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

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

I'd like to thank R' Yitzchok Levine for his quote from Rav Hirsch on this topic (Bamidbar 30:4), and to R' Micha Berger for expanding on it.

Upon first reading it, it seemed to answer all my questions very nicely, except for one point. So then I went to look at Rav Hirsch's perush myself, and I found my answers in his comments on the very next pasuk.

Namely, how does the daughter fit into all this? She does not yet have her own home. How is the daughter different than a son? If the daughter's vows should be subject to the father's review, then so too for the son. And if the son's vows stand regardless of the father, then so too should the vows of the daughter.

The answer may be in what RSRH wrote on 30:5, that these powers (of the husband and father) are not all-encompassing. The husband cannot cancel any vow his wife makes, but only those which interfere with the husband-wife relationship. And here's the kicker: The father too, cannot cancel any of his daughter's vows, but only those which would interfere with her relationship to her future husband. All of this is irrelevant to the son, who (for better or for worse) will be the husband of his own home, and can make whatever vows he sees fit, without being subject to his father's approval.

Akiva Miller

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