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Orchard of Delights Mattot
The Jewish people were chosen to constantly remind the world people to make vows for a limited time to help them achieve specific
not to accept immorality, cruelty, hatred, and greed as humanity’s goals. In a sense the vows become peoples’ individual and unique
inescapable fate. God Himself, joined by Moses, the quintessential mitzvot, strengthening them to follow through with their plans to
Jewish leader, and Isaiah and Jeremiah, two of the greatest prophets, implement fundamental life-changing decisions. This explains why
railed against complacency and injustice, by screaming the word the Torah introduces the laws of vows with “this is the matter that
“ayeka/aicha.” Not only must we respond to the challenge, we must God has commanded” – it reflects the fact that vows need to be
also take concrete steps to finally rectify the world. crystal clear and sharply focused tools to allow people to accomplish
what nothing else has enabled them to. In this sense, the vow must
be as clear as the type of prophecy that Moses had when he received
the Torah from God.
An additional fascinating aspect regarding these ideas is revealed
by the fact that the Hebrew word for vow (neder) begins with the
letter nun. In the last two Torah portions we discussed the letter
nun’s unique symbolic nature. The spear that Pinchas took was
shaped like the final letter nun and the Hebrew word “mishpatan,”
denoting the daughters of Zelophehad’s case, ended with an unusually
large final nun. In both cases, the nun symbolized the ability to focus
completely and harness all one’s physical and spiritual energies in
order to boldly stride forward and accomplish one’s goal. As we
discussed, Pinchas was able to galvanize all 248 limbs in his body
(the gematria of romach) to complete his specific mission. Likewise,
the purpose of a vow is to help people concentrate all their energies
in order to accomplish goals that had so far been unattainable. It is
as if the individual taking a vow is metaphorically picking up a spear
in his or her hand and spearing the chosen target with every ounce
of mental and physical energy. In this way, a vow can hit the bull’s
eye like nothing else and is similar to a clear prophetic vision, a face
to face encounter with the Divine.
Jewish tradition teaches that if we make an effort to purify
ourselves, God will gladly grant us assistance from on high (an
Awakening from Below prompts an Awakening from Above).
Making a vow is an excellent example of our taking the initiative
and showing God our commitment in order to elicit His assistance.
Even more crucially, a vow awakens peoples’ latent will power and
inner strength so that they can accomplish something which under
ordinary circumstances would be impossible.
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