Commento su Levitico 27:2

כי יפלא means, if he expressly states by an utterance of his mouth (cf. Rashi on Leviticus 22:21).

כי יפלא, he will set aside. The word means something similar to the word מפרש, in the sense of spelling out details. Anyone making a vow has to clearly define what he is vowing to do.

איש כי יפלא נדר, “if a man articulates a vow, etc.” According to Nachmanides this paragraph is also conceptually linked to the admonitions we have read in chapter 26. It was told to Moses already at Mount Sinai [see commentary at the beginning of chapter 25. Ed.] Seeing that part of this chapter deals also with the Jubilee year legislation inasmuch as it is relevant to redeeming matters declared sacred as a result of vows made, the thread has not been broken ever since the beginning of chapter 25, and the additional aspects of the legislations dealing with vows in which man declares someone or his equivalent sacred in terms of that person or object’s valuation only rounds out that section of legislation. To confirm this, the Torah, at the end of our chapter writes once more that all the aforementioned commandments were commanded by G’d to Moses to the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai [already. Ed.] What follows from now on was told Moses in the Tabernacle.

איש כי יפליא נדר, “a man who articulates a vow, etc.” The Torah deliberately did not write כי ידר נדר “who vows a vow,” but כי יפליא. That word is an allusion to the attribute (emanation) חכמה; it is generally understood that though נדר is a derivative of the emanation חכמה, it ranks below “mature” חכמה of a fully adult person. Our sages who have ranked certain people in order of their outstanding attributes and claim to greatness (Horiot 13) have listed the attribute of wisdom as greater than the authority wielded by a king of Israel, so that when there is not enough money to buy the freedom from captivity of both, the sage has to be redeemed with the first available funds. The נדר, “vow,” ranks higher than the oath, as the former overrides other commandments (in certain circumstances, or at least needs to be annulled seeing it is theoretically effective) whereas the oath not to observe a Torah commandment has no legal meaning at all. The expression יפליא in connection with נדר as opposed to שבועה oath, is alluded to by the word יפליא.

On which the soul depends. [This comes] to exclude a hand or a leg upon which the soul does not depend, [e.g.,] if he said, “the worth of [his] hand or leg [is incumbent upon me],” it is as if he said nothing and he is absolved from making payment.

איש, “a man;” (adult) by the Torah’s use of the word איש, I might have been misled into thinking that what follows applies only to male adults, and not to female adults; in order to prevent such an error being made, the Torah adds the word: נפשות, ”persons,” regardless of which gender. (Sifra) יפליא, similar to the word יפריש, “he will set aside;” this is one of the words that have different meanings depending on in which context they appear. In fact, sometimes the same word may mean the opposite in one place from what it means in another place. For instance: in Deuteronomy 17,8 the line: כי יפלא ממך דבר למשפט, means “if a matter involving legal litigation is too difficult for you to decide,” in other words, the meaning of the root of the word is “something that is hidden;” on the other hand, here, it refers to something over and beyond your normal powers of perception. Other examples of words appearing as having a meaning opposite what they do elsewhere is the word דשן, which may mean: surfeit, abundance and it may mean useless leftovers of material that has been burnt. (Exodus 27,3, or being full of sap, (Psalms 92,15.) The author cites three or four more examples, making the same point.

בערכך נפשות — he expressly states that he will give to the Sanctuary the valuation attached to a life by saying, “the payment of the valuation of such and such a thing — that, however, being something upon which its life depends — is incumbent upon me” (Sifra, Bechukotai, Section 3 6; Arakhin 4a).

נדר בערכך, the Torah compares vows to the subject of ערכין in our chapter, seeing that both types of free willed undertakings must be honoured without undue delay. (Sifra)