Midrash מִדְרָשׁ
Our parashah introduces a special kind of promise to God called a נֶדֶר (neder).
אִישׁ כִּי יִדֹּר נֶדֶר לַה' אוֹ הִשָּׁבַע שְׁבֻעָה לֶאְסֹר אִסָּר עַל נַפְשׁוֹ
לֹא יַחֵל דְּבָרוֹ
כְּכָל הַיֹּצֵא מִפִּיו יַעֲשֶׂה:
If a person makes a neder to God or takes an oath creating an obligation on themselves,
they must not break their promise;
they must do all that they said.
What can we learn from the words לֹא יַחֵל דְּבָרוֹ (lo yahel devaro, they must not break their promise)? Does this phrase mean something different from the line that follows, which tells us that we have to do everything that we say we’ll do?
לֹא יַחֵל דְּבָרוֹ – כְּמוֹ: לֹא יְחַלֵּל דְּבָרוֹ, לֹא יַעֲשֶׂה דְּבָרוֹ חֻלִּין.
Lo yahel devaro - that is to say, they must not defile (yehalel) their words, they must not make their words unholy.
Sometimes a midrash explains the simple meaning of a verse. The Rabbis sense that there is a word or an idea people might not fully understand, so they make it clear for everyone. (You might remember some examples of this kind of midrash from the maggid section of the Pesah seder.)
In our midrash, the Sages teach that the word “yahel” comes from the root ח.ל.ל, which means to take something that is holy and make it profane, or not holy.
- What makes a neder holy?
- Have you ever said something and then regretted what you said or the way you said it? What happens when a person makes a promise and then changes their mind? How about when a person makes any kind of statement but then says, “I take it back”?
- What lesson does this midrash contain even for people who don’t make nedarim?
- What is the difference between holy and unholy words? How can people apply the midrash to all of their words—how can your words always be holy and never unholy?
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