NUM361 [W]e cannot tell in advance how humans will react. How then can we create an orderly society without taking away people's freedom? The answer is the act of promising. When I promise to do something, I am freely placing myself under an obligation to do something in the future. If I am the kind of person who is known to keep his word, I have removed one element of unpredictability from the human world. You can rely on me, since I have given my word. When I promise, I voluntarily bind myself. It is this ability of humans to voluntarily commit themselves to do or refrain from doing certain ask that generates order in the relations between human beings without the use of coercive force. [Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958), 243-4)]. "When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said" [this verse]. It is no accident that this, the second verse of Parashat Matot, is stated shortly before the Israelites approach the Promised Land. The institution of promising, of which vows and oaths to God are a supreme example, is essential to the existence of a free society. Freedom depends on people keeping their word. ... If trust breaks down, social relationships break down. Society will then depend on law enforcement agencies or some other use of force. When force is widely used, society is no longer free. The only way free human beings can form collaborative and cooperative relationships without recourse to force is by the use of verbal undertakings honored by those who make them. Freedom needs trust. Trust needs people to keep their word, and keeping your word means treating words as holy, vows and oaths as sacrosanct. Only under very special and precisely formulated circumstances can you be released from your undertakings. That is why, as the Israelites approached the Holy Land where they were to create a free society, they had to be reminded of the sacred character of vows and oaths. The temptation to break your word when it is to your advantage to do so can sometimes be overwhelming. That is why belief in God -- a God who oversees all we think, say, and do and who holds us accountable to our commitments--is so fundamental. Although it sounds strange to us now, the father of toleration and liberalism, John Locke, held that citizenship should not be extended to atheists because not believing in God, they should not be trusted to honor their word. (John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689). So the appearance of laws about vows and oaths at the end of the book of Numbers, as the Israelites are approaching the land, is no accident, and the moral is still relevant today. A free society depends on trust. Trust depends on keeping your word. That is how humans imitate God -- by using language to create. Words create moral obligations, and moral obligations, undertaken responsibly and honored faithfully, create the possibility of a free society.