This week’s Torah portion opens with the requirements about making vows. Both men and women are obligated to fulfill the vows they make, to the letter (unless the woman’s father or husband prevents her from fulfilling her vow, then she’s exempt; but that’s an issue for another day 😊).
The text says, in part:
30:2 “If a man vows a vow to Adonai, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.”
Judaism places great importance on the making of vows. Because a vow invokes God’s name, failure to fulfill the vow is equivalent to taking God’s name in vain. For that reason, many traditional Jews will avoid making any kind of vow, and some will accompany any promise with the words ‘b’li neder – without a vow’.
The reality is, however, that many times in our history Jews have been forced to make vows – vows of conversion to the majority faith of wherever they lived. Jewish law recognizes that vows made under duress are no vows at all, and provides a formula to allow for such vows to be nullified. That formula is the Kol Nidre prayer that we say at the beginning of Yom Kippur. More a legal formula than a prayer, it was most likely written in the Middle Ages to help Jews who had been forced to convert to return to the Jewish community with a clear conscience, released from the vow they never wanted to make.
In the United States today, thankfully, Jews are no longer faced with forced conversions. And yet our rights under the separation of church and state are at risk as never before, with the rise of white Christian nationalism. I will be addressing this issue and how the Jewish community can respond in my Kol Nidre sermon on Erev Yom Kippur. I’ll look forward to continuing the conversation with all of you throughout the year.
-Rabbi Bonnie Margulis
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