(Numbers 30:10): "And the vow of a widow or of a divorced woman … shall stand with her." How so? If she said: "I shall be a Nazirite after thirty days," even though she were married within thirty days, he cannot annul it. [The verse is not needed for itself (i.e., for the common instance), for if she has no husband, who shall annul it? It must refer, then, to an instance where she had been widowed for some time and the time of the vow (i.e., of its taking effect) did not arrive until after she we married. ("He cannot annul it":) even though the vow takes effect when she is married to him; for the time of vowing is the criterion (for annulment).] If she vowed while she were in her husband's domain, he annuls it for her (even if it is to take effect afterwards.) How so? If she said: "I shall be a Nazirite after thirty days," even if she were widowed or divorced within thirty days, it is annulled. If she vowed on one day, and were divorced on that day, and taken back on that day, [after which he heard of her vow], he cannot annul it [since she entered her own domain between the vow and the annulment, the husband not being empowered to annul prior vows.] This is the rule: If a woman enters her own domain for (even) one moment, he (her husband) cannot annul it (a prior vow).
Bartenura on Mishnah Nedarim
ונדר אלמנה וגרושה – for itself, it does not require a [verse from] Scripture, for since she doesn’t have a husband, who will annul/absolve [her vow? But rather, when she made a vow when she is a widow for a time, and the time for the vow didn’t arrive until she married.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Nedarim
Introduction
The Torah states that a widow and a divorcee’s vows are binding. This ruling is seemingly obvious, for a widow and a divorcee do not have any husband who could possibly annul their vows. In order to prevent the Torah from being obvious, the mishnah finds situations in which the ruling is not so obvious.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Nedarim
אינו יכול להפר – even though that the vow takes effect when she is under him, for we follow/go after the time of the vow.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Nedarim
After quoting the verse from Numbers, the mishnah proceeds to explain it in a way that it is not overly simple.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Nedarim
נדרה בו ביום גרשה בו ביום והחזירה בו ביום – and aftwerards, he heard about her vow.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Nedarim
“But every vow of a widow and of a divorcee… shall be binding upon her” (Numbers 30:9). How is this so? If she said, “Behold, I will be a nazirite after thirty days”, even if she married within the thirty days, he cannot annul it. In this case the woman vowed before she was married but vowed in such a way that the vow would not begin to take effect for another thirty days. During the thirty days before the vow takes effect, she was married. Although the vow begins to take effect when she is already married, her husband cannot annul it because she made the vow before she was married.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Nedarim
אינו יכול להפר – since she left to her own domain, between the vow and its absolution, for the husband does not absolve things that precede [him].
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English Explanation of Mishnah Nedarim
If she vows while in her husband’s domain, he can annul [the vow] for her. How is this so? If she said, “Behold, I will be a nazirite after thirty days,” [and her husband annulled it], even though she was widowed or divorced within the thirty days, it is annulled. This case is opposite to that in the previous section. Here the woman vows while still married, but stipulates that the vow will not take effect for another thirty days. While still married, before the vow takes effect, the husband annuls the vow. Even though by the time the vow took effect she was already divorced, since the husband annulled it while she was still married, the vow is annulled.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Nedarim
If she vowed on one day, and he divorced her on the same day and took her back on the same day, he cannot annul it. This is the general rule: once she has gone into her own domain [even] for a single hour, he cannot annul. In this case, she vowed while married, was then divorced and then remarried on the same day (seemingly a theoretical situation, or two people who have trouble making up their minds!). The mishnah teaches that the husband can no longer annul the vow that she took during their first marriage, even though the second marriage was on the very same day. In the last clause, containing the general rule, the mishnah explains that if she had gone out of her husband’s domain before he annulled the vow, he cannot subsequently annul the vow. This is what the Torah means when it states that a widow or divorcee must keep their vows. Sometimes they must keep them even though they made the vow when they were married.
