Guard Your Words, Fulfill Your Intentions: The Ohr HaChaim on Making Vows

“You shall observe and carry out whatever comes from your lips, just as you have vowed voluntarily to the Lord your God, whatever you have spoken with your mouth.” (Deuteronomy 23:24)

What does the Torah add with the words “You shall observe whatever comes from your lips,” after it has already stated, “You shall not delay in fulfilling it”?

Guard Your Lips From Making a Vow

The Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh explains:

If you want to perform a good deed, “guard what comes from your lips” means to guard yourself from speaking. Do not verbalize your intention as a vow, but rather, resolve in your heart to do it. At the same time, actually carry out what you intended, treating your commitment as seriously as though you had explicitly made a vow to Hashem.

According to this interpretation, the word ka’asher, “just as,” can be understood as “as though.” Fulfill your good intention as though you had vowed it to Hashem, even though technically it remains a voluntary commitment because you never expressed a vow with your mouth but only resolved to do it in your heart.

Turn a Good Intention Into Action

This also explains the seemingly unusual wording, “as though you vowed... a voluntary offering.” If a person actually made a vow, how can it still be called voluntary?

Rather, the verse is referring to something that a person’s heart inspired him to give or do. The concept of nedavah, a voluntary offering, originates in the heart, as the Torah says, “whose heart inspires him to give” (Exodus 25:2) and “whose spirit moved him” (Exodus 35:21). Although the person has not formally made a vow, he should carry out his good intention as faithfully as if he had.

As the Ohr HaChaim writes:

“Alternatively, the verse may be understood as follows: ‘Guard what comes from your lips’ by refraining from speaking, and act as though you had made a vow to the Lord your God, even though it is only a voluntary offering. This is the meaning of ‘as though you vowed a voluntary offering,’ which your spirit inspired you to give. For the meaning of a voluntary offering is something originating in the heart, as it says, ‘whose heart inspires him to give’ (Exodus 25:2), and ‘whose spirit moved him’ (Exodus 35:21).”