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DEUTERONOMY — 23:22 delay

DEUT1293 Jacob took a vow voluntarily to give one part in ten for Heaven's purposes. [Genesis 28:22]. By the Torah's command, his children, the people Israel fall heir to that vow; so to speak, it continues in existence, for us to fulfill. And Scripture warns ... [this verse]. Do not wait until you have to part with your wealth "on demand," under duress. Whenever you can contribute to a deserving cause – to support the poor, to assure Torah study, or whatever – – and you have "tithe the money" to give, give it readily and cheerfully. For in any case Heaven will get its due from you. As the Mishnah puts it, the Holy One would tell wicked farmers in ancient Israel, "The things you did toward Me in the sunny season – – – you did not set apart t'rumah and tithes--will rob you of rain [in the rainy season]" (Midrash Sifre, Deuteronomy §40). Dare to hoard the tenth part for charity, and you will be left with nothing but guilt for your troubles.

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DEUTERONOMY — 23:22 vow

DEUT1295 [This verse]. Punishment is incurred when delaying the fulfillment of one's vows and charitable obligations, even if one fulfills them later on. If one has vowed to give charity to the poor, he must immediately fulfill his obligation. If due to forgetfulness one happens to delay the fulfillment of his vows, for this to he is punished; since he is aware that man is prone to forgetfulness, he should have recalled his vows and giving him his full attention in such a way that they would never be forgotten, as the pasuk says (Mishlei 20:25), "A person's stumbling corrupts [his] sanctity, and he must inquire after [his] vows." Consequently, the punishment for his negligence will be harsh, as the pasuk says, (Koheles 5:5), "Do not allow your mouth to bring guilt upon your flesh, and do not tell the messenger that it was an error. Why let God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands?" The explanation of, "Do not allow your mouth to bring guilt [upon your flesh]" is: why make a vow when you are not vigilant in its fulfillment, and bring guilt upon yourself? We have already explained this verse in The Gates of the Parameters of Vigilance [See the First Gate, note 97]. Our Sages, z"l, have said (Shabbos 32b) that for the sin of [unfulfilled] vows one's children die, as the pasuk says (Koheles 5:5), "... And destroy the work of your hands?" This pasuk can also be interpreted within the context of lashon hara; he will be punished for the inequity involved even if he had no intention of putting his neighbor to shame [The verse then means: "Do not speak lashon hara, and do not say that you did not intend to shame the other. Why would Hashem punish you for such in equity?" Devarim Rabbah 6:10]. (Continued at [[GEN1280]] Genesis 28:20 vow GATES 251).

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DEUTERONOMY — 23:24 fulfill

DEUT1299 "O Lord, who shall sojourn in Thy tent?… He who… swears to his own hurt and changeth not" (Psalm 51:1,4). ... Obviously, a pledge implies that it will be honored even when it may involve considerable loss or discomfort, even when it can be violated with impunity. The Psalmist does not praise the man who merely fulfills a pledge. He praises one who does so when it is to his hurt, and when presumably he could have avoided fulfilling it. Such an act belongs in our category of the moral.

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DEUTERONOMY — 23:24 fulfill

DEUT1302 What one says represents the commitments one makes. What one does either validates or denies those spoken commitments. How one's deeds relate to one's speech indicate whether one is honest or counterfeit, a person of integrity or a hypocrite. As the seventeenth-century Italian rabbi, Leone da Modena, put it, "Words are the guide to acts; the mouth makes the first move." [Source not cited.] Already in Scripture, the requirement to correlate word and deed is stated: "That which has gone out of your lips you shall observe and you shall do" (this verse, see also Numbers 30:3.) According to the Talmud, "Pleasant are the words of one who practices well one speaks." Tosefta Yebamot 8:7, Genesis Rabbah 34:14.

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DEUTERONOMY — 23:24 fulfill

DEUT1300 As Maimonides explains, "By this injunction, we are commanded to fulfill every obligation that we have taken upon ourselves by word of mouth" (Book of the Commandments, Positive Commandment #94). Although this verse seems to be speaking of someone who has made a formal vow to do something, subsequent Jewish law regards it as obligatory to fulfill whatever you have said you were going to do. Therefore, keep your word, particularly if someone is relying on it, and evening when it is inconvenient to do so. Not infrequently, we offer to do someone a favor. At the time we commit ourselves, we really intend to do it. Later, however, we realize that the favor is more inconvenient or time-consuming than we originally thought, and we are tempted not to follow through. Nonetheless, we remain obligated to carry out our word (see Rabbi Jonah Gerondi, The Gates of Repentance 3:183). Rabbi Avrohom Ehrman notes that the responsibility to keep our word increases in proportion to the degree upon which it is relied. Thus he rules that if we tell someone, "I will take you to the airport" (a long drive), and a difficulty arises, "The speaker may back down from his word. However, if the passenger says, for example, 'I'm relying on you,' and the speaker responds, 'Yes, you can rely on me,' that is considered a promise, because the passenger [fully] expects the speaker to keep his word." (Ehrman, Journey to Virtue, 93). One advantage of this is that you will be more cautious before promising to do something. Some people casually offer to do favors in order to be well thought of, but don't follow through, and incur far greater animosity than they would have done if they had not made the offer in the first place. Rabbi Aaron Levine summarizes this aspect of the Jewish tradition on truthtelling: "One should never make a commitment unless one fully intends to carry it out." (Levine, Case Studies in Jewish Business Ethics, 27).

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