Parshat Matot - 2 poets talk about the ninth commandment

In the portion of Matot, Israel is on the verge of a war -- a war against the nation of Midian, who has been trying to destroy the wandering Jews by tricking them into worshiping their idols. But before they can go into battle, God tells Moses -- and Moses relates to the people -- a couple of laws. "Now that I have gone through telling you Israelites about the sacrificial offerings -- the bulls, the rams, the sheep -- that's all up in smoke. It's time to let you in on a totally new concept. These are the laws of vows, of promising, and of swearing. Not only are we not allowed to lie, (remember that from the Ten Commandments?) but we're not allowed to make an oath and then not fulfill it, either. So you need to pay attention to the words you say." The Israelites thought to themselves, well, what if we make promises and then break them? To that, Moses replies by saying, "Don't panic." Fortunately, the Torah understands human nature and allows for error. Built into the oath-taking rules is an annulment process. If we slip up accidentally, and it really IS an accident, we can stand in front of witnesses and take it back. We may be unable to keep our promise, but we don't have to lose our reputation! Yeah! You must carry out the words that leave your lips Hey, if you mess up, don't panic, groove with it, shake it off at the hip; Annul your vows. The portion of Matot details how: The formula is rigged for slips Adjust your mistaken words and annul your quips, At the service of Kol Nidrei -- We say, "All my vows" should be annulled today Hear the singer at the synagogue say: I toss all my vows off in a fervent display I'm sorry I said it, you know I never meant that You know all these promises I made I was just playing; couldn't you tell? What's so inappropriate about breaking a promise? People say stupid stuff all the time. Who really pays attention if we render our words null and void? What God says to this is that what makes people different, set apart from other living creatures, is our ability to talk, the power of speech and language, the gift of oratory precision and infinite divisions of words and plays, prose and praise. Our thoughts when externalized make us human, but bringing it down to action, we better be assuming. That what we say is true and honor our word, not to take vows lightly, just to be heard. Words actually matter. In fact, in the Hebrew language, 'dvar' - WORD - is translated as 'matter,' or thing. So, it's the 'dvarim' - plural - that we should sincerely mean. Producer: Sarah Lefton Animation Director: Nick Fox-Gieg Animation: Colleen Macissac Editorial Director: Matthue Roth Theme Music: Tim Cosgrove Written and Performed by Blanket Statesmentstein Sound Recording: Don Bonus