The rabbis consider vows of exhortation. They use the example of one who says, “if you
do not take for your son a kor of wheat and two barrels of wine from me as a
gift, benefiting from you is konam for me”.
Such a vow can be dissolved without a halachic authority, because the
one who vowed was vowing to uphold his own honour. The other person can refrain from accepting
the gift for the same reason - to uphold his own honour.
One of the arguments discussed by the rabbis is that of a
dog or a king. One person can say to the
other, Am I a dog/king that only one person benefits and the other does
not? The rabbis do not go into the
question of benefit – for example, though we give to the king and the king gives
nothing, doesn’t the king also benefit from the power and good feeling that is
position imposes upon himself?
Again, the rabbis provide examples of vows that are
dissolved because those vows are delayed for reasons beyond the person’s
control.
A new Mishna teaches us about vows of exaggeration. These vows are understood as either tools to
explain something unusual, or complete fabrications. One of the examples is, “I take an oath that
I saw on this road as many people as those who ascended from Egypt”. It is not meant to be literal, nor is it held
up to be a real oath.
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