than words that the world was created, and through them it is sustained, because words and things -according to Jewish perspective- are never disconnected.  

Commonly, we assume that Jews are forbidden to swear.  This is incorrect, Jews are allowed to promise and to swear an oath.  However, we cannot take this lightly, for if we break our oath, we are transgressing the Torah.  Maybe this is why in time we simply abstained from doing it, to avoid the risk of failing to carry out what we promised.  But it is easier to embrace our promises in all seriousness and honor them, than to walk away from them.

As long as our words are translated into actions, and we carry out all that has crossed our lips, the value of our word will be as sacred as in the past.  

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Guido Cohen