Shabbat Greetings
Rabbi Malinger is currently on sabbatical until Monday, August 18, 2025. Even though he is taking the time to restore his spiritual wellness and taking a course to strengthen professional skills, he wanted to share different perspectives of the weekly Torah portion from his fellow rabbinic colleagues in the Reform Movement – please enjoy.
Rabbi Amy Schneiderman of Columbia, Maryland, shares: We learn in this week’s double-Torah portion that concludes the Book of Numbers, Matot-Ma’asei (Numbers 30:2-36:13), one who makes a vow to Adonai or swears an oath of prohibition on themself shall not violate their pledge; they must carry out all that they said (30:3). We have already learned that the third of the Ten Commandments prohibits using God’s name in vain. A special area of concern for Torah and Rabbinic tradition is making a vow in God’s name—which is de facto a vow to God—and within this arena of concern is the Nazirite vow (a special vow in the Bible that a person could take to dedicate themselves to God for a certain period of time), which implicitly evokes God’s name. What do we do when intent and commitment seem at variance?
The rabbis in Mishnah Nazir 1:1 enumerate attempts to make a Nazirite vow while circumventing evocation of God’s name by saying, “I will be” or “I will be beautiful,” or by employing substitute terms for nazir that sounds similar. Rabbi Meir deems these efforts genuine commitment and hence sufficient to concretize the vow. The Sages disagree.
The Jerusalem Talmud (Nazir 1:1) comments, “Substitute names for vows are like vows … substitute names for oaths are like oaths,” in agreement with Rabbi Meir that intention to make a vow or swear an oath is inferred from the contorted effort to commit oneself without uttering God’s name or the term nazir. For the Sages referenced in the Mishnah, form trumps intention, perhaps to discourage taking Nazirites vows given the human proclivity to violate vows. Or, is this because a purposeful failure to comply with form bespeaks incomplete intention? How do we gauge true intent, and how do we support full commitment?
The emphasis on form over intention in the Mishnah is a reflection of the concern that human beings are often unreliable in their inner resolve. External actions are seen as the most reliable means of measuring true commitment and helping individuals uphold their vows. At the same time, this focus also acknowledges the profound connection between outward behavior and inner intention—that our actions can shape our inner world and that genuine intent can only be measured by consistent and deliberate actions.
To truly support full commitment, it’s important to help individuals align their outward actions with their deeper motivations, provide community support, and create a structure that encourages self-reflection, guidance, and long-term dedication.
SHABBAT SHALOM