✦ ❖ ✦ Level 3 — Synthesis / Revision ✦ ❖ ✦
Siman 233 — synthesis and revision (יורה דעה רל״ג)
עונת נדרים לזכר ולנקבה
Three ages, one changing condition — laid out for revision
שולחן ערוך יורה דעה סימן רל״ג (1 seif)
ש״ך (ב) · באר היטב (א) · פתחי תשובה (א)
DAAT · הרב יוסף חיים סממה
1. The rule, in one sentence
A year before his majority — twelve for a boy, eleven for a girl — the child enters the עונת נדרים: his word binds, on condition that he knows in whose name he vowed. Before that it does not bind even if he knows; after it, it binds even if he does not.
What changes at each boundary. Not the degree of the rule but its condition. Period 1: nothing binds. Period 2: knowledge makes the vow. Period 3: age makes the vow.
2. The three ages
Up to 12 (boy) / 11 (girl): אפילו יודעים — אינו נדר
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12 years + 1 day / 11 years + 1 day: the vow binds if he knows לשם מי
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And he is examined — all year, and at every vow (Shakh ס״ק א)
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13 years + 1 day / 12 years + 1 day: אע״פ שאין יודעים — נדריהם נדר
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And at neither end are the שתי שערות required — at the first from the seif, at the second from the Shakh ס״ק ב
3. Where it comes from
The three ages — the mishnah of נדה מ״ה ע״ב, in the same order. The name of the regime — the Rambam, הלכות נדרים פרק י״א: there it is written “וזו היא עונת נדרים האמורה בכל מקום”. The repetition of the examination — the Rambam, same chapter halakha ב, taken up by the Shakh. The Rama’s gloss — the Rambam, הלכות שבועות פרק י״ב, with the Semag and the Kol Bo.
4. The four apparatus entries
| Entry | On | What it contributes |
|---|
| ש״ך ס״ק א | ובודקין שנת י״ג | The examination is repeated at every vow: a child found to know at the start of the year must be re-examined if he vows at its end. Sources: the Tur, and see the Beit Yosef. |
| ש״ך ס״ק ב | ומי״ג ויום א׳ ואילך | Extends “אע״פ שלא הביאו ב׳ שערות” to the last period. |
| באר היטב ס״ק א | יודעים | Reports the Shakh, and names him. |
| פתחי תשובה ס״ק א | אע״פ שאין יודעים | Refers to the Ba’er Hetev, to the Leḥem Mishneh and the Mishneh LaMelekh on chapter 11 of הלכות נדרים, and to the responsa Mishkenot Yaakov 57. |
The Taz and the Nekudot HaKesef have no entry on this siman. Nothing about the halakha follows: the siman is brief and the Shakh says all there is. The Taz has seventeen entries at siman 229, thirty-four at 232, sixty-six at 234. Nothing has been manufactured here to fill a column.
5. The seif, clause by clause
| Author | Text | Reach |
|---|
| Meḥaber | “ קטן בן י״ב שנה ויום אחד וקטנה בת י״א שנה ויום אחד אם יודעים לשם מי נדרו ונשבעו נדריהם נדר ושבועתם שבועה ” (שו״ע יו״ד רל״ג:א) | Period 2: knowledge makes the vow. |
| Meḥaber | “ ובודקין שנת י״ג לזכר ושנת י״ב לנקיבה ” (שו״ע יו״ד רל״ג:א) | The examination runs through the whole year. |
| Meḥaber | “ וקודם שיש י״ב לזכר וי״א לנקיבה אפילו יודעים לשם מי נודרים אינו נדר ” (שו״ע יו״ד רל״ג:א) | Period 1: nothing binds. |
| Rama | “ וגוערים בהם ומכין אותן שלא ילמדו לשונם בנדרים ושבועות ” (רמ״א יו״ד רל״ג:א) | Education: to prevent the habit of vowing. |
| Rama | “ ואם הוא דבר קטן וקל ואין בו עינוי נפש אומרים להם שיעמדו בנדרם ושבועתם כדי שלא ירגילו עצמם בזה ” (רמ״א יו״ד רל״ג:א) | And its limit: nothing that afflicts the child. |
| Meḥaber | “ ומי״ג ויום אחד ואילך לזכר ומי״ב ויום אחד לנקיבה אע״פ שאין יודעים לשם מי נודרים נדריהם נדר ” (שו״ע יו״ד רל״ג:א) | Period 3: age makes the vow. |
6. What remains open
The status of the מופלא הסמוך לאיש. The Rambam writes “ וְדָבָר זֶה מִדִּבְרֵי תּוֹרָה שֶׁהַמֻּפְלָא הַסָּמוּךְ לְאִישׁ הֶקְדֵּשׁוֹ וְנִדְרוֹ נֵדֶר ” (רמב״ם הלכות נדרים פרק י״א הלכה ד׳) — from the Torah — and at once adds that he is not flogged. The Shulḥan Arukh does not characterise the regime, and the Pitḥei Teshuva refers to the Aḥaronim who argue it. We flag the debate and do not settle it.
The missing clause. The Tur writes “ ומיהו אינן לוקין אם חללו נדרן ועבדו על שבועתן עד שיגדלו ” (טור יורה דעה רל״ג); the Shulḥan Arukh did not carry it over. A silence is not a divergence, and disagreement must not be read into that omission.
What the parent must do. The Rama says to rebuke, and to hold the child to the light word. The line between “light” and “afflicting” is not written, and yet it decides. It is weighed before a Rav, and not in the heat of the moment.
7. Vocabulary
עונת נדרים — the year preceding majority, in which a child’s word can bind. · מופלא הסמוך לאיש — the child’s name in that year. · בדיקה — the examination, bearing on one point and repeated at every vow. · שתי שערות — the signs of majority, not required here. · עינוי נפש — the limit of ḥinukh in the Rama.
8. Recapitulation
י for יודעים: during the year of examination everything turns on that word. — ב for בודקין: and it is verified, every time. — ג for גדלות: after which knowledge is no longer tested. Three letters, three ages.
Golden rules. (1) Never presume discernment: it is ascertained. (2) Never carry a finding from one vow to another. (3) A child below the boundary makes no vow — but he acquires habits, and that is what the Rama is aiming at.
The line of psak
The vow of a boy of twelve years and a day, or of a girl of eleven years and a day, may bind — provided it is established that they know in whose name they vowed, and that establishing is repeated at every vow. Before that age there is no vow, and nothing to release; what remains is a matter of education, which the Rama frames by the measure of a דבר קטן וקל and the limit of עינוי נפש. After thirteen and twelve the vow binds unconditionally, and to undo it the route of siman 228 is required. All these questions, and in particular the ascertaining of discernment, are put to a Rav.
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DAAT · הרב יוסף חיים סממה
תלמיד חכם · מעביר שיעורים בהלכה ובחסידות
סימן רל״ג · Level 3 — Synthesis · עונת נדרים לזכר ולנקבה
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