Politics and Vows Parashat Mattot

It’s hard to get away from the front pages, even when reading this week’s Torah portion.

We read, this week, the laws of Nedarim – vows. Vows are a serious business. Even when a vow undertaken is successfully completed, one has to bring a sacrifice. Why, the Rabbis ask, must a person act in a way as if they have done something wrong, when they have successfully completed the very thing they vowed to do? It must be, they answer, that the attempt to wrestle control over one’s future self is not to be encouraged. Ideally, we are to be free to respond as we see fit in the moment. Nishtaneh HaZman, Nishtaneh HaTevaim – times change, nature changes. Grand operatic gestures are not, religiously, welcomed. Two examples spring to mind.

In a mere 10 weeks we will sing together the Kol Nidrei, entering the most sacred day of our calendar by giving ourselves permission to transcend vows that should no longer bind us; previously uttered limitations we have placed on our future-self cannot have total dominion over who we become.

Jephta's Daughter, By Cabanel

A few weeks ago, we read, in the Haftarah, the tale of Jeptha, the great Israelite General who vows that if he is to defeat the Ammonites he will offer as a sacrifice the first thing he sees on his return - only to be greeted as a returning military hero by his daughter. Jephta goes through with his vow, much to the disapproving amazement of the Rabbis of later centuries. “How could Jephta not realise the mechanism of Hatarat Nedarim?” They ask. If you make a vow not realising issues that only become apparent later, it is possible to have the vow officially annulled. If someone would have said to Jephta, at the moment of his making the vow, “But what if it was to be your daughter?” and if Jephta would have responded, “Goodness, how could I possibly do such a thing, I will desist from that vow, or make the vow less overwhelming in its potential to go beyond my intention,” then the vow can be, indeed should be annulled.

Religion is often pilloried for placing too-tight binds on the obligation of a person to live a life freely, responding in the moment with a wisdom that can only be understood in that moment. But here we see something else. Here Judaism teaches that we can all be too quick to seek to command our tomorrows. We shouldn’t. We can only understand our tomorrow … tomorrow. And even that might be too early.

Shabbat Shalom