Los sabios permitieron cuatro votos (sin absolución): los votos de los diligentes, los votos de exageración, los votos de inconsciencia, los votos de restricción. "Los votos de los diligentes": ¿Cómo es eso? Si alguien vendiera algo y dijera: "Konam si te lo vendo por menos de una sela" [es decir, este pan es konam para mí si te lo vendo por menos de una sela. Un sela es cuatro dinares], y el otro dijo: "Konam, que no te daré más que un shekel" [medio sela], ambos aceptan en tres dinares [y no tenían la intención de un voto formal; pero el vendedor "prometió" para "estimular" al comprador a pagar más, y el comprador, de la misma manera, lograr que el vendedor acepte menos, por lo que no es un voto real. Y aunque "los pensamientos del corazón no tienen importancia", aquí, donde es evidente que esta es su intención, siendo esta la práctica de compradores y vendedores, entretenemos "los pensamientos del corazón".] R. Eliezer b. Yaakov dice: También alguien que desea convencer a su amigo de que coma con él. [La gemara explica que falta algo aquí y que esto es lo que significa: si alguien desea que su amigo coma con él, lo importe y lo prometa, esto (también) es (en la categoría de) "los votos de el diligente ". Y si uno desea que sus votos de todo el año no "tomen", debe levantarse sobre Rosh Hashaná y] decir: "Que se anule todo voto que haga". [No necesita hacerlo necesariamente en Rosh Hashaná, pero lo mismo se obtiene siempre que lo desee y durante el período de tiempo que designe] siempre que esté consciente [de la condición (que el voto no "toma")] en el tiempo del voto, [y él desea que se aplique la condición. Solo entonces se anula el voto. Pero si él no era consciente de la condición cuando juró o inmediatamente después, el voto "toma". Y no hace falta decir que si él era consciente de la condición cuando juró y deseó que la condición sea nula y que el voto "tome", "toma". Las leyes de los juramentos y de los votos son similares a este respecto. La halajá está de acuerdo con R. Eliezer b. Yaakov.]
Bartenura on Mishnah Nedarim
ארבעה נדרים (vows intended for urging to buy/sell or while bargaining; vows made dependent upon an impossibility/an exaggeration; vows made in error; vows made on conditions unavoidably fulfilled/under compulsion) – all of them will be explained further on.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Nedarim
Introduction
The first four mishnayoth of this chapter deal with vows that use valid language but are nevertheless not valid because the person did not really intend for his vow to be valid. The first category is one who vowed in order to give himself or someone else more incentive to do something. This might be like today if someone says “I bet you a million dollars that I will do a certain thing”. If it doesn’t happen, no one expects the person to actually pay a million dollars. People say these things in order to give themselves more incentive.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Nedarim
קונם שאני פוחת לך מן מסלע – KONAM this loaf of bread if I [pay] less to you than a Sela. And a SELA is four Denarim.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Nedarim
Four types of vows the Sages have invalidated: Vows of incentive, vows of exaggeration, vows in error, and vows [broken] under pressure. The first section of the mishnah lists those vows which are not valid. The mishnah and the following mishnayoth will now bring examples of each.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Nedarim
על השקל – it is one-half of a SELA.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Nedarim
Vows of incentive how so? If one was selling an article and said, “Konam that I will not reduce below a sela”; and the other replied, “Konam that I will not add above a shekel” both of them want [a price] of three denarii. In this scenario both the buyer and the seller make vows that they will not budge in their prices. One says he will not go above a shekel (two denarii) and the other says he won’t go below a sela (four denarii). Since their intention was for a price of three denarii, they may agree to that price.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Nedarim
שניהם רוצים בשלשה דינרים – but it was not in their hearts for the sake of a vow, but rather, the seller vowed to urge/encourage the purchaser that he should increase they money, and similarly, the purchaser, in order that the seller should lessen the cost of the purchase, therefore, it was not a vow. But even though that matters that are in the heart are not matters, where a matter can be proven like here, for such is the manner of all sellers and purchasers to do this, we follow after the things that are in the heart.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Nedarim
Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob says: Also one who wishes to subject his friend to a vow to eat with him, may say: “Every vow which I may make in the future shall be void”, providing that he remembers this at the time of the vow. Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob says that one who wants to get his friend to eat at his place, and vows that if his friend does not do so all of his food will be forbidden to him, should say beforehand that all of his vows that he takes in the future shall be invalid, and then he need not keep his vow. However, when he makes the vow, he must remember that he made the original stipulation that his vows would not be valid. The above explanation of Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob’s statement is according to the words in our mishnah, where it seems as if he is stating one halakhah. However, the Talmud explains that Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob actually says two things. First of all, a vow taken to get another person to eat at one’s place, is a vow of incentive, and therefore need not be kept. Second, a person may state that all future vows will be invalid, and as long as he remembers this statement when he vows in the future, his vows will be invalid. By the way, the latter statement is one of the sources of the practice to nullify future vows at Kol Nidre on Yom Kippur.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Nedarim
ר"א בן יעקב אומר אף כל הרוצה להדיר את חבירו כו' – The Gemara (Tractate Nedarim 23b) that our Mishnah is deficient and should be read as follows: A person who wants that his fellow should eat with him but refuses him and forces him to take a vow, it is the vow intended for urging to buy/sell. And the person that wants that he will not vows will not be fulfilled all year will stand up on Rosh Hashanah and state, “every vow that I will someday make is nullified.” And that he will stand up on Rosh Hashanah is not exact, but rather, the same law applies at every time that he wishes and for every time that he establishes.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Nedarim
ובלבד שיהיה זכור – from the condition at the time of the vow, and his mind/intention is upon the condition that it will be fulfilled, then the vow is nullified. But if he is not reminded of the condition at the time of the vow and not at an interval equivalent to the time of speaking (i.e., the amount of time it takes to say in Hebrew, “Greetings to you, my teacher and rabbi”), from the time that he made the vow, the vow exists/endures. But it is not necessary to state that if he is reminded from the condition at the time of the vow and it is his intention that the condition will be nullified and vow existent, for it is clear that the vow exists. But the laws of oaths and vows are equivalent in this law. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov.
