[Avodah] RSRH: Vows - Difference Between a Man and a Woman

[Yitzchok Levine]

 From the new translation of the Hirsch Chumash, Bamidbar, 30:4

         A man’s vow is binding on him from the outset. He can —
and should (see ibid. 59a; cf. Commentary, Devarim 23:22ff.) — submit
his vow to the national community and its representatives, so that they
should examine the vow and decide on its fulfillment. Only in this way
can a man dissolve his vow. For a man creates his 
position in life independently,
and if he binds himself with a vow that cannot be absolved,
he introduces into his life a new element that is not ordinarily applicable.
This element changes and individualizes his life, and, since he is independent,
he is able to take this individuality into account when he shapes
the conditions of his life.

         Not so for a woman. The moral greatness of the woman’s calling
requires that she enter a position in life created by another. The woman
does not build for herself her own home. She enters the home provided
by the man, and she manages it, bringing happiness to the home and
nurturing everything inside the home in a spirit of sanctity and orientation
toward God. The woman — even more than the man — must
avoid the constraint of extraordinary guidelines in her life, for they are
likely to be an impediment to her in the fulfillment of her calling.

         From this standpoint, one can understand the prescriptions instituted
here out of concern for the woman. The Word of God seeks to
insure the vowing woman against the consequences of her own words,
and therefore confers on the father and on the husband a limited
right to annul vows — on the father, as regards vows of a youthful
daughter still under his care; on the father and on the fiancé, as regards
vows of a betrothed daughter; on the husband, as regards vows of his
wife. 
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