Keep Your Word

Shavua Tov. The reason given for our first Parsha today, being called מטות, is to teach that the ראשי המטות, the heads of the tribes, were qualified to nullify vows. The idea here was to give an option to get out of vows that a person regretted making. This is also why we have the ceremony called התרת נדרים on Erev Rosh Hashanah to exempt us from vows made that were unfulfilled. According to the ספר החינוך, Parshat מטות has only two laws. One is the positive commandment to nullify unwanted vows, and the other is a negative commandment not to leave vows and promises unfulfilled. This means that we are to keep our word and anything we promise or verbally commit ourselves to do, we must do. The punishment for transgressing this commandment and not doing what we promised, is listed as a לאו- a violation of a negative commandment. It falls under the category of a לאו שאין בו מעשה, a negative commandment for which there is no action, (speech is not considered an action.) Therefore, no lashes are given but the violation of a negative commandment is added to our record in שמים.