The Power of Vows and Oaths

This week’s parshah is a double parshah, Matos and Masei. It is the longest Torah reading of the year, with a total of 244 verses.

Matos opens with the laws of vows and oaths, how binding they are, and how one must take care to keep his word. The severity of vows is such that our Sages teach, “one who makes a vow is as if he built an altar and brought sacrifices upon it!” This refers to the times when building one’s own private altar is forbidden, thus teaching us that vows are to be kept sacred and never broken. (Tell it to the politicians!)

Reb Noson explains that an oath is a very special concept. The Torah has its prohibitions and positive laws. However, a vow can be made to express a person’s emotions and thereby obligate him to observe something not even mentioned in the Torah—such as “I will not eat XXX” or “I will undertake to provide XXX.” And since it is an oath or vow, it has the same stringencies as if it were a Mosaic or Torah law! Reb Noson continues that this is the power of one’s speech: one can create his own living environment—positive or otherwise. So we must learn to guard our tongues and regulate our speech.

The remainder of the parshah speaks of the Jews’ battle with the Midianites, purifying vessels, and the request of the Tribes of Reuven and Gad to inherit their land on the East Bank of the Jordan River—concepts too large for a small parshah article.

Masei speaks of the Jews’ sojourn in the desert and the Forty-Two places where they set up camp during their 40 years of travel in the desert. As Rashi explains, 42 camps in 40 years sounds like they were always moving. However, 20 of them were very short term; otherwise, they were able to stay in one place for longer periods. It reminisces the sojourn of the Jews throughout our long exile. Sometimes where we “camped” was short term; other times, it meant long periods in foreign and hostile territories. But we ended up in the Holy Land.

The remainder of the parshah speaks of the borders of the Holy Land and the leaders who were appointed to oversee the distribution of the properties. Then it speaks of the “refuge cities” set aside for one who accidentally kills another person. He does not deserve a death sentence (it was manslaughter), but he must give up his positions and flee to one of the cities and live there. The Zohar teaches that this reflects our lives even today. There were six Refuge Cities. The Zohar states that these “six” reflect the Six Words in the “Shema Yisrael HaShem Elokeinu HaShem Echad!” That is, no matter how much we did wrong, we can always take refuge in our faith in HaShem. He is God, He can forgive our errors, and He can make things right!

May we merit to do good, strengthen our faith and find our true refuge in HaShem, Amen.