The laws of “nedarim” (“vows”) show us how serious we should be about the sanctity of speech.
What a person says, he or she must do.
“Let him not break his word, he must do everything that comes out of his mouth.” (Bamidbar 30:3)
The laws of nedarim can be surprising. Through speech alone, one can create what is in effect a “private religion” – a personal set of rituals. One can add for themself personal prohibitions; negative commandments that don’t appear in the Torah or apply to the rest of the nation.
We can also add on for ourselves positive obligations beyond what the Torah demands. And all of this takes place as a result of speaking. Nothing more.
It’s even possible to cancel a positive mitzvah.
If a person vows not to touch a specific object used to fulfill a commandment, they essentially become prohibited from performing that mitzvah (Rambam, Hilkhot Nedarim 3:36).
(Negative commandments, by contrast, cannot be canceled through speech.)
All of this is actually quite shocking, given the fact that the mitzvot were given to us by the Creator, while here we are discussing commandments initiated by human beings.
The Torah seeks to teach us here that speech is not merely a natural skill but is actually an extension of the speech of the Creator. All of the mitzvot were given to us orally, from the “mouth” of the Kadosh Barukh Hu. And human speech, which is also Divine, can join together with the prophetic Torah and create new innovations in the form of new mitzvot.
This leads us to a much deeper issue. The relationship between humanity and HaShem can be thought of as a dialogue between the Creator and the created. We might have thought that the mitzvot are concrete laws of reality, like the laws of nature (gravitation, thermodynamics, etc.).
But this isn’t the case. The mitzvot are the Divine word of the Creator.
Why does this matter? Because it’s impossible to make a compromise with a law of nature, as it is completely impersonal and has no relation to human morality or to how a person feels about or tries to correct past behavior.
On the other hand, since the mitzvot are the Divine word of the Creator, we stand not before an impersonal law but rather before HaShem. If we are in contact with HaShem, we can speak, show contrition, or even commit to improving our behavior. And this tshuva can be accepted. There is a real conversation between the Creator and His creatures.
This is related to the difference between how the people of Israel understand our relationship with the Creator is versus how it’s understood by other philosophical viewpoints, such as those of the ancient Greeks or even the modern West.
For Israel, HaShem is also the Creator, He who provides life even though He is not obligated to do so. The entire act of creation is completely moral, performed after careful consideration, and not the result of coercion.
The result is that the relationship between the world and HaShem is a relationship between the created and the Creator, one side receiving life from that which gives life.
This then forms the basis for our ethics and morality.
For Western philosophies, by contrast, G-d is the being who established the rules, and morality plays no part in how we relate to Him.
