YESHIVAT HARA'AYON HAYEHUDI
Jerusalem, Israel
HaRav Yehuda Kreuser SHLIT"A, Rosh Yeshiva
PARSHAT MATOT
23 Tammuz 5768/25-26 July 2008
FALSE PROMISES
"If a man takes a vow to Hashem or swears an oath of prohibition upon
himself, he shall not profane his word; according to whatever comes from his
mouth shall he do."
Further on, the Torah warns us to be careful of our speech. One should
not speak without intent of fulfilling his words. "When you make a vow to
G-d, you shall not delay repaying it; for the Eternal your G-d will surely
require it of you; and it would be a sin to you. That which proceeds from
your lips you shall observe and do; according as your vow even an offering
to the Eternal your G-d, which you has promised with your mouth.”
King Solomon echoed this theme in the book of Ecclesiastes when he
wrote: "Be not rash with your mouth and let not your heart be hasty to utter
a word before G-d, for G-d is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your
words be
few. When you make a vow to G-d do not delay paying it, for He has no liking
for fools - what you vow, pay. Better that you do not vow at all, than vow
and not pay. Why should G-d be angered by your speech and destroy the work
of your hands?"
So powerful is the strength of the voice that the Talmud in many places
discusses, page after page, the cases of people who make fraudulent promises
which they do not fulfill. The Talmud writes that someone who makes a
promise to purchase something, having fulfilled the proper acts of
acquisition, but reneges on the deal, is subject to the following curse:“G-d,
Who punished the generation of the flood, will punish anyone who does not
stand by his word.”
It is for this reason that on Yom Kippur, the most sacred of days, we
start off the day begging Hashem to forgive us for our false vows. Things we
said, intending to do and never ending up doing. All of us have made
statements pledging money or what not, and never carried it out. And so,
even before we can start the Yom Kippur service we first and foremost must
ask Hashem to remove our false vows.
How unfortunate it is, then, that today many Jews who have business
dealings with non-Jews are always looking for ways to deal cunningly with
them, not keeping their word, and in many cases causing a great Chilul
Hashem. Where once an agreement and handshake with a Jew was looked upon as
binding - today we hear the expression: He "Jewed me". How careful one must
be to fulfill what comes out of his mouth!
Hashem, too, has made vows, which in His case He has always kept: I will
make you most exceedingly fruitful and make nations of you, and kings shall
descend from you. I will ratify My covenant between Me and you and between
your offspring after you throughout their generations, as an everlasting
covenant to be a G-d to you and your offspring after you, and I will give to
you and your offspring after you the Land of your sojourns - the whole of
the land of Cana'an - as an everlasting possession, and I shall be a G-d to
you.
Later, by His prophets, He added: Thus said the L-rd Hashem, behold, I
am taking the Children of Israel from among the nations to which they have
gone. I will gather them from all around and I will bring them to their
soil, I will make them into one nation in the Land.
So we see that after some 2000 years, Hashem has fulfilled his vow
concerning the Land of Israel and returning the Jewish people back to its
Land - as He said He would. But what with our vows? Have we done all we can
to fulfill our prayers?
Three times a day, we beseech the Almighty to bring us back to our
homeland, and yet, in spite of our prayers - we do not return. We prefer the
comfort of the exiles than to fulfill our false lip service. After each meal
we say: Let us return upright to our homeland. Still, the only "upright" we
plan on doing is at the gym. At the Passover Seder, we proclaim "Next year
in Jerusalem", while we have no intention of ever leaving the fleshpots of
the golden medina. For how long will we continue to proclaim falsehoods
before the Almighty?
Let this parsha be a wakeup call for all of us. Say what you mean and
fulfill what you say, so as not to bring the wrath of Hashem down on you.
With love of Israel,
Levi Chazen
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Topic: PARSHAT MATOT - FALSE PROMISES (Read 2306 times)