Musar for Bava Metzia 132:14
א"ל רב אחא מדפתי לרבינא ולימא ליה כי אמרי לך אנא מגבינא לך דהוה עידי עידית קיימא השתא קיימא ליה עידית במקום עידי עידית
A man once sold land to his neighbour with security. Said he [the purchaser] to him, 'Should this be seized from me, will you repay me out of your "very best"?' — He replied, 'I will not repay you out of the "very best", as I want them for myself, but out of other "best" which I possess.'<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' 'Very best', [H], and 'best', [H], denote two grades of soil. ');"><sup>14</sup></span>
Shenei Luchot HaBerit
Jacob prefaced his vow with the words: אם יהיה אלוקים עמדי, If the Lord will be with me, etc." He concluded it by saying that if his request would be granted: והיה ה' לי לאלוקים, "then the Lord will be my G–d." How could Jacob have dared to use the word אם, "if," which suggests that he made his loyalty to G–d dependent on G–d fulfilling his requests? We have a halachic ruling in Baba Metzia 66 that if someone purchases something by prefacing his remarks with the conditional word אם, such a purchase is invalid, seeing he had not truly committed himself. Even though the Maharam rules that in matters of vows and oaths conditional vows are legally binding, why did Jacob use an expression involving him in possibly legally binding vows? ...
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy